To the grille, Satanen Perkele!

“Satanen Perkele” is a young female from Sweden. A female that has a big attraction and love to the darkness. She expresses her feelings in different ways with drawings, photography and sometimes with videos.

A Black Metal-head girl with a lot of art. She focuses on Nordic mythology, forests, abandoned houses, satanic symbols, facial paint and…Well, with a lot of things and a creative mind she is always up for something. I met her because of one of her cartoon characters named “Ragnar”, which is the main character from her funny Black Metal comic called “For You Satan!”

Asura: Thank you for your time. It’s really a honor to have such a great artist with us. Could you please share with us your beginnings? Any influence?


Satanen: Hello there and thank you for choosing me!
I feel deeply honoured to have been invited to this interview.


My biggest influence of my work beside Scandinavian mythology, Black Metal music and the occult has been myself. My real name is Cecilia and I was born here in Sweden 1991. I have had a hard life growing up on the isolated countryside, surrounded by nature and forests. During my whole childhood I was as good as constantly secluded from seeing other people. This made it hard for me to manage getting friends, so my best friends always used to be the paper and the pencil.
Ever since I was a small child I started to draw constantly. When I was a little older I spent 7 years in a local art class. When I was old enough for high school I spent 1 year in art class, quitted and went to another school where I spent 3 years in media, design and movie making.

A: What’s the inspiration or your muse to create your work?


S: Ancient myths, the occult and the unknown is a great inspiration for me.
I like to be creative and bring life into old myths and draw things that are not very common. I also like to inspire people with my work.


A: How is the situation of the art in Sweden? Do the people like it and support the artist or do they just ignore them? How do you feel about this situation?


S: Art in Sweden in general is quite popular. In each city you find artists of all kinds.
Mostly art is allowed to be shown in public as long it’s not too grotesque. But it all depends on the artists work, the Swedish artist “Lars Vilks” for example created a huge debate since his art got very provocative outside of Sweden.
As for myself I have been asked several times to be a part of artistic events and to show my art in public. So there are always people who are interested.


A: In the art, the message that the people receive may not the same that the artist wants to share. Do you have a message or something special that you want to share to the world, and that nobody has seen yet?


S: In mostly of my work I try to deliver a Scandinavian feeling. Myself I find it important because I want people to recognize my work by that raw atmosphere.
And I personally think I have succeeded quite well since there are many people on the web who recognize me and my art these days. Which I appreciate a lot!

A: Any artist or person that you admire or look up to?

S: It’s hard to say since there are many other great artists out there.
But I really like artist who have a dark touch in their artwork.


Above all your work, my favorite is your comic “For You Satan!”, but do you have any favorite work?


S: My favorite work for the moment is my medieval inspired demon drawings.
I really find them entertaining to draw and also the support from my followers has been very positive.

A: Do you make art in other forms besides photography, drawings and videos? Which? Do you dance and sing? (I want to see that in a video!)

S: Besides what’s already mentioned I also like to experiment with designing tattoos, 3D art and animation. And since I am not that girly, I never had much interest into dancing or singing. But I have a huge appetite for new challenges and artistic creativity.

A: Are you working for any company right now or are you freelancer?


S: Because of the severe job crisis I don’t have any job for the moment.
But whatever job there is available I’ll take it.

A: Could you share us a little bit about your personal spirituality? How did you find it, is it making you plenty?


S: I have always believed in the supernatural. And I have been a follower of the left hand path for many years now. Satanism holds lots of power and also contains great inspiration. (But I am not going to go much deeper into that subject).

A: I read somewhere that when the christians tried to convince your people, they used the system of the fear of hell, a place plenty of heat, and instead of becoming christians, the ancient people requested the ways to arrive there. Also, I find a lot of similarities between the ancient religion of the nordic people and the believes of the modern demonism and Satanism. Do you think that is the reason that the Satanism is very strong in your zone of the planet?


S: It’s hard to say. But for Scandinavian people a Hell with eternal heat is something wonderful, since Scandinavia are mostly lacking from sunlight and heat.
During the Viking age the people believed in a place called HEL which was the actual Hell in Norse mythology. But as an opposite from the burning Hell, HEL was a dark and freezing place. Because that was the most horrible thing a Scandinavian person ever could imagine. To forever suffer in a dark and cold place.


I think that the connection you see between Norse mythology and Satanism is much about Scandinavian pride and Patriotism. After all, the Norse belief got as good as extinct because of the church.


A: There are also a lot of christians, catholics, and protestants, how is the situation of the religion where you live?

S: Majority of the Swedish people are actually atheists. Like me I grow up in a atheist family. But if you wish to believe in something or to be connected to a religion you have the right to do that.

A: I think that the five Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark) have too much in common and that they could join forces to become a superpower (I have also suggested you that “For You Satan!” should have a member of each country). They are in the top 10 of the best of everything. Do you think that is possible?


S: Yes, At least Sweden, Norway and Denmark have very much in common. Even our languages are quite similar which makes it easy for us to understand each other.
We are a little like brothers and sisters.
Since my first “For You Satan” comic strip (that was made back in 2008) I say it is not too late to eventually include more characters in the future. But for the moment I already have 3 characters that represent Sweden, Finland and Norway.


