I did interview with a lovely artist (Daniella Sjöstrand) and heres how it went .

Hi Maria,

I tried answering the questions as best I could. I hope it helps.

Q1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

A: Well, my name is Daniella and I'm almost 39 years old. I'm a self taught artist and I live and work in the city of Malmö, Sweden. I work as an artist and freelance illustrator. I do commision work for companies and people and I also create and sell my own pieces. I work in several different mediums, but I have spent the last years focusing mainly on charcoal for my own pieces while still doing digital commissions. I like to look at the world through my own lens which tends to bend things towards the surreal. I have been working as an artist full time for the last 8 years or so.

Q2. Do you have any techniques in art that took a while to master?

A: All techniques take time to learn and perfect. I would not call myself a master of anything. I try to master the art of learning because that's where you grow. It's easy to get disheartened when picking up a new medium because it's hard at first - Everything is. I think what you need the most as an artist is bravery. It takes bravery to try and to fail hundreds and thousands of times before you start to see the results you are aiming for. Not every piece will be a masterpiece, some will be absolute shit, and that's ok. You learn so much more from the things that turn out badly than from pieces that flow out of you like water. Every failure is a lesson and if you stick to it and fail enough - you've learned a new skill.

I have been drawing since I was about 3-4 years old. I have focused solely on my art for the last 8 years, and there's still a whole world of skills and techniques I don't have. Being an artist is to be a student. You're just teaching yourself.

Q3. What would you say is the most important artist tool you use?

A: That depends on how you define the word "tool", I guess. As I said, I work with different mediums and I create different styles so I think I would say that my most important artist tool is my creativity. It helps me to problem solve and allows me to bend the medium to my will and at the same time it allows me to bend a little as well to meet the medium half way, if that makes sense. There are limitations to any medium you choose to work with. Paper can get overworked, smudges can "ruin" a really nice charcoal piece, a flick of the wrist and a drop of watercolor ends up in the wrong place. Instead of panicking you need to lean into it. That feeling of -"oh shit, I ruined it..." and let go. No one will thank you for hating yourself for minor mistakes or even major mistakes. Get creative instead. Most things can be solved and salvaged. They may not look exactly as you intended when you started, but isn't that the point of art? To take yourself and the viewer somewhere new?

So, yeah, I'd say the most important tool for me, as an artist, is my creativity. Without it there is no art.

Q4. How do you describe your artist style?

A: Well I have a few different styles depending on the medium I use. For my digital work I'd say it's a surrealist realism. I like to play with a sort of meta idea of what's real and what is not. That shows in the themes of the pieces themselves but also in the way they are created. I enjoy what I would call a digital mimicry of traditional painting in the digital medium. It's fun to look at something and not be sure if it was created using digital or traditional media. Most of my art involves nature or natural elements such as flora and fauna in some way. That's true for my charcoal work as well. I have a slight obsession with octopuses and have portrayed several in great detail. I guess that's also something that is true for my style of art. I enjoy the little things. Adding details to a piece and allowing it to take the time it takes until it just feels done. I think that's something that makes my art stand out as well and it's true for any of my styles, even my illustrations. It's hard to pick just a few words to describe what I do because it does vary quite a bit.

Q5. Is there any other artist that influences your work at all or have you had any artist have any bearing on your art style?

A: No, I have never really been interested in art that way. I've never looked at something and thought - I'm using something like that for my next piece. That's not who I am. I do my own thing and always have. I can appreciate different art pieces. but I don't try to incorporate things like that into my own art. Being true to my own aesthetic and creating things that have meaning to me, and hopefully others is what matters to me.

Why try to copy something someone else created when you can be the creator of entire worlds? My style is my own and I prefer it that way. That's how I look at it.

Q6. How did you develop your art skills?

