Camelia is a young artist living in France who believes she is a very simple artist. She likes creating artworks with emotion and expression. She began drawing as a child by scribbling cartoon characters, then she tried to draw her family. It was a very important thing for her because everyone was really surprised how beautiful her work was. From that day forth she hoped to become an artist and worked tirelessly to get there. She came to the realization that all she had to do was copy the reference photo in the paper of her choice with her artistic tools and she could create an amazingly new artwork from her perspective. Her purpose in creating art is to satisfy the viewer and herself in every artwork she creates and to put as much effort as she can into making her pieces. Now, she bases her drawings on the nature around her and beautiful portraits.

ToonariPost (TP): How and when did you first start practicing your art (are you traditionally trained or self-taught)?

Camelia (Ca): I am a self-taught artist. I started practicing my art by scribbling in my notebook when I was a child of 5 years old, then I tried to draw my family and my favorite cartoon characters.

TP: What mediums do you use for your art work?  Which is your favorite and why?

Ca: I use graphite pencils and colored pencils, I rarely use oil, I have painted only 3 oil paintings while I have tons of graphite and color drawings! For the paper, I usually use bristol and “C à grain” paper A4 or 50×60 cm.

Color pencils are always my favorite because they allow me to create such a realistic and vivid piece. I think my color artworks are more popular than the graphite ones.

TP: You have a few art works that are extreme miniatures. How do you keep the detail that you normally include in your larger works in these tiny pieces? Do you enjoy creating them more than your other works?

Ca: I think that my artworks would be more attractive if I were to add much more detail on them because I wanted to create my own style. I usually take days working on these tiny pieces with a lot of details; it’s not really easy. I had to be patient and I got what I wanted. I enjoy creating them more than my other works because I think I made a great drawing and I’m improving little by little.

TP: What made you decide to create such tiny masterpieces?

Ca: It’s generally to become a well-known young artist, and to show my skills and my artistic abilities to the world.

TP: What piece of your work is your favorite and why?  Which one are you most proud of?

Ca: My favorite piece is “Playing With Shadows” because I chose different kinds of colored pencils on bristol paper and I thought that the drawing wouldn’t be as good as I wanted because of the medium, but I was surprised and I really liked the drawing because it turned out perfectly.

I am very proud of “Lovely Colours“, it’s a colorful drawing with a lot of details.

TP: When you first started did you ever hit any bumps in your art process? How did you overcome them?

Ca: Yes, I hit some bumps in my art process, it had to do with drawing portraits and choosing the correct skin colors. With time I overcame them. I had a rule to draw and to color what I saw exactly in the original reference.

TP: Who or what are your inspirations and why?

Ca: I take my inspirations from emotional and expressive portraits, I wanted to transform those photographs into drawings and I think that’s really possible. Emotional and expressive photographs which can turned out into drawings is a really great job and that’s always my purpose.

TP: What artists would you consider working with to do a piece? Why, and what type of work do you think would come from this partnership?

Ca: I would consider having Girts Ulmanis to work with me on a pencil artwork because I think he is incredibly talented in color pencils and in graphite pencils as well.

TP: If there was any art medium that you wish you could master, what would it be and why?

Ca: I wish I could become professional with oil painting because all the people will be really interested in oil paintings more than pencil artworks and it will also help me to get experience in creating artworks of such a big size.

TP: What are your goals in life? Do you plan to continue art as a hobby or make it a career?

Ca: My goals are definitely to be a well-known artist and to make several exhibitions all over the world and to meet professional artists. I plan to make it a career because I believe in my abilities.

Image Courtesy of  Camelia

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