We See ItMagazine

{Vol. 3} Seasons Greetingsfrom We See It x

We See ItGreetings

Image: Evita Weed

December is here which means We See It’s third volume is published! We want to thank you all for your continued support, without all of

you talented artists and avid readers, we wouldn’t have such colourful is-sues abundant with emotion, creativity and splendour! Since the release of the first issue, we have be inundated with email’s from creatives all over the world. We want to continue into 2012 bringing you the best of the best in unseen creative talent from across the globe!

As you know by now, we are the connoisseurs of talent spotting and are so excited to share the outstanding talent we have discovered, all rounded up and presented to you in pretty package called We See It.

We believe that behind every Artist and Creative, there is a tale to tell, an individual life being led, an eager heart and a predicatively fascinating creative process. As well as seeing and appreciating their work and skills, we want to bring you a little closer to these talented beings by introducing you to them and their world of work. We also think that every artistically fruitful individual should have the chance to showcase their work to the world and for them to be truly appreciated.

We See It strive to bring you the brightest independent artists from around the world, and compact them and their work into one totally tasty piece of reading. We hope you see the beauty & talent, because We See It !

Seasons Greetings from We See It x

We See It

Cover Shot: Polina Brz

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Illustrator: Peony Yip

Sweet Fall Editorial

Photographer: Olga Valeska

Photographer: Polina Brzhezinskaya

Photographer: Douglas Herbert

Vampire Story Editorial

Artist: Ruby & Wolf

Photographer: Paul Doherty

Artist: Gina Hartican

I’m No Petal Editorial

Photographer: Normen Gadiel

The Exhibition: Dejana Batalovic

Photographic Artist: Beata Rydén

Photographic Works: Evita Weed

Contents & Contributors

Peony Yip

Peony Yip is a 21 year old artist from hong Kong. Her work con-sists of a mix of beautiful intriguing sketches and drawings to

computer generated Graphic Design pieces. Her work is delicate and emo-tional but also has a strong design influence and seems raw with feeling.

WSI : Have you always been into Illustration?? how did it all start for you?

PY: I’ve always been into art, that’s for sure, and I guess I’m not here to tell you how it has been my passion since I was a little girl. All I knew was, I knew nothing better so I just drew and drew. I have not taken it seriously until 4 years back, when I started college majoring in Graphic Design.

I did not get to do much illustrating or drawing but I did get to be around some very inspiring people and it motivated me to want to do more than just “graphic design”. So, I started drawing whenever I got the chance to and who knew that I would be the one inspiring other people now.

WSI : What mediums do you use? Illustrator/computer, pencils, paint?

PY: For traditional artwork, I usually use recycled paper, pencils, ball point pens, watercolors. For digital artwork, I pretty much just use Photoshop.

WSI : Are your portraits based on real people or people you dream up?

PY : They’re based on reference photos, I’m not good at coming up with dif-ferent faces every time but the ideas and executions are all from my crazy head.

WSI : Using Facebook and blogging - has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

PY : Yes, it definitely has. Without social networks I don’t think I’d be here doing this interview or how I will ever show my art to anyone. I’m not very forward with my artwork in person, I wouldn’t bring it up if someone didn’t ask, and I’m never really good with words.

All these blogs and social networks has helped me get to where I am with all the motivation and the fact that I also motivate people to draw, it feels fantastic! I never thought people would be following and reblogging my artwork through blogs, or that I’d get e-mails being asked to be featured somewhere. Maybe it isn’t opening my own gallery but I feel like that, and I really really appreciate everyone who has taken their time to look,comment and follow my art.

WSI : Where would you like to go with your work in the next few years?

PY : I’d like to be able to get clients, maybe do some illustrations in a spread for some magazines, posters, album covers etc. I can’t really predict where I’m going as I’m still out of a job and I don’t think the Hong Kong indus-tries take any liking to what my styles are. I do hope I get enough money to move to the U.S. then, ROADTRIP!

WSI : We absolutely love your work entitled ‘Dear Deer Dare’ - tell us a little about this collection..

PY : Oh! That little collection, there isn’t much of a story other than I have an obsession with animals, so I did that series with people and their animal masks on them. I think I’d like it better if we all had animal heads, then we wouldn’t have to make as much fuss as we do about our appearances.

WSI : You convey a lot of emotion in your portraits, we love their simple beauty, Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

PY : Thank you! To be honest, I never realized there was actually emotions coming out of my drawings until someone mentioned it to me and I real-ized it was true, I’m portraying emotions. Maybe not mine, but I’d like peo-ple to think there is a story somewhere. People don’t always show emotions or like to talk about it and I think that’s where my creativity comes from, like saying something someone doesn’t want to say.

WSI : Finally - Do you have any advise you would share with someone hoping to break into the art world/ study art or even just getting their pieces out there?