A: At this moment you are young enough to have goals, and big enough to achieve them. What are your goals at this moment?

S: Majority of my life have been focused on drawing.
And I wish to continue with my art and my “For You Satan” comic as long as there are people who support and like what I do.


A: Where can people contact you, and in which languages?

S: If someone wishes to contact me they can write to me in English, Swedish, Danish or Norwegian. Usually you find me on Deviantart, Youtube and Facebook. Later on I am planning to create a website, but for urgent contact I also have an email. (Deleted to avoid spam, but it is available in her Deviantart profile).

A: Any final message to the readers?

S: I am not a person who asks for much. But to all the people who feel like contacting me, read my comic or view any of my art are welcome. And I want to thank everyone out there who believe in me and supports me.

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To the grille, Tatiana Vetrova!

Tatiana Vetrova is russian girl with a lot of talent inside of her. She has made art in 2D, 3D, photography, but we can’t say she is a limited mind artist with only one theme in many way of expression. Her drawings go from naive, cute characters, to beautiful, sensual characters, and some times we find monsters and future beings. In the photography, we find some of those elements, but it is mainly focused on female models. Her art is colorful, brightly, with excellent manage of darkness and shadows, bodies perfectly formed and a bipolarity with perfect junction of good/evil, heaven/hell, light/darkness to create a world where such differences doesn’t exist but are the same.

Asura: Thank you for your time. It’s really a honor to have such a great artist with us. Could you please share with us your beginnings? Any influence?

Tatiana: Hello, and thank you for attention to my person.
I decided to be an artist when I was 16, and it was very unexpected decision for everyone, even for myself. But it was kind of inner voice "I want to be able to draw pictures". I had no any idea what job will I have, what should I do later, I just suddenly realize that I want to be an artist. No one in my family shared this enthusiasm with me, so there was a lot of discussions, but no matter what, if I decide something - no one can stop me.
So I decided went to art college without any prepare trainings, and all I can say - it's kind of miracle they let me in (cause I was terrible as an artist, even didn't know how to hold pencil or how to use paints). Maybe it's a hand of fate. I'm sure it is, indeed.
So I was studying traditional arts, but later I realize that it's not what I want. That's why I was terrible student and can't say I learned a lot from there. I learned "how to learning", yep, but after graduation in 2008 I still was terrible artist. But I realized what exactly I want, that I love all those fantasy, dark and creepy pictures much more. And digital art of course. It may sounds funny, but till 2007 I even didn't know that mostly all pictures I like was created with computer and Photoshop. Honestly)
I've bought my first tablet (Genius, I still remember it, and oh god, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone) and start to study digital art.. and just art from zero again. And that was like long and hard way out of hell. And it still is.
about influence...
Fisrt name - is Brom. Gerald Brom. First time I saw his art when I was 13 or 14 years old, and oh god, he immediatly became my favorite artist, and even now he's my favorite so far. So I'm pretty sure you can find his influence in my works. As everyone I saw works of Boris Vallejo and his wife, Frazetta and other titans of fantasy art, but no one impressed me like Gerald Brom.
After that - all those movies I watched since I was a child. Like "The Crow", "Interview with the vampires", "Neverending story", Tim Burton's movies, movies based on Stephen King's books.. etc. See, I was weird child, I didn't watch girlish movies, I was a fan of Robocop and Terminator, and Universal Soldier and Back to the Future. Okay, I watched Disney animated movies too ))) And I do it now, be sure. But mostly I was raised with the fantastic, fantasy, dark and creepy things.
Later I had some influence from traditional artist, like Vrubel, El Greko, Semiradsky and Rembrandt.. and a lot of ohers of course. I still sure fine arts and all those artists incredibly awesome.

A: What’s the inspiration or your muse to create your work?

T: eeeh.. life? Actually I can't say "something" inspires me, cause art is a way of living for me. You don't need a muse to breath, sleep or something. Yes, sure, sometimes I feel something like "special mood", after watching good art/movies/photos, when I think "gosh, I wanna do something like that, it's awesome" (but it's often about fanarts). Like after playing "Batman Arkham Origins" game I finally found a time to draw Joker fanart, cause I'm really impress of this character in this game series. Or after artist's meeting and workshops you're full of energy and just need to draw something right now or your mind just will blow out, you know that feeling? But it's not like I need inspiration all the time.
I really don't understand people who need to be inspired to draw something. Come on, if the process (and result) of creation doesn't inspire you enough already, maybe you should find something else to do.


A: How is the situation of the art in Russia? Do the people like it and support the artist or do they just ignore them? How do you feel about this situation?


