Artist Interview – Veronica Strandberg

See more of Veronica's work @ www.veronicastrandberg.se

Veronica first introduced herself to us via our Facebook page by sharing some images of her fantastic marker illustrations. We liked Veronica’s work so much that we took the chance to ask her some interview questions and gain an insight into the  artistic process.

What are your tools of the trade?

My favourite Letraset products so far are Tria Markers and ProMarkers. I almost always use the bleed proof marker pads and sometimes fine liners depending on the work. Otherwise I use oil, oil pastels, acrylics, charcoal, chalk and collage techniques.

How did you first get into illustration?

Ballpoint pen and fine liner drawings was always  my favourite techniques when growing up. So the step to markers wasn’t a huge leap. A couple of years ago, I came across some blogs that were using ProMarkers and I simply had to try them out.

How would you describe your style?

I’d like to think that I don’t have a style because it always changes. But I probably do. I do commission portraits which are realistic but often with an unusual crop, colour or other element added to it.

I also use  markers in my mixed media artwork.

I’d say that my overall style is very expressive and sometimes quite dark. I love to work with contrasts and emotions.

What are you working on at the moment ?

Currently I’m working on lot’s of paintings and drawings for my upcoming exhibition here in Sweden. The last thing I did was a mixed media drawing (pictured above, right).

Please take us through your design process, where do you start?

When drawing a portrait I always start by deciding on the best crop for the picture. The whole head doesn’t always have to fit and you may find that it can be cropped in a interesting way.

Next, I put on some good music or an audio book (very important step) !

I often do a sketch and I’m not satisfied until it looks good. If the sketch is bad, the drawing will be too.

I usually start with the parts of the face that are the most difficult, for example the nose.

After that I often use a bright colour like Ivory and paint a big area, following with the darker nuances and work with a gradient (dark to light) of colours to achieve a nice and smooth finish.

I use a lighter pen to smudge the borders and a blender to smudge the lightest colour to the background/white and I always paint the whole cheek/forehead at one time to avoid lines. The areas that are highlights I leave blank.

I find it best to work in layers and to work fast so that the ink doesn’t dry completely.

Always have an extra sheet of paper and try the colour before using it if you aren’t sure. After a while you will learn which colours mix together well and which ones don’t.

When illustrating, do you sometimes get blocked for ideas? If so, how do you overcome that?

I almost always have a pile of drawings to illustrate, but sometimes you just don’t want to do what you should. I then start looking for inspiration on the internet! And the best tool for that is Flickr, a community where people upload photos.

I sometimes just sit down and think about what I want to tell the world at that exact moment.

Which websites would you recommend people visit?

Bokkei – www.bokkei.blog.se (Great artwork & ProMarker illustrations!)
Flickr – www.flickr.com (for inspiration!)
Wulffmorgenthaler – www.wulffmorgenthaler.com (A comic strip each day)

Thanks for talking to us Veronica. Finally, where can people contact you and see more of your art?

My website – www.veronicastrandberg.se
My Facebook – www.facebook.com/nikasart
My Flickr – www.flickr.com/photos/57790031@N03/

Did you enjoy seeing Veronica’s work? If so please leave a comment and visit her website & blog. We’ll also have Veronica’s top tips for using markers posted later in the week, so keep checking back!