Interviews/Reviews

“When you start secretly preferring a depressed person over a happy one just so you can have a purpose to stay, you realize how wrong is the place you’re standing in.”

In life, people want everything to be black and white. There should be a right and a wrong. A yes and a no. Nothing should be complicated. If only life were that simple. A OEL webcomic manga from an artist living in the Middle East touches on the ambiguity of life with “Grey is…” Using her fascination with psychology, dee Juusan shows that being complicated is something that makes us alive.

1. Tell a bit of yourself, and about how you became an  artist that you are today?

I am 25 year old girl with a an architecture degree who works as a freelance illustrator and character designer. I am a full-time (self-published soon) mangaka whose word revolves around “Grey is…”, the dream that came true.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love art. There were lots of times where I got distracted and gave priority to other things, but art was always there. The only reason I am the artist I am today is love. When you love something you don’t feel the pressure to work on it, or the need to motivate yourself or feel like you’re hard working to make it happen. It just happens, of course it is a lot of work and a big commitment but I never really felt anything but love to my art, which kept me going.

2. What inspired you to become an artist?

Reading.
Like any kid I loved drawing and I always drew and bought art supplies but what I remember most is how I used to read all the time while visualizing what I read in my head, in a cartoon kinda way. Like I remember when i first read Helen Keller and read a part where she was sitting at the porch steps with the maid’s daughter, I still have that image that I drew in my head until now, with colors and background and foreground and all (What a nerd, right? haha). That’s why I’m more of a story teller than anything else, coz reading, writing and top of all drawing is what I enjoy most. Nature, people, music, love, anime.. all that kept pushing me along the way, but what I saw in my head while reading and the need to make it in my hands is what inspired me first.

3. What are the tools you use to draw with?

Anything that is available at the time I want to draw. The tools I use most are digital; Photoshop CS5 on a Macbook Pro 17” and a Wacom Intuos3 size A4 tablet and I always have a sketchbook in my bag and one on my bedside table.

4. What is your most favorite subject to draw, And why?

Emotions and sequence pictures. I just am fascinated by emotions, expressions and feelings and I always have a story or a message to tell through my drawings. I, also, have a great love for drawing angry cute things ha ha, coz let’s face it, they make hearts melt and people happy.

5. Can you share a bit of a process in creating your artworks?

Regardless of what tool I use, visualizing is my first step for anything I want to draw. People ask me when I stream how do I draw without thumbs, guidelines or sketching the whole composition, and visualizing is how. Coz I just have the image right inside my head and all I do is copy it on canvas.

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
– Michelangelo

 There are times when I can’t visualize it right in my head so I go to the basics and either draw guidelines or draw paint the object’s shape (as a silhouette) then sketch the insides.
After that it’s all the same, sketch, linear and play around with colors with different mediums.

6. Do you have any things you can share to fellow artists?

I already mentioned love and visualizing. So the last thing I have to say is; not matter how much you think of your art, feel proud that you are an artist, coz in my opinion, no occupation is like an artist. The sky isn’t the limit for there are no limits for being artist.