T: Such a difficult question. Everything is complicated here. All I can say about Russians -we're great in having seed of creation and beauty inside, and we're great in killing it.
Education: our education is great if you want to be traditional realistic painter, if you love fine arts. But it's utterly useles in 21th century, cause no one teach you how to work in modern industries, like game industry or movies. If you want to work as concept artist - go and be self taught. But if you want to paint landscapes or people portraits from life - our education is the best. It gives you everything about painting techniques, but nothing about creativity. Here is some schools in Russia, where people can teach digital painting and concept-art, but it's only in Moscow. Two schools in one city. Do you realize how big is Russia and how ridiculous this situation?
Work... it's complicated too. We have great opportunities and and bad situation at the same time. Sorry, my English isn't enough to explain i,hat so I just shut up.
But actually it's not that bad here. Just...Russia is a country of contrasts, in every areas of living-working-behaving. Everything is great and worse here at the same time.

A: In the art, the message that the people receive may not the same that the artist wants to share. Do you have a message or something special that you want to share to the world, and that nobody has seen yet?


T: I can't say I have a message for people. I'm not in that philosophical stuff, I just sharing my vision of beauty. I love to draw what I draw, love to create characters and think about their personalities... if you don't like this world, draw your own :) and that's exactly what I do - trying to create my own world. And if people see some message there, even if I didn't put it in - I'm fine with that. I'm honored that people like my work, that's all

A: Any artist or person that you admire or look up to?


T: Admire... a lot. Not only artist, but mostly them of course. I admire Gerald Brom, he's my favorite so far. Sergey "Peleng" Kolesov and Max Kostenko - unbelievably talended persons, I'm proud of they're Russians. Paul Richards - wish I could have his way of thinking and desighning. Virginie Ropars - incredibly skilled doll artist.
Eeeh I think a list of people I admire will be too long to write it here. I can say I admire professionals in all areas of expertise - 2D and 3D artists, photographers, actors and musicians. Just be amazing - and I will admire you, haha.
And gosh, I admire Loki (as Tom Hiddleston) from those Marvel movies. Not kidding. I know I sound like a silly 15 year old girl))))


A: From your works, my favourites are “Arachnophobia”, “Soul Eater”, “Watcher” and “Pestilence”, but do you have any favorite work?


T: Every new work for about a week. Haha, after that I can't love it anymore, I need to move on. "Arachnophobia" was a good work, creepy enough to make me proud of it for some time, but come on, it's 4 years old, my skills now much better, and I can't look at old works without crying with bloody tears. Maybe I should repaint and refine some of them.
I still like "War" and "Golden Dust", it's all about emotions I tried to put in, and I succeed. And "Banhammer girl", just because I love this character and her hammer.

A: Do you make art in other forms? Which?


T: eeeeem you mean sculpture, music or something? Nope. I used to be a musician long long time ago, violin and vocals. Even graduated child music school (that was terrible expirience). But not anymore, and I don't regret anything.
Now I have photography as a hobby, but I can't say it's "art". It's... fun. And singing sometimes (mostly in bathroom))). It's fun too. But nothing serious.
Anyway it's all about a time. It's never enough. I'm spending too much time painting pictures, and a lot of time watching movies and reading, so I'm not really able to do anything else.


A: Are you working for any company right now or are you freelancer?


T: Both. I work as full-time 2D-artist in "Sperasoft" (russian outsource company) and take some freelance job sometimes. Not all the time, it's exhaustive. But often. For example - I work with Paizo Publishing and draw characters for them sometimes (they cool guys I'm happy to work with). Sometimes I even do take commissions from DeviantArt members, lol.

A: What do you like most, being part of a company or a freelancer, why?


T: I like the way I living right now. I'm a part of company, where I have experience to work with different projects and different people. And I'm not sitting in 4 same walls all the time.
And I have freelance, where I can choose what I want to do, and... ok I'm just workaholic.

A: I saw you make also videos, as tutorials, do you want to become teacher?


T: Not really, if you mean "teaching all the time". Being a full-time teacher is kind of nightmare, I'm sure. You must be very special person for teaching people every day.
I had some workshops, and it's fine, I like it. Cause it's part-time thing, good way to analyze what you can and what you have to say to others. I'm thinking about short course of digital painting or character concept art. But only after my job. Cause I'm an artist in a first place.
So it's all kind of future plans that may never come reality. Can't say now.
It's easy to record video, nothing about teaching, the hardest part is not to forget to push that "record" button, so if people think it's useful for them, I can record it more often.

A: I also found that you have a lot of dolls, do you make them or do you collect them? What can you tell me about them?


T: Just collecting. I love to collect beautiful things - artbooks, action figures, dolls etc.
I can't say anything special about that. Just stuff i like to watch on. I'm some kind of geek, so... I would buy much more stuff if I were able to find a place for it in my small apartments.

A: I saw that your photographies are mainly of female models, it would be interesting to see your art and aesthetic with males, like the work you did with the photography “Nesterov”, what do you say about it? (As a man, it is really a mystery how you women look us, hehehe) And also, why do you think women are the main target for such works?


