The Town Herald

The netpaper about Elftowners, by Elftowners, for Elftowners.

Featured Cover Artist : Liiga

by [Mordigen]



Name & Age: Liiga Smilshkalne, 23 y.o.
Country of Origin & Residence: Latvia
Work: Freelancing with digital painting
Hobbies: Taking photos of nature that usually end up as ref photos, reading this ing (www.ballisticpublishing.com).

[Mordigen]Q:Where is your work is available for sale?
[liiga] :Some of my works can be purchased on various merchandise over at EMG (http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasyart/emgartist.php?profile=15) and others as prints from my DA account (http://liiga.deviantart.com/store/).

[Mordigen]Q:Where can you be contacted professionally?
[liiga]:I can be emailed about commission inquiries and similar to smilshkalne@hotmail.com . I'm usually open to commissions although sometimes there's waiting time involved. Tubing and similar requests will, however, be denied.

[Mordigen]Q: How did you get started with your art, and how long have you been drawing?
[liiga]:I got started at the impressionable age of 3 when my mom gave me a blank sheet and some paint to play around with just for the fun of it. It turned out to be quite enjoyable and so I haven't stopped since.

[Mordigen]Q:How would you describe your pieces in general, and what they mean to you?
[liiga]:That's a rather broad question. Different pieces have different significance attached to them, from quickies for relaxing to personal artistic breakthroughs, and then of course there are commissions which all have some interesting memories of interacting with the client and working from the provided material - or lack thereof. Overall I'm not too attached to any though, and I'm usually thinking ahead to what other interesting concepts I might get to portray and play with.

[Mordigen]Q:What sort of technique do you use when painting or drawing?
[liiga]:The one where I scribble a lot and eventually stuff appears. Really! Seriously though, nothing particularly exciting - I stick to Wet Detail Brush from Acrylics in Corel Painter most of the time, use Grainy Water and Just Add Water blenders pretty often, sometimes add "sparkles" with pepper spray and occasionally work in textures from photos that I've snapped myself. I draw digitally from sketch to finish.

[Mordigen]Q:What would you consider your favourite or best piece and why?
[liiga] :The next one I'm going to draw. And if that fails, then the one after that! I tend to see too many things wrong with my older pieces to really consider any my best or favorite, although some manage to get the honorary title of "kinda cute".

[Mordigen]Q:Where do you see your art going, are there any different styles, artists or subjects you’d like to experiment with?
[liiga]:I haven't given this much thought, although I'm always trying to experiment a little, mostly with different angles and lighting. Also there's the whole uncovered, daunting and yet intriguing subject of landscapes and architecture that I intend to get around to tackling properly at some point.

[Mordigen]Q:Will you stay with your fantasy subjects, or do you think you’ll branch out?
[liiga]:Who knows?
Currently surrealistic and fantasy stuff is what I enjoy drawing most. I doubt I'll ever really want to draw still lives and scenes straight from real life, but genres like steampunk and sci-fi carry certain interest, so I might explore them artistically at some point.

[Mordigen]Q:What is it that makes the genre of Fantasy special to you, what makes it so magical and capturing for you that most of your artworks spring from it?
[liiga]:Fantasy often revolves around subjects closely linked to nature and highly ornamental, flowing adornments are not uncommon. Also it allows ample space for imagination and experimentation with various shapes and constructs. That's pretty much what draws me towards it.

[Mordigen]Q:And, finally, What do you have to say to those aspiring Elftown fantasy artists and writers? What would you love to see from them, what do you warn them against, and what do you think they should remember?
[liiga]:Persistence and observation are the keys to success in many fields, and art and writing are certainly among them. Also they are both creative endeavours, so letting your imagination loose is certainly important!
I don't know that much about writing, but when it comes to art there is often a certain point where one becomes exceedingly concerned about finding a personal style. That's one thing that I'd suggest to not worry about and instead of trying to find and hold on to something specific, to experiment with various things and try various approaches. Because in the end everything you create will still have come from your hands, filtered through your perspective and understanding of what is important and what - less so, which is exactly what one's personal style is. Exactly through branching out and experimentation one can find that which is common in their works instead of tight focus and stagnation.
Oh and another thing - don't work for free on demand for companies and such where someone else will end up making money based on your free work tailored to their specifications. That just sucks for everyone in the end, and you can get plenty exposure without such nonsense anyway.

lil' more about the featured piece: "Sunshine"
What was your inspiration behind this piece?
Nothing particularly poetic - there was this awesome patch of sunlight shining into my room at an angle, so I decided to snap some reference photos. And it just so happened that one of them turned out pretty nice, so I spent a few days furiously scribbling over it until 'Sunlight' came out.

What emotions, or vision were you trying to portray within this piece?
Is enjoying sunlight an emotion? At least that's what I was trying to portray - that simple moment of briefly being lost in a feeling, forgetting about everything else in the whole wide world.

Tell us a little bit about how you came to create this: IE-media/technique.
The photo was taken with my trusty point-and-click Canon Powershot a95 and then doodled on in Corel Painter with a Wacom Intuos. The photo was fairly close to what I wanted, so I mostly touched up the colors, got rid of overexposure, removed the background, changed the clothing slightly (mostly its color which wasn't fitting at all), prettied up the face (naturally!), played with the hair and added a butterfly, 'cause butterflies are awesome.




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