Artienne

Artienne – Artist of the Month

Our artist of the month for the month of July 2021 is the popular and talented artist Artienne. She has been a member of Renderosity since 2015. She lives in Norway where she teaches history and graphic design in a public school. A few years ago she decided to take a “deep dive” into DAZ Studio where she could “show people some kind of magic and spirituality” which she feels she does best. In addition to her work at Renderosity, she does commissions for writers and private companies.  

We congratulate Artienne for being voted the best artist of the month! We have a brief interview to share with you and a video gallery of 10 items from her gallery. We love the sense of wonder in her work and we hope you do too. 

Interview with Artienne

Renderosity: You mention in your bio that you work as a history teacher: how has your knowledge of history informed the subjects you choose for your work?

Artienne: As a history teacher, I must be critical in my approach of historical and archaeological details and circumstances. I avoid making hasty conclusions from a single reference and seek to consider multiple data points and their context. For historical renders, I search for the most authentic costumes I can find. I pay attention to the color, texture, cut of the outfit, hairstyle, or the type of weapon if any. The constraints of a historical theme impose some limitations on my own creative input, but on the other hand, guides the scene forward.

As an example, I made a render of a modern Viking character playing the violin. Then the idea came to me to equip him with an instrument called Tagel Harph. I asked an artist friend named LishKing to help me with this project. We started a collaboration where I assisted in finding appropriate references to keep the details as historically realistic as possible.

You have a real gift for creating compelling characters (I especially like your animal portraits). How did you develop this skill?

Artienne: I am an observer who likes to watch movies, compelling photography, art, paintings, and many elements of game design. I also often visit the Artstation platform where I can seek out reference images to my collection. It’s a great repository of inspiring visuals. I like to explore characters, play around with morphs, change textures, and experiment with casting various kinds of light across the scene. Sometimes I will fire up Facegen and utilize photos of my friends to guide the morphing. For animals, I love watching nature videos about their life in their natural habitat. Much of the process is to just perceive and let observation be my guide.

You also mention in your bio that “In order to go beyond yourself, you have to know yourself”. Can you expand on that a bit especially how this idea affects your artwork?

Artienne: Many of us treat our existence superficially and lightly, allowing others to shape us in a particular way. The life of an artist is more than just blindly following a track that has been assigned to us by others. It is, above all, finding oneself, to abandon the mask that has been imposed on us. Individuality enables us to conquer and write our own world. If the artist sets out on a course of exploration, he is able to determine what limits him and seek out improvements.

Critical considerations force me to correct my mistakes and enrich my vision. I attempt to refresh my perspectives, challenge myself with more complicated scenes and improve my postwork process. I seek to be open to criticism and new possibilities and techniques. With an open-minded approach, I can understand better the visions of other artists as well.

What is the typical workflow on a project? And how to you choose the subjects of your work?

Artienne: It all depends on the project I’m working on. If I do a promo image, my main goal is to show the product from the best side. In this case, it presents the user with how the product can be used and what to do with it. Here, the subject depends on the type of product. My thinking is different when I make a personal picture, then I have more time to create a scene.

I love topics related to history, Greek, Egyptian or Scandinavian mythology, sometimes science fiction. Once an idea comes to my mind I visualize it and then begin the process of building the scene. After rendering which takes 4 hours, I open Photoshop and do postwork. In the case of promo render, it is an hour. If I’m going to do a paint over then I have to spend a little more time.

How has Renderosity made a difference in your work as an artist?

Artienne: Renderosity has a huge database of all kinds of artists which is a factor that encourages me to experiment with, for example, photography, digital painting, photomanipulation, and traditional painting. Thanks to this platform, I met a lot of artists and I had the opportunity to see their works, which were inspiring for me. Many people share with me their thoughts, feelings about my Artwork or by entrusting me with their products. This type of cooperation helped me develop my skills and gave me great motivation to continue working and experimenting.

Any final thoughts?

Artienne: Thank you for the nice talk, Ricky. I’d like to thank all my friends at Renderosity for their support, great comments, and inspiration. Currently, I am thinking of leaving Norway due to new tax law regulations. My new goal now is to create illustrations for books, album covers for metal bands and maybe go back to music if my health allows 

Credit: Renderosity : https://www.renderosity.com/article/24158/artist-of-the-month-for-july-2021-artienne