Another week, and once again we have another really cool artist to showcase, the very talented Nicole Brune has stopped by to have a chat and let us torture her with a few questions!
Nicole Brune has been drawing and painting professionally for a good few years, and says she 'loves every minute of it'! As can been seen from her work, she specialises in drawing and painting beautiful women with, as she puts it, a touch of fantasy.
She started young, inspired by Walt Disney's Peter Pan, a film she would watch over and over loving the fairies and mermaids, wanting to be able to recreate those beautiful images.
Nicole says she 'Constantly wants to create beautiful images that inspire other people', and I took this as my cue for the interview!
I love your Alice in Wonderland Series where do you get your ideas and inspirations from?
"Thank you very much! I have always been a big lover of all things fantasy. I grew up on fairy tales and as I got older I started reading comic books. All of this has lead to my mind being filled with images and ideas. Every once in a while something reminds me of one of those images or ideas and then I just have to paint it. It was like that for the Wonderland series. I started it before the latest movie was announced. It was just something that I had wanted to do for a while."
I noticed from your site you often have a video of work in progress giving a little incite into how you create your work – any plans to make a full tutorial on say how to draw your own pinups etc. or other such guides?
"Absolutely! I just have to find the time. I am planning on releasing a step by step of the painting I am currently working on. I can’t say at the moment who it is because I want to keep it a surprise for when it is complete!"
Which medium do you best prefer to work with oils, water colours, inks etc?
"I love my oils. I am working on an oil painting right now. I think I prefer them even more because they allow me to play with them longer before they dry. Gives me more room to blend and get the effects that I want."
There are so many great artists out there today and the boundaries keep being pushed further and further, it seems very acceptable these days for comics to depict a lot more violence and sex – do you think that’s been a natural progression or just plain – that’s what sells today?
“I think it’s both. But I think it has been pushed a bit more then it should. When you shock people, it sells more. It gets spread more because people want to share what shocked them. I would rather get people’s attention with quality then just straight nudity or violence. In my work, I go for sexy, not slutty. I want my work to be able to be hung up in people’s homes without them worrying about who will come over. I know there are people that buy the more risqué art, but then they hide them in a drawer or a book and don’t bring them out.”
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start out in comic art? Any advice on what type of drawing tools should they be using etc.?
“The tools are different for each person’s style. That is something that they will have to discover on their own. For me personally, I use Prismacolor Turqoise pencils in H HB B and 3B. For my paintings, I use a lot of Windsor Newton and Grumbacher oil paints. I am also starting to use Holbein paints as well. My brushes are a wide range. I don’t really look at the brand, I go by the feel of them and the bristles. And I always paint on Hot Press Illustration board. I love the smoothness of the Hot Press. I never paint on canvas. I prefer to have the texture in the painting be what I lay down with my paints.
As for getting into it, well, I would say get a lot of work together and start doing conventions. Get yourself on websites like Facebook and Deviant Art and any of the other social networking sites and promote yourself. Develop a fanbase and move on from there.”
….and of course always time for the random fun ones!
What’s your favourite comic? "I love the X-Men. Wolverine and Rogue are my favourite characters!"
Do you own a pair of pink bunny eared slipper? "No, my slippers are Eeyore. :)"
What type of music do you like to listen too? "When I paint, I am usually listening to my ABBA station on Pandora. I like listening to happy music. I love oldies from the 50’s and 60’s."
What’s your favourite movie? "At the moment, I could just sit and watch The Avengers over and over and over again."
If you were a cartoon character what or who would you is? "I would have to go with my favourite character, I would love to be Rogue….but with the ability to control her powers. I actually have a custom made Rogue outfit. It’s the classic yellow and green combo with the brown jacket. I love that outfit!"
USEFUL LINKS
Website: http://www.nicolebrune.com/
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