PY : I’ve told a couple of my friends that they need PATIENCE. If you’re in it to just get well-known then it’s not for you. You need to practice, endless-ly, as I still do now because you will never ever stop learning and you will never stop improving. There are days you’re going to be mad and nothing goes right, or when you see people’s works better than yours and you lose all interests. Take a break, and then get off your butt butts and do it again! AND to get your stuff out there, share it on any social networks you have. Tumblr is a good place and so is Flickr!

Visit Peony!www.thewhitedeers.tumblr.com/

www.facebook.com/pages/The-White-Deer/262131493808869www.flickr.com/photos/weirdsimplicity/

Sweet Fall

Model : Katheleen @ WilhelminaMakeup Artist : Courtney RiveraPhotographer : Diana Santisteban

Olga Valeska, is a 20 year old Pho-tographer from France. She’s al-

ways been interested by arts in general and has always felt the need to express herself and her universe. She did so through writing, drawing, painting and sculpture. Eventually when she discovered photography, only one year ago, She realized how it was full of possibility and also a way to bring together all these passions.

WSI : Your photos have a certain charming fairy tale like feel about them, Is there any-thing in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

OV : My imagination is always overactive, per-haps a little bit too much. Sometimes some ideas, some pictures appears to me without knowing how. It belongs to the domain of un-conscious. My inspirations are subordinate to my aspirations, my existential questions,and my work always stay influenced by mysticism, philosophy, and by all the metaphysical ques-tions.

WSI : Whats been your greatest photography achievement so far?

OV : I think it has not happened yet. I still have a lot of things to discover, to learn. I seems to me that I pursue something without knowing exactly what it is, and certainly I will pursue it

the whole life without ever being able to reach it. But it is this research itself which is interest-ing.

WSI : What (if anything) have you learned about yourself through photography?

OV : I realize that photography teaches me a lot about myself, mainly also because most of my pictures are self-portraits. Photography al-lows me to refine my tastes, to assert myself, but above all it’s also a way to forgot myself, to channel my imagination and also to be more simple, more comfortable in the reality.

WSI : Do you have advice for any newbies who may be thinking of getting into photog-raphy?

OV: I don’t know if i can give advice, but, as far as I’m concerned, I really think that you must feel the need to express yourself, without pay-ing attention of critical. Because, it’s a need, al-most frenetic. If you don’t feel this need, If you make photography without this part of sensi-bility, or just for trying to copy the other artists, you will never be satisfied.For me photography is an introspection and a personal work because it raises the question of what we like or not, what we are able to do, what we want to discuss. Photography is truly a way to find yourself.

Olga Valeska

Portraits interest me because it is a way to discover the human soul, the unconscious..

WSI : Using Flickr, DeviantArt, Facebook, tumblr etc, has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

OV : Certainly, because It’s a way to make themselves known and also a way to discover the work of other artists. These social networks give a chance for everyone and promote the hidden talents. This is a good aspect of Internet.

WSI : Your work focuses on portraits. Why do you think people are so drawn to portraiture?

OV : Portraits interest me because it is a way to discover the human soul, the unconscious, and this is a subject that I want and that I love to explore above all. But paradoxically, this is not what I prefer. Actually, I love rather the vast landscapes, which reduces man to his smallness. If I concentrate for now on the portraits, it’s more a lack of money: later, I really would create larger projects.

WSI : What image of yours, so far is your favourite? Why?

OV : All the pictures are different parts of me and constitute a portrait of me, all are representative, so I can’t choose. But, perhaps “Muses et chimères”, that I made recently. It has created in a strange circumstance, based on im-provisation!

WSI : Where do you see yourself and your working going in the future?

OV : Frankly, I don’t know yet. The future seems to me quite blurred, and my artistic process is so intuitive, instinctive, that I can’t know now what will be my next inspiration. It depends on my mood, which is very unpredictable!

Visit Olgawww.facebook.com/olgavaleska.photos

www.olgavaleska.blogspot.com

www.olgavaleska.carbonmade.com

PolinaBrzBrzhezinskaya

Polina is a 21 year old student majoring in journalism from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Her full name is Polina Brzhez-

inskaya but she explains that every time she introduces herself to people, she hears something like “challenge accepted” and they at-tempt to spell it. That’s why shes better known as Polina Brz. Polina states that “Taking photos for me is a hobby on level with deep interest in postmodern literature, calligraphy and newspaper design. Now I’m currently involved in several photography projects hoping it’ll take me further into the industry.”

WSI : We love your photography!! how did your journey into photography start?

PB: I started in 2010 when I was working part-time for a newspaper and been asked to write a column on modern art. I roamed many photo sites that night and for sure discovered flickr-famous artists. To be honest I’d never had a camera before and wasn’t interested in capturing anything but it was such a great flow of inspiration I couldn’t resist.The next day I borrowed my dad’s camera, installed photoshop and asked my classmate to pose. Unfortunately for a while I haven’t had enough time to shoot even once a month. I finished my time-con-suming study projects and now I’m really glad I’m able to make so much time to indulge my photographic passion.

