Part 2

/... Although, everything has changed since we bought our first tablet, It was not until then that I was able to do something like true painting. Today, using CG tool it is faster and easier to produce my images and I am free to try lot of different styles that I’m unable to produce in the traditional way. It can be done but it takes a long time. Drawing and Painting, especially paintings, in traditional way an artist can produce some hundreds of pieces during her/his time life, however through digital means we can easily achieve a thousand pieces and the images can reach almost the entire world through the Internet. I think the versatility, the possibilities and the faster production are the main reasons why I have chosen the CG tools to express myself, although I still love to paint.

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I.A :What's are the other outside influences ?

Are you really sure about asking me that after hearing my last list, hahahaha
Well, let's see.

Books: Tolkien's books, J.K. Rowling's books, J. J. Benitez books, Art books especially the ones with images from Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Rembrandt. I like reading Mythology', actually my sons and my husband have the habit of doing reading sessions at night. While I work I listen to them to gather information and ideas for my pinups and images. I also like, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Straczinsky and I read graphic novels, especially Will Eisner's novels, they’re fantastic.

Movies and Series: LOR, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, X-Files, Smallville, Supernatural.

Music: Original Soundtracks; these songs really inspire me. Sometimes I need to draw a warrior, so I listen to Conan's soundtrack, for instance. I also like and hear a lot of: Enya, Amy Whinehouse, The Police, various Anime music. I have a playlist on my computer organized according to genre to inspire me. When I am painting on canvas I like to hear the classic ones.

I.A. : Can you speak about your creative process; the flow from the initial idea to the final sketch?

CDL : I have a schedule with my partner which includes dates like, Mothers day, Christmas, Halloween, Earth Day, etc. We work together creating a situation, telling a short story about that theme and trying to make a sketch about that brainstorm. After that we make a list about the scenes that I will draw for each date/theme He does the description, and does the initial research; content, reference images, elements, etc.

I do the initial sketches and we discuss the composition for the image. When the sketch is approved I start doing a better sketch to be scanned. Sometimes, when I am involved in other projects he does the flat color process and I work on rendering colors. Otherwise, I do all the coloring. I like to draw and paint my own images because I am free to change whatever I want, that sometimes generates discussions, between my partner and I, about changing the things agreed in the sketch, but the end the result is OK.

If we are doing a more classical image like Aphrodite's Belt, he usually does all the research about the characters and elements related to them, that helps us a lot in the creative process. Until the final penciled sketch, I often redo a lot of drawing; thinking of the scene's composition, and drawing different elements on a separate sheet or file, combining them later. I prefer using only penciled sketches in the beginning of my work instead of doing them digitally.