T: Everything is easy. First - women likes to have their photos while they young and beautiful, likes dressed in fancy clothes, etc. That's why they ask to photoshoot them. And I do it.
You know, here in Saint Petersburg I have some very talented friends "TornHem Studio", they are alternative fashion designers, and I often work with them as a photographer. And of course most of it's clients are women. So - no mysteries.
And women looks cool. You can't argue with that.
Second - about that "Nesterov" photo, it was so spontaneous. We were shooting clothes collection with my friends, and he just came to studio to visit us. And I said "okay, while I wait for next girl be ready, I can shoot you a bit, but your t-shirt looks awful so get it off". That's how it all happened.
No mysteries again. I feel you may be a bit dissapointed.

I don't know, I just have no a lot of male friends who would like to have fancy photos. And no clients. Maybe males don't need it. Who knows? Me not.
So.. if I can't photoshoot guys, I can draw them instead. And I do.


A: It’s very interesting to see the erotical art of a woman, because it is really different from men. The men needs to have naked girls, huges butt and boobs, tiny skirts, but I personally like a lot your sexy art, because you focus on the female strength and inner-self of the women that can catch any guy they want without being just physical. How do you feel about the fact that you need to fulfill the men expectation of the sensuality in order to be recognized and known?


T: I never call my art "sexy". I think the only one "sexy" work I have is "Golden Dust" (cause I hope everybody understand what that horny girl feels, if you realize what I'm talking about).
I don't need " to fulfill the men expectation" blah blah blah. I don't need and don't owe anything to anyone. I don't care about men expectations, you may call me egoistic, but I do what I like. I. Not "that guys from internet". I don't care they want to see boobs on my artworks. And maybe if I was more careful with expectations of other people, I would be much more popular. But I'm pretty sure that artist must do what he love, not what other people want to see (I'm not saying about job, only personal works. Work for money it's... work for money, you know).
It's impossible to try satisfied everyone's expectations and wishes, cause people very different. It's pointless. So why should I waste my time catching this illusory chance of popularity? I'd prefer to draw another one picture from my head. And I believe someone will like my work even if there is no boobs at all. Even if it will be just one person - I'll thank this person sincerely.
About my characters - yes, it's strong girls and guys, cause I truly respect strong people. My characters can make decisions, takes responsibility, and know what they want. I don't like moral weakness, and inner beauty have always been more important to me then the outer shell. I draw characters I would like to be, perhaps.

A: I found a photography of yourself “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Do you feel that way, do you have something hiding inside of you that wants to go out and be free?


T: Haha it was just a good name for that photo. It wasn't my idea or something, just posing for my good friend, while she was practicing.
Anyway I'm sure everyone has dark and light sides. Someone fighting dark side, someone enjoing it. I'm the one who enjoy, indeed.

A: In one of your videos, I hear metal music. What music is your favorite?


T: You don't believe, but... it's metal music)))) Mostly kind of gothic metal and gothic rock, but not only. Classic music too, I love beautiful vocals.
Hmmm I can list what in my player right now
Korn, Charon, Within Temptation, Oomph (ooh I adore them), Disturbed, Panic At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, Five Finger Death Punch, Game of Thrones OST, Nightwish, Florence and The Machine, Hurts, Marilyn Manson, Two Steps From Hell, Cradle of Filth, In Extremo (and some others, tired of listing, lol)
this is music I love, yep. Some of these bands I listen for a 10-15 years, since I was a teenager.

A: Where do the people can contact you, and in which languages?


T: Russian and English. My English far from perfect, so if people want to contact me, they must be ready for that, hahaha. But some people on Facebook write me in Spanish or Italian, and every time I answer in English "hey guys, I don't speak it, english please" (it's really annoying, you know)

And where... Oh, tons of places. My website http://tatianavetrova.com/
my CGHub account http://northernchild.cghub.com/
accounts in social webs like Facebook http://www.facebook.com/darthvetrova
DeviantArt http://vetrova.deviantart.com
... eeeem let me think...even through my Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Symphologic. See, if you want to find a way to contact me - it's really easy.

A: Any final message to the readers?


T: Practice makes perfect.
You should understand, that you must work very hard, if you want to be great artist. And becoming good artist takes a lot of time. A lot. So don't be dissapointed if you don't see level-up after 3 months of painting. Wait for three years. Everything depends only of you.
Be strong, guys, cause being an artist is not easy way to live. But it's gorgeous way.

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To the grille, Oddly Spliced!

Leigh Whurr, best known as Oddly Spliced, is a young male from United Kingdom. His drawing style is the surrealistic and contorted forms as if they were clay or water. Even though his work isn’t purely scary, they are really taken from the deepest bottoms of the dreams, which may be scarier because it forces us to deal with our subconscious, muahaha. His draws are as beautiful as we let them be part of ourselves, and that is the reason they have been used a lot of times for other artists to inspire their works or to use them as frontpages, screensavers, or even to talk about them in videoblogs of YouTube.

Asura: Thank you for your time. It’s really an honor to have such a great artist with us. Could you please share with us your beginnings? Any influence?

Oddly: As a child, I had a passion for drawing.  Even as early as nursery, my art was noted to be beyond the typical standard for my age.  I would immerse myself for hours, often to the exclusion of everything (and everyone) around me.  Being an avid reader, I was drawn to sci-fi/fantasy illustrations, which fuelled my imagination.
 