WSI : How long do you typically spend editing/photoshopping a photograph?

PB : It depends. Sometimes it takes me a minute. Some portraits are really laborious and I spend about half an hour on each. But if I edit one image more than 30 minutes my enthusiasm ran away with it and this photograph most likely turns a nightmare. WSI : how long does each image take to make? from idea to shooting to editing?

PB : I always have many unrealized ideas for photoshots and I’m in permanent searching for locations, people and stuff. In case I find everything I’ve mentioned and the future picture become clear in my mind I will call a model immediately and try to arrange a shoot as soon as possible. And after a great day of shooting I can’t con-trol myself and can spend a sleepless night in frond of a computer screen.

WSI : Did you learn photo editing in school or did you teach yourself? Have you any tips for readers about the editing process?

PB : I’m self-taught and every day I find myself trying and learning something new. The only guidance worked for me when I just started to explore layouts capabilities, curves and masks was not to be afraid of experiments and spoiling images and of course to practice a lot to create your own way of editing.

WSI : Whats your kit? Camera, lens etc?

PB : All my pictures were taken with Canon eos 5d and 50mm 1.4 lens and I really recommend this kit to everyone who asked me to give a piece of advice.

WSI : Has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

PB : Social networks are the main channel between me and the people from all over the world who appreciates what I’m doing. A positive feedback is a great motivation for taking more and more photographs. Also if Flickr hadn’t ex-isted at all (just imagine) I would never have followed all artists who inspired me to start a journey into photography. The idea of following artists you like on the internet is great — in fact, the only thing I dislike about social networks is the fact that it wasn’t my idea to set it up.

WSI : You use freelensing in your work, can you tell the readers a little about it?

PB : It’s the cheapest way to add a tilt-shift effect to your picture without edit-ing. I cried my heart out without a special lens or at least an adaptor but once I decided to separate my camera and my 50mm lens and imitate this breath-taking effect in literal sense manually. It took me a while to get accustomed to hold my camera and lens separately in one hand and to click a shutter with the other hand.

WSI : Do you have advice for any newbies who may be thinking of getting into photography?

PB : If you think photography is the only medium for your creativity nothing will stop you except the laziness. That’s why the main advice I could give would be to practice a lot.

WSI : Polina, Thank you so much for being and interviewee for We See It, One last question, where do you see yourself and your working going in the future?

PB : In the nearest future I see myself sleeping. Seriously talking I’m going to finish preparations for a personal exhibition and I would love to be working in the fashion industry. Also I see myself doing a lot of travelling as I continue to seek inspirations and experiences.

Visit Polinawww.500px.com/ooh-julsy

www.flickr.com/photos/oohjulsy/

Douglas Herbert

Douglas Herbert is a 21 year old Engineering student in Glas-gow, Scotland. He often thinks he was born in the wrong dec-

ade as he has a great love and admiration for all things from the 70s – he even drives a VW Camper Van! “My party piece is I can smile and whistle at the same time – try it, you’ll struggle!” - he states proudly.

WSI: How did your journey into photography start? 

DH: Throughout high school I really liked the idea of getting into photog-raphy but unfortunately the cost of decent equipment was fairly prohibi-tive. I thought I’d put it on the backburner until such time as I had a decent job and in the meantime just make do with my point-and-shoot. However, last Christmas my fantastic parents bought me my DSLR and since then I’ve not really put it down, taking over 15,000 photos in just ten months! Now I’m slowly saving up and buying things like new lenses bit by bit.

WSI : Your photos focus on architecture, shapes, light and composition. What draws you to these things?  

DH: Usually, my camera follows me around wherever I go so whatever I am photographing is simply whatever I have stumbled across that catches my eye. Sometimes it’s the interesting way something is lit; sometimes it’s something abstract or symmetrical in a structure; sometimes it’s part of the awesome beauty of God’s creation; and sometimes it’s just me having a bit of fun with my camera. I would say portraiture is not my strong point and the majority of my photos are inanimate, scenes or landscapes.Being an engineer, we are often accused of only being concerned with an object’s function with no regard to its aesthetic? I would disagree entirely, as would Gustave Eiffel who was quoted to say about his tower:

“Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren’t the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony? Besides, there is an attraction, a special charm in the colossal to which ordinary theories of art do not apply.”

WSI: What image of yours, so far is your fa-vourite? Why? 

DH: I love the image of my VW bus taken at night – partly for the look of it and partly be-cause of the story behind it.

Last summer, one of my best friends and I went to the Ymuno Festival in North Wales in my bus. It is a tiny, grassroots festival with music billed as been somewhere between folk and funk. It had an awesome vibe and with only a few hundred people there it had a very chilled out atmosphere. All the artists were incredibly talented – and there are not many festivals nowadays where you can listen to the music while sitting on a haybale in front of a fire just five metres from the stage! Nor many where you have a BBQ breakfast included eve-ry morning. You should definitely check it out!

