On my love of digital painting and making the leap of faith!

In 2013, at the end of my first semester learning graphic arts for films, animation and computer games, I got to know digital painting and fell head over heals in love with it! I just found this crock duo illustration and believe it is my first digital painting. Just over 8 years ago, early 2013, I decided to leave a career I had been in for over 13 years, and pursue a passion. I was not totally sure towards what that passion would lead me but took the leap anyway because carrying on without change was not an option. The career I left was wonderful in many ways and I loved many aspects of it but it did not sustain me mentally and emotionally. I simply did not thrive and today, when I look back, I really believe that a part of my personality had already started dying at the time. I think that had actually been a wake up call for me.

I'm very proud of this first digital painting I created with my Wacom Bamboo pen and ink tablet and following a tutorial from Digital Tudors (pluralsight.com today). I have worked on my skills for the past 7 years and come much further. I still feel this passion for the medium and for being able to create characters and worlds within it.

Although my first and longest lived passion is for the pencil and paper, my second is digital painting! There is something about the immediate results and the forgiving nature of working digitally that I love. I am a pretty impulsive woman and tend to work (and think) really fast. This is why, whenever I pick up a real brush and messy oils or acrylics, all of me and most of my surroundings are marked by it 😁 It gets very, very messy and would require lots of work just to manage, without the art itself, if I was to work in that way every day. Digital is also the industry standard, because it is time efficient and, of course, un-messy. Game development studios would look, and smell, very differently if concept artists would take out their preferred traditional media every day and do their thing! I stick to digital for nearly all my professional work and a lot of my personal work, messing about without making any mess. However I do love making the occasional mess and have a designated desk in my studio for that. It is not very big, just enough to make a little mess with some pastels, coals or acrylics.

I get to work every day, painting digitally. I am so very thankful to have taken that leap of faith of leaving a career that wasn't working for me to embrace my passion and carve out a new one. I didn't have any insurance that this would work out in any way and I had no idea how I would craft myself a career out of all this. Thankfully I just carried on and followed my interest and passion, tried to ignore my fear and stuck to a dash of common sense. After more than 6 years I am a professional artist!

Thank you for visiting and reading

Heiða