A: I've been doodling and drawing since I was very young. When I got a little older, say in my early teens or so, I started to teach myself how to draw using graphite pencils. A lot of time was spent doing that in school instead of focusing on the subject I was supposed to focus on. Every note pad I had in school had drawings on pretty much every page. It started to become more of a proper hobby as I got older and I kept drawing using graphite or ballpoint pens. Any kind of pen or pencil really. In my late teens I got some better art supplies with proper graphite pencils in different softnesses and I kept drawing from life and nature. I have a lot of very bad looking animals and flowers from when I was younger. I just kept going with my art. Trying new things and trying to really understand things like depth and shading. I started painting using watercolors in my early twenties. I didn't really create anything special. I was just trying to understand how things worked. Then I started to incorporate some inks and ink pens, trying to work out how hatching and crosshatching worked.  After that I started teaching myself how to create digitally using a drawing tablet in Photoshop and then I taught myself how to create using charcoal. I've never taken a class, all it takes, as I said, is a willingness to try and fail and try again. Oh.. yeah, it also takes time. A lot of time. I probably could have picked things up faster if I had taken classes, but I enjoy the process of working things out for myself. To me there is no right or wrong way in art. For me, personally, the right way is my way and the wrong way is everything else. I have my own process, worked out over literally thousands of hours, and it works for me and that's all that matters. Another artist may do things in a wildly different way and as long as it works for that person, then that way is the right way for them.

7. Is there a piece of art you're most proud of?

A: That's a hard question. I think, for me, I don't feel proud of my pieces in that way. I like most of the things I create, but it's usually a feeling of "Ok, this one is done. Now on to the next one." I rarely think about the things I've already created since I spend most of my time thinking about what to create next. Does that make sense?

If I have to pick one I think my digital piece "Survivor" is a good one. I had a woman at a small art exhibition I was part of tell me how inspiring she found it being a cancer survivor herself, and that has stuck with me. That connection with another person through my art. Since I have lost people to cancer myself I find the piece hopeful. When I look at it now though, all I can think about is how I would go about creating it today, with all the things I have in my toolbox now compared to when I made it back in 2019.

I am quite fond of my charcoal pieces "Growth" and "Pressure".

...I also really like my digital piece "Light". I think it's a really fun play on both words and shapes and I think it's freaking genius, if I may say so myself. Haha!

8. How has education helped you in your art life/ career?

A: I guess it hasn't? I mean, not in the traditional sense. I didn't go to school for art. Perhaps, if I had, I would have had a better network when I first started working? School hasn't really been part of my art world at all. Learning by myself, by creating things and learning to not be afraid has been key though.

9. How do you stay motivated in doing your art?

A: I love to learn and try new things. Sometimes it is hard though. Not to stay motivated per se because I love to create things and I have a tendency to obsess on ideas I get until I get them out of my mind and on to the paper, so to speak. Some days I just don't feel like it though, and that's ok. I've learned that having a day to myself to just relax and not think about art is necessary to stay sane.

I guess what motivates me, too, is to try to improve on the way I physically express the ideas I have in my head.

10. Can you describe your studio or art space?

A: Sure, I have two work areas. I really wish I could have it all in one room but for now I have my office where I do my digital work. It's a pretty basic workspace with a desk, a computer, my drawing tablet (a Wacom Intuos Pro) , and a bookshelf full of books, papers, drawing pads and drawings  stacked almost to the top on each shelf. - Yes I'm messy, but it's a controlled mess. I can still find everything I need without having to really look for it. There's cups with pencils, pens, brushes and scissors, a notebook for jotting down ideas and super quick little sketches. I have an old school notice board on the wall where I've pinned up sketches and drawings and some important business cards and other important stuff that I pretty much never look at.

I have a really comfortable chair as well - that's important.

My other workspace is where I do my watercolors and charcoal drawings. That's also pretty simple. I use the same chair for both spaces because, as I said, a comfortable chair is important. I have a table with some books stacked on top of each other to a large, thick piece of cardboard that leans on them on an angle to create my work surface. I have jars and cups filled with pencils and pens, brushes, kneaded erasers and box cutters. Charcoal crayons and charcoal pencils are gathered in their own little containers. I sit by a window so I've also occupied the windowsill to stack boxes of charcoal crayons, a jar of charcoal powder and charcoal pencils and spray cans with fixative spray. There's drawing papers, sketchbooks, drawing pads, finished pieces and unfinished pieces stacked on the other side of the table and on another chair. Large plants occupy the rest of the space.That's pretty much it. That's where everything and nothing happens.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Daniella