A: What’s the inspiration or your muse to create your work?

O: Boredom with reality I would say.  Particularly regarding my specific circumstances.  Being an introvert and a deep thinker, I often find myself unstimulated by the mundanity of daily routine.  So I zone out and daydream.  I often feel as though I am carrying another world around with me in my head and it seems a shame not to share it.  Music can be very inspiring.  Movies and videogames of course are a major influence.  Dreams and nightmares that I've had play a large role too.  I will sometimes wake up and note down something interesting.  This sparked my interest in psychology, particularly regarding the subconscious.

A: Could you share with us your creative process, from the birth of the idea, through the creation, to finally when you say “it’s finished”?

O: What I imagine is not always easy to translate into words.  It's all very abstract.  I might consider a certain thought or an emotion (either my own or someone else's) and then think how best to represent it visually.

I have a preference for digital painting as it allows for the freedom and versatility required to experiment, without the smelly and messy inconvenience of traditional mediums which can be very off-putting and time consuming.  I start off with something very vague and gradually refine the detail until I feel that I've captured whatever I had in my mind.

A: It is really difficult to find something about you in internet, could you share with us if you studied professional art or if it’s all by your own?

O: I am currently studying Fine Art at university.  However, my personal work is mostly a solitary pursuit.  I'm self-taught.  I like working to my own beat and figuring things out for myself.

A: How is the situation of the art in United Kingdom? Do the people like it and support the artist or do they just ignore them? How do you feel about this situation?

O: There are plenty of exhibitions to be seen, both historical and contemporary.  I do fear talented artists may be overlooked in the shadow of a competitive environment.  Funding for the arts, in general, has recently suffered government cuts, which is a bit disheartening.

A: In the art, the message that the people receive may not the same that the artist wants to share. Do you have a message or something special that you want to share to the world, and that nobody has seen yet?

O: I am open to multiple interpretations.  Hopefully the viewer is able to draw something positive from it.  Sometimes I like to be deliberately vague or ambiguous so that the viewer is included in the process.  I want to provoke thought rather than simply delivering a specific message.  In some cases, I welcome alternate interpretations as it is important that viewers have a personal investment in the piece.  With art there is often this view that one must be somehow 'cultured' or possess a pre-determined knowledge in order to 'get' what they are looking at.  I, on the other hand, feel that the art should speak for itself on a more universal level.

A: Any artist or person that you admire or look up to?

O: Zdzislaw Beksinski and H.R Giger are always worth mentioning when it comes to this type of art.  Their unique visions are truly inspiring.

A: Why Oddly Spliced?

O: I wanted something silly yet appropriate to my style.  My thinking being that whatever I am or whatever I create is the result of two separate realities juxtaposed to form something...odd.

A: It’s hard to me quote the works that I like, because they are too many to tell, but do you have any favorite work?

O: I don't have a favourite specifically.  They all belong together, in a sense, as part of another world.  Each piece is merely a window.

A: Do you give any meaning to your works? I mean, when you are drawing, you may think, “mmhh… let’s this limb be longer because it’s as if the creature wants to escape”; or simply, “mmhh.. let’s this limb be longer because it’s cool”

O: A lot of it is very symbolic.  I imagine what would happen if the physical form was to result directly from an emotion, as if it has 'evolved' from that particular feeling.  A manifestation.  Like in a dream.  The process, as it occurs in my imagination, is very difficult to put into words.  It just happens.

A: If you give any meaning to your works, could you share what they mean to you?

O: They are a means of expressing what I find otherwise inexpressible in words.  It's like having a language of my own.

A: Do you make art in other forms? Which?

O: I currently only focus on digital painting.  However, I would love to expand into other mediums in future.  Maybe film or 3D.

A: Where do the people can contact you, and in which languages?

O: My Deviantart page is the best place to contact me.  I will share any future contact info on there.  Only in English.

A: Any final message to the readers?

O: Thank you to all who those who show interest.  I am developing my skills all the time and the continued support of the community is hugely rewarding for me.

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To the grille, Cotton Valent!

Cotton Valent is a wonderful gothic artist from Thailand. She describes herself as a romantic dark artist. Her works resembles us the Tim Burton style, and also the art of Edward Gorey. She draws cute characters in a lolita-victorian fashion, funny circumstances and creepy (but welcoming) environments. She is a very productive girl, and has made a lot of work.

Asura: Thank you for your time. It’s really an honor to have such a great artist with us. Could you please share with us your beginnings? Any influence?

Cotton Valent: Hello! Thank you for inviting me. I’m very pleased for interview!
I love drawing since I was very young and there were lots of scary stuff surrounded my childhood. My influence is a child fear, belief in something nonsense like when you break mirror and get bad luck or creepy rumors about the third door in the school restroom and 80’s and 90’s horror mangas told about school stories. Also, I had played Fatal Frame and Silent Hill.
Ironically I’m scared of ghosts but have a passion for them. I like daydreaming the horror and fantasy stories, how it looks like if I make comic, novel or animation. It would be fun to see my characters lost in twisted world to solve the problems until they had learned their lessons. Besides, I love designing dress. My mother don’t have much money so she advised me drawing my own paper dolls, so I opened Asari manga for reference and drew it (I think I should say “copy it”) That they I have found I also have passion for dress design.

