Sammy J. Aura (cont.)
- Samantha could you tell us a little about yourself? I’m a 23 year old aspiring fantasy artist. I grew up on high fantasy from my grandmother Geary. She had a massive collection of fantasy things like the movie The Last Unicorn and Labyrinth, and the pop-up book Faeries by Brian Froud. I also had a plastic doll house shaped like a tree that she let me play with while my family and I visited her now and then. She died when I was 8 but left a lasting impression and precious memories of her. She inspired the idea that I could make fantasy real and that it was an important aspect to many people young and old. Now I have a one year old daughter named Fiona Lilly and work harder then ever to make my dream come true in order to set an example for her.
- How long have you been creating? I’d say I have been creating for all of my life, but I’d go on to say that I started purposely creating things around the age of 10 years old. It was then that I started developing my fantasy worlds with a conscious effort.
- Did you know at a young age that you wanted to be an artist? I’m not sure I knew that my little worlds and drawings would make me an artist until I was into my early teens, probably around the age of 14.
- What were your earliest artistic influences or inspirations? I would say that Brian Froud’s work was a huge contributor to what I wanted to create. Also I had just begun to get into anime when I got a little older and then eventually into manga.
- What is your media of choice? I like mixed media… I particularly like to use Prismacolor colored pencils along with markers of any and all kinds and I enjoy using gel pens and metallics as well.
- Are there any mediums you’ve tried that you haven’t liked, and why? I tried oil paints and loved it for a while but quickly got impatient at the time they took to dry. I also couldn’t quite deal with the texture of chalk pastels, it made my skin feel funny and my teeth hurt.
- What are you motivations for creating? I guess I sort of feel the need, as if needing to eat or drink. Sometimes I do it without thinking… it makes me feel whole. It takes me away from a world that can seem so cold and unmagical and makes me feel like things can be accomplished again.
- Who would you consider your favorite or most inspirational artists? Brian Froud, Alphonse Mucha, Waterhouse and a new artist I just discovered by searching online Linda Bergkvist of furiae.com.
- What “real life” interests outside of art keep you inspired or looking at the world in different ways? I’d have to say music, movies and video games as well as board games. They keep me imagining when I don’t have the inspiration to draw.
- What do you find visually stimulating to get your creative juices going? fantasy movies, Lord of the Rings, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Willow, Legend etc… everything along those lines.
- Do you read much Fantasy or SciFi? What are some of your favorites? Oh yes, I’m afraid I might run up the space here but I’m particularly fond of Shojo Manga, Anne Mc Caffrey (particularly the book A Gift of Dragons), Anne Rice (the Vampire Chronicles.) and I’m currently reading a Margaret Bell book.
- What would you like your fellow artists to know about you and/or your work? I daydream hopelessly. I fancy color, I don’t stick to realistic in any way. I struggled with my inability to draw realistically until I decided I no longer wanted to and I found my voice.
- How do you tackle the problem of getting your ideas from your brain to the finished artwork? I usually toil on one idea for days until I get the right sketch started. I hardly put my pencil to paper until I’m sure just what I have in mind. But also sometimes, there isn’t an idea there until I’m drawing lines on paper.
- When working digitally, do you sketch on paper first, or do you sketch on the computer? Yes, I prefer to sketch by hand first and in some cases I will do other things, such as color the skin tone first because I often cant get the paint on computer to look just the way I want it to. It’s a mixed set of work because I will do half by hand and half digitally in some cases. This is a new concept as well, I used to do all of my work on the computer from scratch but found it lacking in the department of what I had dreamed up for my works.