Over the weekend I took hundreds of photos until my memory card was almost entirely full and my battery nearly dead. On the last night I had just enough juice and memory for maybe five photos. The sky was fairly clear and cov-ered in stars so my friend and I quickly set up my tripod in front of my bus, opened the shut-ter and ‘painted’ it with my head torch – hop-ing my camera would hold out long enough! The result turned out better than I’d hoped but there was no life left in my camera for another take.

WSI: We agree! Its an wonderful image with a great story behind it! Tell us, what (if an-ything) have you learned about yourself through photography? 

DH: Other than being musical, I would never have described myself as particularly creative before entering into photography. I could ap-

preciate art but I always thought I was hopeless at creating it. Perhaps now I have found a crea-tive outlet that suits me. WSI: Did you learn photo editing in school or did you teach yourself? Have you any tips for readers about the editing process? 

DH: Anything I have learned I have taught myself – however as I’m sure you’ll be able to tell I am still learning. As for giving some ad-vice, it is often the case that less is more. I am still learning this myself so that may be slightly hypocritical of me. The post-processing should add to the photo without becoming the focus. I would also say that is helpful to look around at other people’s work for inspiration – such as the other contributors to We See It – and even ask them how they do certain things.

WSI: Using Flickr, DeviantArt, Facebook, tumblr etc, has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How? 

DH: Flickr is my main online photographic base and it’s great for simply sharing, gaining inspiration and having fun. It makes it really easy for you to get your images seen and ap-preciated as well as being able to see other peo-ple’s styles.

WSI: Whats your kit? Camera, lens’, flash etc? 

DH: I have a Canon EOS 550D which, in my opinion is a great camera. I’m slowly expand-ing my equipment inventory with the incred-ibly priced 50mm f1.8 lens and a 70-300mm zoom I bought from a friend’s dad. I also have a handful of old manual FD mount prime lens-es with adaptors which I got for a song on ebay and are great fun for just messing around on.

if you love what you’re doing then that’s all that matters.

if you love what you’re doing then that’s all that matters.

WSI: Do you have advice for any newbies who may be thinking of getting into photography? 

DH: Always make sure you’re having fun and enjoying it! The word amateur comes from the Latin for ‘lover of ’ so make that your aim. Don’t worry about what people may think of your photos or how “good” you think they are – if you love what you’re doing then that’s all that matters.

The other piece of advice was given to me by a good friend of mine who is a pro-fessional photojournalist. Too many photographers are overly concerned with the flat, 2D visual impression of their photos. What makes it into a good photo is what it makes you feel. If you can capture the sense of that feeling in your images and portray that to the viewer, then you will have improved as photographer. It’s not easy capturing this third dimension and I am still a long way off achieving this in my own images!

WSI: Where do you see yourself and your working going in the future? 

DH: In all honestly I have absolutely no idea. However, my camera will continue to follow me around and I’m sure I’ll have many thousands more photos to break my hard-drive!

Visit Douglas! www.flickr.com/douglas_herbert

Vampire Story

Anna Pozarycka’s

Photography and retouch: Anna Pozarycka (http://www.facebook.com/annapozaryckafotografia)Models: Joanna Kalisz & Wojciech Dobropolski

Make Up by Joanna Kalisz

Ruby May Scanlon is a twenty one year old artist who grew up in a little town called Kempsey on the Mid-North-Coast of Australia. She is currently based in Can-berra and spends her days drawing little whimsical pictures of ladies and swell

animals under my label Ruby&Wolf.

WSI: We love your work, its quirky and intriguing, have you always been into Illustra-tion?? How did it all start for you?  

R&W: Thank you very much. It is a bit quirky isn’t it? I grew up with a wonderfully crea-tive family so I guess from the beginning, as corny as it sounds, I was destined to work in some sort of creative medium. I have always drawn (though initial drawings were all sorts of terrible!) But it was not really till High School that I developed a real Passion for it. I then went on to study a Bachelor degree majoring in Graphic Design and Illustration at Charles Sturt University, which was wonderful!My teachers really helped me find my technique and I was constantly surrounded by my amazing, talented classmates and friends who constantly keep me inspired and moti-vated. My older brother is also a magnificent artist and he has been a big inspiration for me to.

WSI: You convey a lot of emotion in your portraits, we love their simple beauty,  Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist? 

R&W: Oh golly! Just all sorts of things. I think its extremely important for artists to be constantly motivated & Inspired. And these days there is just so much beauty and creativity everywhere its incredible! My creativity fuel is music. I try to buy as many cd’s as I can and just listen. Music has the strangest ability to change a person’s mood and thoughts almost instantly and I am always finding that my works reflect whatever music I have been listening to, which ranges from Heavy-rock to alternative folksy tunes, to really beautiful, nordic and almost melancholy music. And my illustrations always seem to convey that sort of whimsical, odd beauty. This is also why I name my pieces after the songs that seem to have influenced them the most! 

