| |
3DTotal: Could you tell us a little about yourself, your background and what inspires you?
Riana: My background story takes place in a small village in south Denmark. I was a tall, anti-social horror freak kid who more often than not faded out into my own world and made up lies to scare/impress the other kids and grownups around me, which somewhat ended up making me extremely unpopular and mocked for most of my childhood and teen years. Right about the time the teasing and bullying was at its worse, (let’s say age 13-15), I started creating stories to slip into and creating “concept art” around them for most of my waking hours. That’s, by the way, when my more commonly used name “Fealasy” was invented; it was the title of a major story called “Into Fealasy”, a story about how one can never be sure of one’s own existence and meaning; about a character that discovers that he’s only a character in a RPG. Fealasy is a mix between the words Fantasy/Reality just so you know. (Yes, almost doesn’t make sense to me either, but it sounds so nifty.) What mostly inspired me at that time were cheesy horror movies, books and the things I had happening around me in real life. I had two very close friends that I’d often go
|
|
|
 |
 |
and explore abandoned houses and other deserted or odd looking areas with; that feeling of adventure and childish will and power often inspires me today. When I was a tad older, my ambitions grew and my hottest wish was to become a game designer, obviously inspired by another passion of mine;, computer and Playstation games. He he, I was
| so sure about the fact that my “Into Fealasy” storywould be developed and published that it got mein the news and kids shows, where I’d yap abouthow I sent a mail to Squaresoft and Microsoft and that they’d make my game-design come true. Truth is that it was all day dreaming and high hopes but I was a talented kid, so I did at least have something to show for it.
3DTotal: You mention your passion for computer games. Which ones do you enjoy and what is it about them that you find appealing?
Riana: Well, I do play a lot of World Of Warcraft these days, mostly because it’s disturbingly addictive, but I also enjoy the fantasy world and monsters. (Yeah right… I like ganking alliance smocks!) My favourite games would be ‘Final Fantasy 7’, ‘Evil Twin’ and ‘Silent Hill’ 1. As you can see these are all pretty outdated games, but I never got around to getting a playstation 2 (or 3), so I got stuck playing ‘Quake 3 Arena’ and ‘WOW’ ever since the PS1 games got so hard to find. I like a little of everything in games, horror, fantasy and shoot em ups; it’s all good to me. But I feel that 99% of |
|
|
 |
 |
all games are bound tightly to money and publishers these days, compared to movies which can get to be more original and experimental. Hmm… It must be my aim to create a base for experimental games to be developed, similar to movies like ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and ‘Natural Born Killers’. Games should be able to obtain cult status and take on important subjects, like philosophy, politics and the issues we all relate to, instead of all being about pumped up action men and gay galore anime fags killing monsters to save a cheese sandwich.
3DTotal: It appears as though much of your work is a comment on the social and political ills of our society. Tell us a little about how this informs your style?
Riana: I comment a lot on the state of the world, yes, and that’s because the issues we all create are so much more complex and interesting than anything I’d ever come up with
|
|
|
| |
|
myself, and who’d give a rats ass about my issues anyhow… It’s much more interesting to get a response and start discussions about political art and it often gives me a great insight on the chase when I go to study it. The anger I feel towards some subjects is a superb inspiration and sparks ideas for metaphors and symbolism I can add into the drawings; anger really gets the best out of me! Also I feel that if I can open up just a few people’s eyes to some other facts other |
 |
 |
| |
|
than the ones the media feeds us everyday, I’ve succeeded. The media is generally so predictable, trying to sell more than tell.
3DTotal: Which artists or films do you draw upon for inspiration?
Riana: Honestly, I get most of my inspiration from music, the melody often inspires the mood and expressions and lyrics often spark ideas for the concept. If you look closely, a lot of my works are titled like songs I dig. “I’m a worker - Polysics” “someone’s in the wolf – Queens of the Stone Age” and “Tier – Rammstein”. Also I get a lot of ideas watching Cartoon Network- I’ve always been a whore for cartoons, ‘Ed, Edd and Eddy’, ‘Grim and Evil’ and ‘General Craig McCracken’ shows are some of my favourites. Not to mention ‘Simpson’s’, ‘Futurama’ and movies from the Ghibli Studio. Lately I’ve got into liking old cartoons from the 30’s, but that’s almost a fashion statement in modern art these days. Also the sharp colours and funky lines are pretty new to my art, I got inspired by the recent funk-fashion, I got so incredibly tired of gloom and darkness, life is too short for gloominess. And anyhow, what’s funnier? Some blood splattered Goth girl, or a blood splattered pink freak bunny with green polka dots? Last but not least, I claim that real life is a major inspiration; it’s really a f****d up and weird world, but so many people take it for granted and don’t realise how odd and mysterious it is. So I thank you “Animal Planet” and “Discovery Channel” for great inspiration, especially for ideas in designing new monsters.
3DTotal: Tell us a little about your colour schemes and why you work in an almost monochromatic style at times?
Riana: I always start off my images with a background colour, picked from how my mood is. This colour will often stay strong throughout the whole process, unless I get mood swings. Not much to say other than I just add lights, shadows and line after I’ve picked the colour. I think it’s a bit of a bad habit I got from working at Io-Interactive (game developer); their concept artists are always getting told that one needs to stay with the mood of the level. If a level takes place in a foggy harbour area, every illustration will be greenish grey and stay strictly with that mood whilst levels taking place in a brothel will have all pink and red concept art, just as you see in games like ‘Metal Gear Solid’ and ‘Silent Hill’ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
