by VivienJane Have you been influenced by other artists both past or present?
I have always been interested in art and colour. I practiced art when I was at school in my early years but never at all
considered becoming an artist. I had an uncle who painted using oils as did my mother, and I was always fascinated with
the art work that they managed to produce, but never attempted to paint myself. I had an aunt who regularly took me as
a child to the wonderful art galleries and museums that can be found in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, and we used to
spend hours just wandering around marveling at the wonderful works that
were on display in these magnificent and very historic locations.On reflection two artists immediately come to mind that I could possibly say
help influence my current art work in some way, although I would say that
my art work tends to be in my own style.The first influential artist would have to be the Czech painter Alphonse
Mucha. I actually had the privilege of attending an exhibition of his work
when visiting Prague a number of years ago. He is fairly well known today
for the ‘Art Nouveau’ graphic work that he produced, but his historical
art canvases are just something else. His landscapes and very detailed
historical scenes on the huge canvases that he painted are truly amazing
to see. You could actually spend hours just studying one of these amazing
pieces of art, as there is so much detail to the historical stories that are being
told in each and every one of these true master pieces.The second influential artist who immediately comes to mind is the modern
day and award winning artist, Yoann Lossel, who is currently based in France. I actually have two pieces of his art hanging
above my desk which I look at for inspiration every now and again! Yoann’s artwork is amazingly beautiful and also very
detailed. Yoann actually uses real gold leaf in his wonderful creations. I would recommend looking him up on the Internet if
you can get the chance, in order to view some of the fabulous and very detailed art work that he produces.Can you tell us a bit about your creative process?In respect to my own digital photo artistry work, I never really plan that
much ahead when attempting to create a piece. My art is an enjoyable
hobby that I undertake whenever I can grab the chance to do so. I find that
I actually work better if I just ‘experiment’ as I go along with each particular
piece. I would first start by building a background for my canvas and as this
develops, I do just go with my ‘creative flow’. I have a fairly large library of
digital images and resources to call upon, which I have built up over the past
number years. I tend to just create as I work on developing each individual
piece. I have found that if I do try to plan a canvas, it actually never turns out
to be what I actually had in my mind to start with!If I decide to use a model image in my work, I would actually spend quite a
period of time retouching and preparing the model image first, before then
adding it into my canvas. From my artwork you will probably see that in my
portrait work I nearly always try to preserve the beauty in the models faces,
probably because I have spent so much time retouching and preparing the
model images beforehand!I freely admit with a big smile on my face that when working in this particular
way, I do ‘bin’ a lot of pieces that I am not happy with! This does not annoy
me at all, as I look upon each attempt at a canvas as a learning process.
You are always learning something new with Photoshop, so it is actually
not time wasted. It does take a lot of time and practice in order to try and
master Photoshop and I think that I will always be learning in relation to
this particular software programme as there is so much to it. Photoshop
though is very forgiving and if you make a mistake it does allow you to take
backward steps and quite easily undo any mistakes that you may have
made!What equipment and software you use and which are indispensable?For my photographic work I mainly use a Canon EOS 550D which I love. I also have a Canon EOS 1300D and if I do not
have my main camera gear with me, I have a Sony Alpha 6000 which is easily carried in my coat pocket!For the majority of my digital art work I have a desk top computer which has a Windows 10 operating system. I also have a