Interview with DeGodson

- Hey, welcome to the Revinterview mate!
Thank you very much for the opportunity.

- Can you tell us a bit more about who you are?
I'm just an ordinary University undergraduate studying 3D Animation in England. 20 years of age, I was brought up in Milan, Italy, but moved to England to continue my studies.

- So, when did you started large art?
I started large art in September 2007, during a gap year from University. This started after a friend of mine  introduced me to devianART.com. Joining deviantART simply inspired and activated my artistic brain cells. Seeing what people could do with Photoshop or all other software really inspired me to give it ago, and started off doing large image manipulations about once a day. That's about how hooked I was on Photoshop, and the sight of a new MacBook at the time also made it hard for me to get off it.

- And before large art, did you tried any small art?
I never tried small art before large art. I jumped straight forward into large art as that was what many of the artists who inspired me from initially joining deviantART did. As you may know, small art is hardly visible on deviantART so it's by that reason why I didn't know about it.

I however eventually did become aware of it but never tried or gave it a go.

- Which tool do you use the most of the time on photoshop?
My most used tool in Photoshop is the Pen tool. I use it for everything. From getting my shapes the way i want them, to cutting out images or selecting hard-to-get areas.

It's about the most perfect and best tool in Photoshop by far in my opinion.

- What is your design process? How do you approach a personal piece?
My design process... hmm, it would be a bit hard to explain in words my design process, but overall, i think it's something personal for every artist. Hopefully, by telling you more of my approach to a personal piece will give you more information about my design process.

Before I start a personal piece, I definitely need to have a design idea or an inspiration. Design idea comes in many ways, sometime I get ideas whilst at work, or walking somewhere or listening to music. I try not to force myself to come up with a design idea as its very hard to get the perfect idea by forcefully doing so. I prefer the mind to do its thing.
Sometimes, it would normally be from a concept that i may have come with or something already existent.

Once I'm up with an idea, i tend to visualize how I would want it and see if i'll be able to fulfill the perfect picture created in my mind. Most of the times, the best ideas and visuals go through my mind but something makes it impossible to achieve.
I normally start off with just the idea or concept. I do not plan which colors I'll be using or how I'm going to go about working on the design.. these normally come naturally.
I normally work on my piece on separate days. I normally get to a stage where i'm completely out of ideas, I simply save and close my design for a day or the next time i have time or feel like going back to it. Sometimes it's left for a few days and suddenly a great idea pops into my head, which makes me excited to give it a try, this makes me go back to the design with a new and fresh mind to visualize and come up with new ideas.

As all artists know, the more you look at a piece, the more you get used to it, so normally, its best to take time off it for greater ideas to pop into your head.

- What is your favorite artwork of yourself and why?
My favorite artwork would probably be my Sexy Beast image manipulation piece. ( degodson.deviantart.com/art/Se… )
It's one of my favorites because it's a very simple but yet, an elegant piece. The colors in it are very lively and pretty much flow together to make the piece worth looking at.

- And your works, is it just one style or are you switching to styles during the time?
Currently, I'm solely based on one style. That consists mainly on vector works all done in Photoshop.

- Where do you get your inspiration from? Any favourite artists or designers that give you inspiration?
Inspiration is limitless in my opinion. I do however have favorite artists, but they don't have anything to do with my style. I simply love their works and they inspire me. My favorite artists vary from digital painters, image manipulators, vector artists, 3d artists and Photographers. I love digital painting a lot as it's fascinating to see the talent behind them and how beautifully they are created in detail. As a 3D Undergraduate student myself, I really admire 3D Artists a lot as I know what being a 3D Artist requires.

- How long does it take to create a single piece in your situation?
A single piece from me could take some days if not a week. Overall, I could say 5 hours or a bit  more worked on a single piece. The reason for this is because I don't work on a piece and complete it in a single day. I like to start off, get to a certain point where either I'm stuck with ideas, or chose to continue later with a fresh mind. This goes on for days until i feel I'm satisfied with the piece and feels done.

- And you have your own site right? Tell us a bit more about it..
Yes I do. My website, degodson.com is simply an online portfolio showcasing all my works from 2D, 3D and Photography. Then again, I run digitalflow.org as well. DigitialFlow however, is an International Art Community founded in August 2008. More and appropriate information can be found on the website.

- Do you have any projects going on or coming up?
Projects, currently not. I will however be doing something for DigitalFlow's next Art Pack , so that's something I'm thinking about.

- Where can people find you on the web?
I can be found on DigitalFlow.org and on my deviantART degodson.deviantart.com

- Thanks very much for doing this interview bro, any final words?
Yeah, thank you for this opportunity.