Ruby&Wolf

WSI: How does your creative process work.. does it take a long time from start to finish on a piece? Do you get artist block, if so, how do you combat it? 

R&W: I think we all get Artist block at some stage, don’t we! Some days I will wake up and just not feel like drawing, it is as simple as that. Then I proceed to distract myself from the guilt of not drawing, by playing outside and hunting for old typewriters in little antique shops. This can be frustrating especially when doing commission pieces that have a deadline! When this happens, you really just need to have self-control. I will tell myself to stop whatever i am doing, gather my drawing utensils, brew a pot of delicious peach tea, turn up some lovingly sweet music, take a quick peak at my folder of art inspiration, get an idea in my head and then just go for it!Usually an A4 illustration will only take a couple of days, any bigger may be up to 1-2 weeks. But it all depends on what the art is for really, if its for a Client I will do it as quickly as I possibly can, if it’s just for me..i take my sweet time.

WSI: Using Facebook and blogging - has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How? R&W: Oh definately! I think its quite foolish now for people to pretend that by using social networks your ‘selling your soul’ or ‘losing your artistic integrity’, especially in this day and age. It is not a case of that at all.

Social networking is such a smart, simple and ef-fective way for someone to display their talents to a really broad audience. It is great if you just want to receive feedback, sell artworks or start a website and gather clients. AND ITS FREE!

Facebook, tumblr, deviantart and Redbubble have been so very kind to me, I have sold many artworks and have got my Label out there in the crazy ol’ world of the web and have received such gracious compliments and nice words, won on-line art competitions, gathered followers of my art and even got the opportunity to be inter-viewed in this lovely little online magazine!

WSI: Where would you like to go with your work in the next few years? 

R&W: There are so many wonderful things I want to do with my art. I want to keep selling works to people because it puts a smile on my face to see my little drawings go to such lovely homes with lovely people. And I definitely want to start some collaboration works with my talented friends! so much talent! it is ridiculous!I want to keep travelling every year too, travel-ling is a great way to get some fresh perspective on art and get inspired. But I would love to work for an art magazine like Frankie or YEN, which are just brilliant, or even just have an artwork pasted on their pages would be incredible! Other then these ideas, basically I shall just keep draw-ing and keep getting my work out there and then just take each day as it comes. 

WSI: What mediums do you use? pencils, paint?  

R&W: All my illustrations begin as pencil sketch-es by hand. I then go over them with 0.005 (su-per dooper fine) pigment liners and then either colour by hand using water pencils, chalk pen-cils and coffee staining. Or I colour with photo-shop. But I always prefer to do drawings with my hands, it just feels so much nicer and makes the illustration more personal I think.

WSI: We love the ‘Calm Down Dearest’ set -  tell us a little about this collection.

R&W: Oh! thank you ever so much. I am quite fond of this little collection too! ‘Calm down Dearest’, is actually a song from a brilliant English lad named Jamie T, who makes me swoon. This collection is basically a series of works focusing on the female form in both people and animals.So It is very feminine, lots of patterns and feathers and soft skin tones but contrasted with rather bold striking colours and strong textures. It is an ongoing project but it is quite special to me.  

WSI: Finally - Do you have any advise you would share with someone hoping to break into the art world/ study art or even just getting their pieces out there?  

R&W: All I can say is that if this is what you really want to do. Then go for it. You really need to have a great deal of passion for art, as well as patience and determination. It can be difficult to get your work noticed at first and I found it really hard to work out my technique and style (It took Years!) but once I did, I just kept making more and more works. You can not be discouraged if your work isn’t recognised instantly.

It takes time. Selling your art or giving works as presents to friends and family is always a great way to start. Creating a website or progressive art blog with your works on it is also a wonderful way to get your art noticed at a larger scale. Enter art competitions, sell art at markets and just do whatever you can to get your name out in the world. Be yourself, be un-qiue and be passionate. And just keep drawing all you creative lads and lasses out there!

Visit Ruby&Wolfwww. rubyandwolf.tumblr.com

www. rubywolf.carbonmade.com/www.facebook.com/pages/RubyWolf/148723428514070?ref=ts

Paul Doherty

Paul is a 22 year old photographer from Donegal, Ireland. He shoots Wed-dings, Portraits, Fashion and Landscapes. “Im my own worst critic and Im always pushing myself to take my photography further and further.”

WSI: How did your journey into Photography start? You do lots of differ-ent types of Photography, tell us about that…

PD: Well I developed an interest into Photography from a young age, I can remember the day my father, who is a wedding Photographer, decided to buy a digital camera as he had heard great things about them but hadn’t a clue how to work it so the day it arrived, i was only about 13, I got the Canon EOS 20D and started messing with it. I started taking pictures and loading them up on the computer and messing with them to see what I could do. At this stage I began going to weddings with dad and I was a second shooter for him, back then he was still using film camera’s and taking on average 90 photos per wed-ding whereas now I take around 1500! 

