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3DTotal: Talking about the business side again, do you have any ideas or dreams about what you would like to achieve in the next years?
Benita: At the moment I am very happy about the fact that our own agency is doing well. We get all sorts of projects and this provides an ideal framework to learn new things, like 3D modelling etc. When I am not working on those projects I am working on my first book which will be published next spring.
3DTotal: Looking at your website, you divide your works into your main gallery and sketches, what is the average time period for these works that defines which category they fall into? And is it the case that a main gallery piece is basically just a polished detailed follow on from a sketch, or do they follow a very different process right from the start?
Benita:Oh, my website needs a re-launch! Never mind these divisions. It was an idea I had, so that I could post my quick doodles in another section than the big and polished images. But in the end I have figured out, that I like to use my daily sketch box for the doodles and so my real “sketches” section is getting a little old and dusty. But you can say, the sketches are usually fast works, studies or ideas, finished in a short |
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time (say up to an hour, some a bit longer). The gallery images are bigger projects with more time involved (the fastest one in there was finished in one week). Anyways, I haven’t had time to do a decent update in my gallery for ages now. And the more I paint the more I come to prefer a certain roughness in an artwork. The next version of eeanee might even have a new category for abstracts.
3DTotal: Can you tell us about the software and hardware you use? Are you a 100% digital artist these days?
Benita :I am using Painter, Photoshop and my beloved old Wacom Intuos 1 (A4 size). Apart from that I enjoy getting my hands dirty with real materials. When I go out there usually is a “moleskine” sketchbook somewhere in my bag. In fact I would rather take my anatomy book plus sketchbook plus pencil case than, say, a second pullover
3DTotal: Does your local area have some nice spots to sketch and be inspired?
Benita:Currently I am travelling a lot between Berlin, Cologne and London. All of these cities are inspiring. I never knew that London had so many foxes, it’s great watching them in the streets at night. |
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3DTotal: What are the inspirations for your characters?
Benita: A lot of ideas for my images come directly from dreams. But really, inspiration can come from everywhere. Feeding the white cat outside the other day, I looked at that tiny head in front of my feet and again was amazed how delicate and fragile these creatures are. To me character design is very much connected with the observation of nature. It is all there, you can borrow the aspects and then rearrange and enhance things. I find hybrids fascinating, unusual beings, part human, part something completely different. If you look into a mirror long enough, you might see something flicker, a splinter of otherworldyness, when all of a sudden normal turns into unnormal. This is what I want to capture in my images. |
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3DTotal: When you’re not brushing what do you like to do?
Benita:Most of what I do in my freetime has to do with my work somehow. It is never completely separated, really. All of my friends are artists as well, and it is great to be with creative people. You can always expect something nice to develop: skateboarding in the middle of the pitchblack night, building a sandbath for sparrows or flying to London to burry a grasshopper under a lilac tree - or just having a pint
3DTotal: Well whatever you are doing Benita we wish you all the best, as long as keep painting your fantastic art that wows us all that is. Many Thanks for your time, it’s been great speaking with you |
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