Here are just two of the clever creations of Sarah Pittman, a fellow member of Fantasy Artists of Etsy (FAE, appropriately. ) She recently became one of the official leaders of the group after organizing several projects, including our calendar. She also came up with the idea of a group book, which I will be helping with. I know few artists who put so much enthusiasm into helping other artists succeed as well.
She got her start thanks to her father, also an artist, playing drawing games with her. About four years ago, she began to work on her art more constantly, feeling the need to draw on a daily basis. The regular effort has allowed her to develop greater skill.
Fantasy films she watched while growing up, such as Legend, Labyrinth, and Neverending Story, helped influence her towards fantasy. When asked about the frequent fairy themes in her art, she explained, "I think my love for fairies grew from there - as they're personally a favourite of mine to collect as well as draw myself. I remember the first fairy I drew was a fairy called 'Primrose' and I haven't been able to stop drawing them since. As well as fairies being a favourite subject of mine, I think fairies offer a great deal to an artist, as you get a mix of figure drawing and trying to capture their character, and thefreedom to use your imagination, as fairies can be anywhere doing anything, and can be wearing anything - theyre just a joy to draw!"
Mainly, her works are done in colored pencil. I've worked with pencil, too, and was interested in what she has to say about the medium. "It takes a long time to complete a piece in coloured pencils, but I'd say the time it takes is definately worth it. The best things about coloured pencils are that they're always ready to use, and they're easy to transport, so you can use them anywhere, and when you've found 'your brand' of pencils, they're a pleasure to use - I'd definitely recommend that if anyone is considering using coloured pencils they invest in getting some artist quality pencils, they're definately worth it. With coloured pencils you get a lot more control over where the colour goes, and I have to say I enjoy all the layering that goes into it, and the way you can blend colours together easily, plus there are so many different techniques and methods to using them (which I won't go into here), it's a medium that's great to experiment with."
Although I haven't gotten into the experimental methods so much, I know the rest of it is very true! I used to do art on the go quite a bit, and colored pencil has a level of convenient nothing else matches, as it doesn't require a lot of wash up. And for me, the key to getting a result I could be happy with came from investing in quality-- for me the Prismacolor pencil brand offers buttery softness and rich color.
As you can see in the examples I show here, she gets saturated, deep color with great success. The main difference in doing animal pictures as opposed to the fantasy genre, is the animals take even more time. Placing the pencil strokes in carefully allows her to capture the texture of fur.
To see more of her works, see her etsy store at http://artca.etsy.com