I do try my hand at a lot of different types of photography mainly because when I finished school I just wanted to work and make money so I was tak-ing on any job I could get my hands on and in rural Ireland people consider a Photographer to be someone who takes pictures so I was asked to do all sorts of jobs from Hotel Advertising Photos to School Portraits. I read a lot of Photography magazines too and I like to challenge myself with anything I can think on. If anyone see’s me day dreaming I’m usually thinking about lighting set-ups and how I would go about taking different photos - boring I know!

WSI: What (if anything) have you learned about yourself through photog-raphy?

PD: Learned about myself? I suppose it would be that anything is possible if you are willing to do the work, what I mean is that a few years ago if someone had of said to me to put the camera to f.8 I would have looked at them as if they had 2 heads on them! I have spent a lot of time learning about the cam-era, lighting, editing etc. What I do is set myself deadlines for example back in May of this year I wanted to get my work published by January 2012 and my images have been selected for 2 books and 3 magazines so I managed to make the deadline...  Thats how I push myself to become better and there’s lots more deadlines to come before I will be happy with where Im at. 

WSI: Did you learn Photo editing in school or did you teach yourself? Have you any tips for readers about the editing process?

PD: Since I was 13 I spent years teaching myself Photoshop by trial and error and finding new tools to change different things in photos. From when I was about 14 I was doing the Photoshop-ping and editing for all of my Dad’s Weddings which, by spending so much time on it, made me relatively good at it until I, reluctantly at first, attended a seminar of a guy that was supposed to be a “Photoshop Guru”, this opened up my eyes to a whole new level of editing. Since then I spend around 1/3 of the time editing and have doubled or tripled the quality of my pictures.

It is all done through using channels and masks in photoshop so if there are any photographers who are learning photoshop forget everything you learn in magazines and just know all about layers, channels and masks and they are easier to work than they look.

WSI: Has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

PD: Yes, very much so. I have a Facebook page which has over 1100 fans and I have a Twitter account with around 400 followers. My Face-book page in particular has brought in lots of work for me mainly because it allows people to see the work that I do and the quality of it. I simply update it when I take a photo I really like and see the reaction it generates which is usually good. I don’t go on Twitter as much as I should and everyone is telling me to start blog-ging - something I thought I would never do but I am considering it.

WSI: Where do you see yourself and your work going in the future?

PD: Ok as I was saying earlier I set myself dead-lines! And my one deadline that I am deter-

mined to meet and is probably one of the most difficult things in the world for a photographer to achieve is to have an editorial in Italian Vogue by the time I’m 30 so I have 7 and 1/2 years to get there…  fingers crossed!

So this is where I hope I am going and if I got there I wonder if I will be content with my dead-lines or will I want more and more! I have a few other things that I am hoping to do for example I would love to photograph the Northern Lights and I love photographing cars in a different way to the standard car brochure photos (one of my photos actually won bronze in an international competition, which was very exciting!)

WSI: Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

PD: I spend a lot of time looking at photos in magazines and other photographers work. I am subscribed to Italian Vogue, probably the only man in Ireland who is subscribed to it but I like to look at images and try to figure out the light-ing set up. I wouldn’t say there is one photog-rapher who really stands out to me, but there are a few amazing ones like Mario Testino for example - I don’t think he knows how to take a bad picture!

With my scenery photos I like to find a location and figure out where the sun will be at dusk/dawn and if it suits I will come back when I know there will be a good sunset and take the picture I have in my head…  with a bit of luck!

This magazine is great for fuelling your creativ-ity because it has so many upcoming artists with different styles and sometimes I look at them and like one part of one picture and something else of another and think how can I combine those to to suit my style, and after all ‘the differ-ence between style and fashion is quality’ - Geor-gio Armani.

WSI: Finally Paul, do you have any advice for newbies who may be thinking on getting into photography? 

PD: Go for it…  there are so many people out there who are good photog-raphers but don’t have the confidence to start up on their own, I say try it and see how it go’s, you will need to do quite a bit of work for free until you have pictures for your portfolio that will bring paying clients in and they can be hard to come across with the state of the global economy and if, after a few months, the paid work isn’t coming in well its not for you but if you are nice to the people you are working with and leave an im-pression on them they will go on to talk about you and recommend you.

My girlfriend, Mairead, bought me a book when I was learning about the camera and I would recommend anyone starting to either get an other half who will buy it for you or go buy it yourself! Its by Tom Ang - Digital Introduction… it really simplifies the maths behind the picture.

Wedding Photography is where most people start but these days there are many brides to be who are thinking about getting ‘Uncle Bob’ to pho-tograph their wedding because they have a top of the range camera but what I would say to these people is ‘if I went out and bought a top of the range pair of scissors would you let me cut your hair for the wedding!?’, its the same principal. 