A: You grew up in a village, how did you make contact with a different world such as the gothic?

C: I discovered from anime first (yep!) then cartoons and films. I remembered I have observed myself I always like character that have a huge dark color from there design or dark-looking characters. I don’t know how to explain it very clear, I think horror mangas made my test and preference.

A: I know Thailand has a good taste when horror is in the theme, because I have few movies from there and they’re good. How is the vision of Thailand about the other world/spiritual world/metaphysics?

C: Wow, you watch Thai movies! Happy to hear that!
I think our other world is similar to Chinese, Japanese, Indian and many Asian countries, We are not just believe in ghosts but also believe in spirits, some place have a little tiny houses for their stationed spirits (something like “Spirited away”) besides we believe in good deeds and sins, when you died, good deeds and sins will judge you what you will become in afterlife.

A: What’s the inspiration or your muse to create your work? Can you tell us how is your creative process, from the creation of the idea until the final product?

C: My inspirations are from childhood, good films, good arts, good music, and good articles, the big inspiration is feeling and passion of create works. I cannot live without drawing and writing story.
When I want to create something I usually find the reference (mostly dresses) before start the process for various and not to be boring. But that’s for the illustration that ends in one image. When I’m going to create the story, it’s not easy like that. I need to know mind’s characters, their personality, their favorite/dislike things and their goal, so I need to find personality references for my character, too. Not just dresses and scenes. Example, Charlotte Hammer from my webcomic have a mind references from Jasmine’s Aladin, Ava Ire’s Ava’s demon, Alice Liddle and Dorothy Gale. These references guide me to understand my character how she will fix the situations. Anyway, the best personality guide is expression sketch. If you don’t know what’s next for your character, I recommend imagining random events for your character and sketch, it works, seriously.
I use Photoshop, clip studio paint, picma and pencil for working.

A: How is the situation of the art in Thailand? Do the people like it and support the artist or do they just ignore them? How do you feel about this situation?

C: The art business is growing. Animation is a small business and a lot of people still thinking cartoons are just for kids and cannot let the idea to be creative, so most Thai animators work in others.
Comics are not as complex process as animation but most of the publishers are still working for children books, second is comic essay and the smallest business is manga/comic. Thailand has a bunch of awesome artists but few artists were admitted and mostly the artists that have worked for long time, so the new artists do not get very much attention.
Not many people want to support cartoon/anime business. Also don’t know the price of the artwork. By the way we have a small business like comicon for selling doujins and self-published books
Sounds sad but I hope it will be better in the future.

A: In the art, the message that the people receive may not be the same that the artist wants to share. Do you have a message or something special that you want to share to the world, and that nobody has seen yet?

C: Actually, it depends on my mood. My messages usually mean “creepy is everywhere”. I like it when people look at my artwork and discover creepy spot even Creepy Cat. But for comic I want it deeper than creepy spot. Maybe something about the dark side in the world or human’s mind.

A: Any artist or person that you admire?

C: I’m not lying how much I love Abigail Larsson’s work. I rarely stop looking at Kira Imai’s art. I’m always want to see art book from Kunio Kato. Be excited every time when going to read newest Junji Ito’s manga and super happy when found new Tahahiro Uesugi’s art. So many artists to write!

A: Why do you use Cotton Valent as your name?

C: My real name is Woraya Chotikul and the nickname is “Fai” means cotton. I used just “Cotton” for few years and realized it’s too short so I needed another name on it. Valent just a random name that I found on internet, nothing special.
A: I knew you because of your drawing of Wednesday Addams, and you got me forever with your Gwendoline. I felt in love of her. She is beautiful, charming, cute, and mischievous as the death must be. What can you tell us about her? Did you know in Mexico there is a reaper called Catrina?

C: Actually I created her because I saw many female death have skin and big boobs same as human but males are still skeletons, it does not mean I don’t like human-like death but just feel it’s too mainstream so I drew a female death that wants to be. Gwendoline is the ordinary death that work with other deaths. Her duty is to guide dead children to their afterlife.
I knew Catrina after Gwendoline had created for ages, I thought Catrina would be wearing colorful dress and big hat lol.

A: You also drawed about Wendy Persona. I read this character isn’t the reaper when she was alive. What can you tell us about this character?

C: Wendy Persona is the character for “Midnight Opera” graphic novel that had published in 2013, (thai language and it seems very hard for international publish).
Wendy is not a human nor death. She is just a faceless creature that wants to be an actress.

A: You also have a tarot design, and I found that you have the cancer sign made, but I couldn’t find the whole zodiac. Will you finish it later? Is your tarot available for purchase?

C: Major tarot desk is already sold out and I have no time for zodiac project so there is stuck right there. I have so much projects to do right now *sob*

A: I love Gwendoline, she is my favorite so far, but all your work is awesome. Do you have any favorite work?

