All the absurdities of life move off and turn out to be something trifling when our heart is open to positive feelings. Art goes directly to emotions and gives us a strong force of our live – love of the beautiful.
Today we want to tell you about the person, whose life is dedicated to creating powerful and magnetic masterpieces in CG. This artist is Drazenka Kimpel. Being a mature CG painter, she creates really astonishing images. The variety of her works ranges from fantasy painting and pencil sketches to design for print and web. She paints with hope, desire, passion and it can’t leave us indifferent. Every single image for Drazenka is a kind of exciting adventure throughout the creative process. She derives inspiration from plenty of books and the art of Renaissance and Victorian ages. Her ability to apply the diversity of techniques in different projects makes her output entirely exclusive.
For today Drazenka Kimpel works as an illustrator and designer for Magicgate Software Inc. To admire her works just visit a website of Drazenka Kimpel.
In the following interview Drazenka Kimpel tells a bit about herself, reveals some intimate aspects of her inner world and shares her creative output.
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Hello Drazenka. Please, tell a couple of words about yourself and your family. Did you ever get formal training or were you mostly self-taught?
Hello! I was born in Zagreb, Croatia where I lived until I was 20 years old. Due to the lack of prosperity in my own country, I had to leave everything in search for a better future. I worked for years in magic and illusion shows on Cruise Ships, sailing around the world, which finally anchored me to South Florida where I still live. I left too soon to get any kind of formal art education. I am completely self- taught. I learn as I go along.
“Indigo” by Drazenka Kimpel.
Usually the talent is propagated. Is anybody in your family related to arts?
I have no idea where my talent came from. I don’t recall my parents ever mentioning anybody in our family being gifted for any form of art. As I think back now, it was difficult for me to get the understanding and support I needed to pursue a career in art.
“Mirrors of Twilight” by Drazenka Kimpel
What subjects do you like to explore most in your work and where does the interest arise from?
What intrigues me the most, are fantastic worlds and its people. I grew up reading fairy tales and drawing my own characters on paper. Most of the inspiration now still comes from reading books and envisioning characters and their surroundings. I love to explore the era of Renaissance and Victorian times. I am inspired a great deal by rich elegance and the style of these two periods.
“The Wish” by Drazenka Kimpel
I wonder if you still have the works of your earliest ages. Could you show them?
I haven’t kept the collection of my art way back then. Most of the very early drawings were all given away and by not having a camera at the time, I was not able to capture the images. Here are a couple of older paintings from my cross over to CG. They are: “Equilibrium” and “Wuthering Heights”
“Equilibrium” by Drazenka Kimpel
“Wuthering Heights” by Drazenka Kimpel
What helps you stay creative and be in touch with the situation in the world of computer graphics? And which artists, contemporary or classic, do you get most inspiration from?
Keeping up with news from the art world is not very difficult. There are all sorts of online and printed materials available to keep in touch with the technology and to learn what new developments could impact my creative growth. It is hard however, to keep up with hardware updates. New tools require better, faster machines. It gets costly very quickly…
There are a lot of artists that inspire me in many different ways. One of the first artists I’ve noted was Arthur Rackham. I was reading a book which was illustrated by Rackham and with every new illustration my imagination grew larger. I was drawn by his ability to portray characters with beautiful line work and translucent layers of muted color. Not to mention the elegance of the characters, even the ones meant to be scary. The second name I would like to mention is Maxfield Parrish, whose colors and subject matter absolutely seduced my eyes.
“Dream Weaver” by Drazenka Kimpel
What is the most important thing when you are starting a new project?
I need to have a pretty good idea of what the final image or design should look like, before I start working on it. Usually I start with a few concept drawings first, to acquaint myself with the composition as a whole. To determine a good composition is most important in preliminary stages of any project. Once you get your hands deep into work, it’s hard to change things around. The final product can look pretty messy and people will see you were struggling with it.
“Tea Time” by Drazenka Kimpel
Do you usually ask for suggestions regarding your works improvement?
Yes. I always encourage others to do so. There is always room for improvement. I have to be ready to take criticism and suggestions from others. No two pair of eyes will see things the same way. If suggestions are valid and have merit, I will take them into consideration, get back to the illustration and make improvements. Then again, I also have the freedom to decide which ones would work the best on a particular image. I think it’s important to listen and learn. It’s the only way to move forward.
“Monarch” by Drazenka Kimpel
When you are involved into commercial projects what is more important to you – your personal vision of arts or a customer’s opinion?
I think it depends on the project. Customer’s ideas and input during the process simply can not be ignored. There are some projects where I am given complete creative freedom but there are also projects in which the customer wants to be actively involved. It is understandable. Customers have their own vision. There are certain aspects of a project an artist would see differently and possibly inaccurately (such as the “feel” of the company, work place, their goals and visions as a whole). That’s where customer input is necessary.
I’ve had a couple of projects of such, where a customer wanted to see the progress on daily bases. I was not very thrilled about it at first, but upon placing the finishing touches, it looked very different than what my original idea was and I had to agree with this kind of collaboration. However, this kind of situations does not fit every project. It is ultimately my job to talk to a customer so we can make the right decision, which will help me deliver the best product both parties would be very happy with.
“Expressive Combustion” by Drazenka Kimpel
What is your main achievement in CG? Do you have a favorite work among works created by yourself? If yes, why is it exactly this one?
Well, that’s difficult to answer. There is really no achievement I can recognize as a “main achievement.” I think over the years as my style and technique has developed, I can say that my knowledge has been a slow evolution rather than “great big bang”. There is still a mountain of things I would like to conquer as an artist, so if you ask me that question in couple of years, I would probably be able to answer.
As far as my favorite works, I would have to say it’s the piece called “Mother”. It is not one of my more known pieces but it’s very special to me because it was created at the time I was at my worst emotional state of mind.
“Mother” by Drazenka Kimpel
What piece of advice would you give to those who are just starting out their design career?
I’ve been saying this for years and I stick to it…
Practice a lot and everyday! Persevere in what you do and don’t give up too easy. Keep your eyes and mind open to learning something new and remember; you can not become good overnight.
“Purple Orchid” by Drazenka Kimpel
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Thank you, Drazenka, for such an absorbing interview. We wish you immediately powerful works, brilliant ideas and prosperity!
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