With weddings there is work out there if you are offering a good qual-ity service and the reason I am saying service and not album is because a wedding day can be a very stressful day for people and they will relax more if they have someone with them every step of the way (photogra-pher) who knows weddings inside out. I always try to reassure brides even if things are going terribly wrong! Its the same no matter what you are working on, with a fashion shoot for example if it was supposed to be outside in the sun and it turns out to be a wet day I always reassure the clients telling them that the light coming through the windows when it rains is amazing - any of my past clients reading this, that particular day did make the light amazing inside ;)

But basically the main advice i would give to people starting out is to keep it simple, the single most important thing is that the picture turns out and the 2nd most important thing is that it is awesome so take the standard photo and then take the awesome photo! Also remember that there will be people out there who don’t like your work, this doesn’t mean you are a bad Photographer, it is just their opinion - don’t let it get you down.

Visit Paulwww.facebook.com/dohertyphoto

www.PaulDohertyPhotography.com/

Gina Hartican is a twenty year old artist from Aus-tralia. She has been living ‘out of a suitcase’ for the

past few years, travelling the world and following win-ters from country to country. ‘Every year is somewhere new, my art is possibly the only grounded part of my life at any given time. I work wherever needed, mostly on my snowboard, and cannot spend longer than necessary in one place.’

WSI: Have you always been into Illustration?? how did it all start for you?

GH: As a kid title pages and afternoons in art class were my favourite primary school past-time. Although it wasn’t until a bout with the ‘kissing disease’ in grade 10 that I actually had endless hours to pick up a pencil and have a real go at some portraits. In the beginning it all started with pretty pictures out of glossy magazines, as I’ve grown into my own style I’ve started recruiting friends as models and people with character rather than airbrushed beauty.

WSI: What mediums do you use? Illustrator/computer, pencils, paint?

GH: The mediums I use are almost entirely limited to graphite pencils, a decent rubber, extremely sharp pen-cils, a smudger (very important) and a little illustrator to add colour to the eyes/cheeks. Every now and then I pull out some water-soluble pencils or watercolour.

WSI: Your pieces are simple yet intricate and meaning-ful and are very fluid and emotional, Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

GH: Never having a concept or structure to follow has left me with every option in the world as far as what or how I can be inspired. Travelling opens up every hidden pocket of different cultures and their perception of art and beauty.Wandering around markets in Japan and more recently Santa Monica, you see so many different textures, por-traits, people, styles, it all accumulates in my head to an overwhelming amount of idea’s. Maybe Ironically this is why my drawings end up so simple.

Gina Hartican

WSI: Are your portraits based on real people or people you dream up?

GH: The people in my portraits are mostly real, or at least a version of my-self or my emotion at the time. More recently I’ve drawn certain friends that I find intricate or interesting, always with one significantly beautiful feature.I am constantly thinking of beautiful images but can never quite capture what I think up, I’m working on this, another reason why I’ve started tak-ing my own photo’s in an attempt to bring these idea’s to life.

WSI: Using Facebook and blogging - has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

GH: As much as I’d like it to, Facebook and Blogging haven’t really opened any doors for me. I have a lot of support from friends on Facebook, and have been asked to do a collaboration with another illustrator recently. Curvy illustrations have contacted me in the past to join them in a se-lected art competition, which unfortunately was an opportunity missed. I couldn’t make it!

WSI: If you were asked to commission a portrait of anyone, who would love to meet and draw?

GH: There hasn’t really been anyone in particular that I want to draw. Every piece I do is either something I stumble across or photograph my-self.

WSI: Where would you like to go with your work in the next few years?

That’s a big question for a gypsy! I’d love to delve a little further into digi-tal illustration, and find friends with related skills to collaborate with and introduce new concepts into my own work.As for getting out there, I’ve got my sights set on getting a page all to myself in Curvy illustrations. Right now I’m enjoying what I love most, which is spending six solid hours on the floor drawing. It couldn’t hurt to run into someone who knows someone important in the design industry either...

WSI: Do you ever get artists block? if so, how do you overcome it..

GH: I always stumble across artist block! My creative side seems to come and go without notice. One minute my mind is overwhelmed with idea’s, images and creative fuel. The next I’m stuck for anything remotely inspiring!This seems to translate to how well I draw. If I’m feeling a little sapped of creativity my work lacks emotion.

WSI: Finally - Do you have any advise you would share with someone hoping to break into the art world/ study art or even just getting their pieces out there?

GH: It’s not always art school and commercial promotion that gets your art out there, it can be something as little as a home-printed tee or blog full of your best creative work. The best outlet I’ve found so far is through online portfolio’s and magazines full of creatives like this one!

Visit Ginawww.theloop.com.au/gina/portfolio/Visual-Artist/Illawarra-South-Coast

www.facebook.com/gina.hartican

Photographer: Francesca SecolonovoModel: Joanne Northey - First model managementMUA: Polly Mann

I’m No Petal

Normen Gadiel

WSI: tell us about yourself Normen!