C: I don’t have any favorite work because I try to draw better everyday. When I just finish a work I will watch it all day but I start to feel bore in next day. It’s really different from watching another artists’ work. I never get bored. Also enjoy finding technic from their artwork and thinking why I like this work, because of the line art or color tone.

A: You also have a comic called “The girl and the soul”. Could you share with us the background that moved you to create this art, and also tell us about it a little more, maybe something funny while creating it?

C: I have a bunch of original stories and “The girl and the soul” is the one of a few stories of mine that have an ending scene. Plot is used to be nonsense and nothing even an important message, just travel around the twisted work. The funniest moment is I never draw my characters with the same face in every scene. I’m glad I’m not an animator.

A: Your “Creepy Cat” is also very popular. Would you tell us more about it? I saw in a picture that you have a cat, is he the main character, Meawbin (Flying cat in Thailand)? And the most important to me… why do the women love cats?

C: Creepy cat is just a thing that I spend time less than 3 hours to process.While drawing comic I was thinking I should have a small project with the story that’s not too deep and ends in one image as I don’t update it often when I need time to finish my comic. So Creepy Cat is just a doodle for (some) busy days.

None of my cats are white but some of them are fat so they are a good reference. Meawbin means flying cat, you’re correct.
Why do women love cats? I think men loves cats, too. It’s mysterious why we love cats. All of us are under their control.



A: You also sell pillows, but only in Asia, right?

C: Not just Asia. My products is selling around the world but international shipping is expensive….

A: You also have a book called “Rohesia”. What can you tell us about it?

C: “Rohesia” is a self-published book that had been sold in OC only event (something like small comicon in Thailand) in early 2014. It’s about a doll who has lost a heart that makes her different from other dolls and it’s not a warm-hearted comic (you have been warned).

A: In your target list you wrote you are creating a cloth brand. How is it going?

C: OMG you saw it haha. It’s pretty far plan for my life right now. I have an impossible plan for design my own dresses and sell them on online shop so I need to be a millionaire to create that business but I don’t fear to daydream about it.

A: Do you make art in other forms? Which?

C: Just paper and digital, I never do crafts again after the sculpture class when I was in college, but I’m interested creating products. I used to think about making pendant but I must use rasin and many stuff and I don’t know someone is going to buy my products or not. I don’t know I should include creepy cat pillow here, I designed it but didn’t produce by my own.

A: Are you working for any company right now or are you freelancer?

C: Thai companies don’t like my style, so, yeah, I’m a freelance illustrator ,also I got few works to do so I have a lot of free time to draw my comic, sometimes I get commissions from deviantart, small payment from society6 and patreon. My current goal is sending my webcomic to some publisher.
Life is like a boat, need to keep going and don’t know what’s gonna happen next.

A: What do you like most, being part of a company or a freelancer, why?

C: I’m free from company rules. I can decide by my own what time should I wake up, what time should I sleep. If I’m hungry I can eat right now, I can stand up and walk while working if I feel stiff and need to rest. I can nap as long as I want. The best is I can pet my cats in every moment. And the worst is little income.

A: Are you having good income, enough to survive, with your art or do you work in something different to earn money? Where do people can buy your art?

C: I think I’m starving lol. I sell products sometimes which producing them take a whole lot of money so I do it occasionally. You can visit my print shop here http://society6.com/cottonvalent (Temporaly out of service)

A: Any more updates of your current art, or new characters/comics in the future?

C: “The girl and the soul” is in process and the story would be long, so the new characters will certainly come out. “Rohesia II” is also in the process but only in self-published book. If you’re going to ask about creepy cat, it will be a self-published small pocket book on Comic Avenue (something like comicon), october 2014.
I wish I had more life for drawing other stories that’s stuck in my head and have no time for them. I have many original stories, you know. Siara’s House, Tall tale & Glitched ghost, The Reaper, etc. This is really bad when you have tons of idea and plot but you do not enough time to do it all.

A: There are a lot of websites to contact you, where do the people can contact you, and in which languages?

C: English and Thai. I must say my English is weak so please forgive me if I don’t understand some sentences.

(Temporaly out of service, only up and working the facebook one)
My website (mostly products and articles and not update often):
http://www.cottonvalent.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CottonGallery
Creepy cat facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/MeawbinTheCreepyCat
Tumblr: http://painsleep.tumblr.com/ 
Creepy cat tumblr: http://meawbin.tumblr.com/
My webcomic: http://www.thegirlandthesoul.com/
Deviantart: http://cottonvalent.deviantart.com/ 
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/CottonValent

A: Any final message to the readers?

C: Thank you so much for everyone for supporting me. I’m always glad when receive wonderful messages and my work makes someone happy. I hope this interview is entertaining and useful. And thanks again for your time to read my interview.

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To the grille, Ahmed R Shalaby

To the grille, Ahmed R Shalaby
Ahmed is an egyptian artist. A very skilled one. He makes magic with the digital art in every topic you may think. He can create avatars for your ID, or covers for your books and musical albums, restore old photos, or my favorite, create magical, dark and delicious pictures.

