By David Doub Please introduce yourself and describe your chosen Creative Medium. My name is Jennifer Nesrsta / Kieshar and my work is comics (sequential art). My creative medium really can range, depending on the project. For example, I just finished my comic called Belma and all pages were traditional watercolor pages that in turn photographed to make available digitally. My current project is a reboot of something I tried to publish many moons ago and that at the time the pages were traditionally created with ink, quill and brush. To get the pages ready digitally required scanning, cleaning and cropping. Now, I need that total time cut in half, which means it will be done as a 5 color pallet digitally illustrated comic. All cover pages and a few pages here and there (for emphasis) will be done as traditional watercolors. What got you into your Creative Medium? What schooling and experiences help lead you there? What do you do to continue to learn and improve? Watercolors: My grandmother bought me a really nice watercolor pan set when I was very young and to this day I still have it. It got me initially into color use and painting. Schooling: Since Grade school, I have attended many art schools that really cemented my foundation for design. Graduated from college with a painting and drawing degree. Most of my color theory and technique came the professors there. I did take an illustration class from a man named Jeff Haney and he changed the flow of my art completely. I had always to do gesture drawings as exercises for various drawings classes off and on and hated it. He saw something in my art. Like it was on the cusp of something and he introduced gestures to me in a different way and overnight, it changed everything. My work went from ok/ nice to all beautiful movement. I'm ALL ABOUT movement. Even my thumbnails are gestures. With all that, I was being trained to be a fine artist and show in gallery or the like. However, my love always came back to comic books. I was an illustrator at heart and didn't know it. After graduation, I decided to stop fighting and teach myself how to be a sequential artist. Easy? Absolutely not! ^_^ To learn and Improve: New skills: Learning a new media. I just recently took a Japanese woodcut class. FANTASTIC. So many steps that depend on transparency, staining, consistency, paper quality, moisture, chiseling ability, sectioning of wood blocks and brush work. A great change of pace and excellent to help with artist block too. Limitations: Limit my color pallet to force me to understand color better. The natural urge is that if you have all colors at your fingertips that you will be inclined to use all colors. Many things happen, you don't understand relationships with color, moods and all work can look like the artist next to you. Nothing wrong with that but only if you choose to. I also found limiting my research and source images improved my conceptual ability and design. Since most of my stories are completely fictional/fantasy places, I restrict my resource genre. For instance for Belma, all my landscapes were taken from crystalline structures and aztec motifs and my creatures from mostly flowers and some fruit and veggies. It forced me to reorient my mind and remove blocks that kept me from designing something usual and hopefully enchanting. What are some of your favorite works? What do enjoy about creating? What are some pet peeves? Favorite works: OMG, I love anything illustrated black and white by Collen Doran, the Silver Diamond manga series Shiho Sugiura, the Finder series by Carla Speed McNeil and all works by Charles Weiss and Scott Morris. Enjoy about creating: I love the planning part. How pieces work together and which needs to come first before the next piece can follow. This can be form the conceptual part of it, color layering and what mood and effect it is creating to the finishing out of the pages and books. Second best is conceptual work. LOVE conceptual designing from world appearance to character look. Pet peeves: I really try not to have too many at least outside my own work. We all have our path and way of doing things that make us unique and want to see, read and/or following. I do wish that people stop hammering others with their prowess and mastery of a skill where there is none. Who are some local creators who you enjoy their work or are just generally awesome people? Please explain why. Terry Moore: All around sweet guy and excellent illustrator. I admire how he stuck to his guns and started out grass roots self-published and still is today. What are some of your favorite local conventions? Can you share any particular fun memories? AnimeFest: This is a long time favorite of mine. People are so damn sweet and I have made so many friends over the years that it has come to a family reunion and less vendor venue. Fun memory: I love cosplayers and sitting at a table allows me to see a lot of them as they walk by. One in particular is 2 cosplayers that did alternate versions of Sailor Moon characters for 3 days. I just gushed over them. Last day I found 2 bracelets they made for their costume under my table sheet and a gift of thanks and I lost it. It was so neat and incredibly sweet. Comic Indie: This was the second original comic specific convention I sold my book at. I was a little hesitant because the previous one, I was not received well at all. That was not the case at all for this one and it almost brought me to tears because I was so scared that this would be how the next project would be received and now I have confidence in myself and my work. ALSO, this con is straight out amazing. Fun memory, I cussed twice in a panel that was PG. I felt so embarrassed. >.< Furry Fiesta: Shocked. I have never met people as sweet as the people that ran, sold and attended this con. Fun memory: received a flower from a furry I took a picture of. She was beautiful. What do you look forward to for Women of Wonder Con? What do you hope people can take away from Women of Wonder Convention? I have no preconceived thoughts to be honest. First time and excited to experience this con. https://kieshar.com/ https://www.instagram.com/kieshareme/?hl=en The Dallas Public Library hosts the 3rd annual Women of Wonder Con on Saturday, March 7th at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library from 10am to 5pm!
Press coverage about WOW Con 2019: http://kabooooom.com/2019/03/women-of-wonder-con-2019-report/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjXshtdnTEY https://dallaslibrary.librarymarket.com/events/women-wonder-con-2019 More information about Women of Wonder Convention can be found at: http://www.womenofwondercon.com https://www.facebook.com/WomenOfWonderCon |
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