Asura H: Thank you for your time. It’s really an honor to have such a great artist with us. Could you please to share with us your beginnings? Any influence? What’s the inspiration or your muse to create your work?

Ahmed R: I really get most of my inspiration from movies sences specialy Sci fi, and of course musical inspiration nothing is better than Evanescence.

H: How is the situation of the art in Egypt? Do the people like it and support the artist or do they just ignore them? How do you feel about this situation?

R: Well when I first started learning photoshop and photo manipulation specifically this kind of art was a bit strict, but joining the great devaintart community helped me a lot to Improve the talent. now i can say there is a lot of a great artists in this field.

H: In the art, the message that the people receive may not be the same that the artist wants to share. Do you have a message or something special that you want to share to the world, and that nobody has seen yet?

R: Every picture I made it has a story related with it's name, but of course not everyone sees in the same perspective. Many of my released covers have a different story than the one I imagined. you can check "Missives in red" artwork made for Mr Michael Randolph.

H: Any artist or person that you admire?

R: There's a lot of artists really doing amazing work more than I count, but my personal favorite are karezoid.deviantart.com, af-studios.deviantart.com, gloom82.deviantart.com
and many more.

H: I like what you did with “The lost symphony” and with “The dark reign”; but do you have any favorite work?

R: My personal favorite is " The Dark Lork" and "After Earth II"

H: Do you make art in other forms? Which?

R: Photo manipulation is my personal hobby, but I do Logo designs along with it.

H: What movies, music (besides Evanescence), books, do you like?

R: I really like Lord of the rings Series it really inspires me I made "The dark lord" After The witch king of Angmar, Music bands I really love Imagine Dragons, Linkin park and Breaking Benjamin.

H: Are you working for any company right now or are you freelance?

R: In the meanwhile I work as a freelance since i still in college.

H: What do you like most, being part of a company or a freelancer, why?

R: I prefer being freelancer feels more comfort to be free, but i don't mind being part of a team in the future.

H: I have seen you made some covers using Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Hudgens. Have you ever being contacted by any professional artist to make the cover?

R: No, not really most of my work I interact with authors and models.

A: Most of the people in this side of the world only know about Egypt the pyramids. What are the most beautiful thing and place of Egypt in your opinion?

R: Yes, I noticed that a lot of people have a different idea about Egypt, but it's not just the pyramids our history extended more the 7000 years we have many historical places along with pyramids belong to many various cultures and religions.

H: I have contacted a lot of arabic people and they seem to be very friendly… sometimes too much. Is the arab culture so friendly always or was I too lucky?

R: Yes, it is.

H: A lot of professionals sacrifice their lives for their work. Do you achieve to manage a personal life with your work?

R: It's kind of hard to concentrate since I'm working and studying on the other hand, but It's going fine so far.

H: You used to be Dash Th3me in Deviantart, why did you leave using it and what did it mean?

R: I started with Dash Th3me as a nick name, but afterward I want to go with my real name since it was needed for work credits.

H: What do the darkness and death mean to you? Also, a lot of your pictures have fire on them, what does the fire mean to you?

R: Death is a very mysterious for all of us and its inevitabilitym I find it kind of inspiring, and I like to use fire, it really beautiful element catches the eye.

H: I have interviewed young talented artist; but they are only in the amateur line. You seem to have a professional career with only 23 years old by now, why should a young boy be interested in art instead of anything else? How did you get the goal of living of the art so quickly?

R: I love art because it lets you escape reality. Its a really comforting form of self expression.
Personally, creative activities have always drawn my attention, from a young age I would draw, colour, cut and create! I'm still very much like this, I find myself losing track of time and working into the small hours.

H: Does your art give you enough income to live or do you must work in another stuff?

R: Not really because I'm between studying and working I didn't really started to settle.

H: Egypt used to have a very interesting culture of death. They used to see the death as a portal to another life in a very different way we are used to think about it. I have even read that they used to be happy if a crocodile eats one of their children because it was Sobek who took them. Now, this culture someway is gone, but I think that the feeling about the death remains. How does the islamic culture gets along with this feeling?

R: Egyptian culture always believed in the afterlife throughout the ages, All the Monotheistic religions mentioned the afterlife. All egyptian believes in afterlife, but when it comes to a crocodile eats one of their children i think it's a bit extreme.

H: I know the answer, but I want you to tell the readers, please. Does the islam forbids the art, the culture?

R: Of course not. On the contrary islam supports art you can see a lot of amazing and inspiring places is the Islamic culture, they excelled the architecture, decoration and painting.

H: Do you feel your art may be a way to haram/sin because you show the dark side of the beauty?

R: No, I don't find has anything to do with religion.

H: Would you like to keep your traditions of the Kemet (Ancient Egypt), or do you like the way it is right now Mesr (Nowadays Egypt), or do you want a piece of that and a piece of this? Which ones pieces?

R: We can't live in the past we keep out tradition and acclimate contemporary life.

H: Where do the people can contact you, and in which languages?

R: Please contact me via
FB page : facebook.com/ahmedshalaby.gallery
English /  Arabic.

H: Any final message to the readers?

R: Thanks for you times.

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