NG: I’m from Germany and I’m 28 years old. In working life I earn my money as an opera-tions technician in the chemical industry.

WSI: We LOVE your work!! how did your journey into photography start? Your work focuses a lot on concepts and portraits - please tell us more about it.

NG: I started into the ambitious photography in January 2011 that happens after I saw some great photos from Alex Stoddard on Flickr. The kind of pictures I saw in the next weeks inspired me to take self-portraits with an addiction for conceptual photographs.

WSI: How long do you typically spend editing a photograph?

NG: Oh, this is so different it sometimes takes only 10 minutes and sometimes it takes more than one hour. It depends on the photo and on the concept behind it. I spend a long time for editing the pictures with the flying books, because it consist about 10 single pho-tographs.

WSI: how long does each image take to make? from idea to shooting to editing?

NG: Normally its a fast process, when I decide to take photos I have a look at some of my sketches, think of the procedure I have to do and go out to a place where I’m able to get the photo I want. After taking the photo I’m totally pushed to bring it to an end on the very same day. Because I can´t wait for the result of all the steps I’ve made up in my mind. I want to match them up into one single picture.

WSI: Why do you think photo manipu-lation has become so popular ?

NG: Because were able to! We can build images which are having the effect of creating emotions to the viewer. This is a great opportunity to let pictures speak but on the other hand it´s a faked photo-graph. That´s why I also do some normal photographs like portraits from my fam-ily or friends.

WSI: Did you learn photo editing in school or did you teach yourself? have you any tips for readers about the edit-ing process?

NG: I´ve done it by myself and I don´t stop about learning the best editing pro-cess for me. It´s hard to give tips in an interview but I would like to say that you should try to work with graduation curves, fill-layers and different brushes.

WSI: Has using social networks helped you as an artist? Why/How?

NG: Oh yes of course, there are so much helpful people in the social network you could ask if you want to know some-thing. And it´s also a good possibility to show your pictures to the world and get response … and last but not least it´s a great place to get inspired by other artist.

WSI: Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

NG: When I read books I sometimes get pushed to go out and create, but mostly it´s the aim to make new pictures, to be-come a better photographer.

WSI: Do you have advice for any new-bies who may be thinking of getting into photography?

NG: Spend your money first in better ob-jectives before you spend it in the new-est body. Another advice is to learn about the basics of aesthetics like the rules of thirds.

WSI: Where do you see yourself and your working going in the future?

NG: I don´t think about something like this, because I don´t want to put pressure on me, but it would be great if my photo-graphs reach more people in future.

Visit Normenwww.flickr.com/photos/normengadiel/

The Exhibition

Dejana Batalovicwww.flickr.com/photos/dejona

BeataRydén

“Photography is my passion and my dream. I have a deep need to interpret life and everything that comes with existence. I use photography to visualize inner worlds, and what I love about photography is that you can create magic with the camera, either with post-processing or just by setting up a scene, with light and props. You use the reality to create your own real-ity! My photographs can be described as imaginative,

surrealistic and dreamlike.”

Beata Rydén is a 26 year old photographer, born in Gothen-burg, a windy city at the west coast of Sweden. An obvious surrealist, Beata’s works are imaginative, emotional full of live

and creativeness.

WSI: How did your journey into photography start? Your work focuses a lot on concept portraits and fantasy, please tell us more about it.

BR: I’ve always been a creative person, but it took some time before I discovered the right expression for me. When I was a child I loved to paint, play the piano and write poems. I thought that I was going to be an actress, singer or writer. I studied both dance and music, but nothing ever captured me the way photography did. When I knew what I wanted to do, it took a couple of years before I dared to take that step and really do it.

I´ve always loved anything that gives you some kind of magical feel-ing. It can be the light in a photograph that gives you a special feel-ing, or something very surreal. Everything that gives you the feeling that there´s something more to the world than what we see every-day.

WSI: How long do you typically spend editing a photograph?

BR: That depends on the photograph and how much editing is needed to fulfil my vision. Many of my ideas needs a lot of editing. I usually go through a lot of steps with cropping/expanding an image and using different adjustments layers.

Almost every time I edit a photograph I begin to experiment with some new technique, and that can take quite a long time! I would say that I maybe spend 20-40 hours on one picture. I usually sit two days, take a rest from the picture and then come back to edit until I feel there is’t anything more to do. There is also the kind of pictures that don´t need much editing at all. They may take 2-5 hours to edit.

WSI: How long does each image take to make? from idea to shooting to editing?

BR: I always carry a book with me where I write down and sketch my ideas. Usually it takes a couple of weeks before I realize my idea, but sometimes I get an idea, grab my camera and get out to shoot at once. One of my latest projects, the Bubbleproject, I´ve been think-ing about for three years! But I didn´t know how to visualize it until now. To me there are certain ideas that need time before they can become a picture. I still have an idea for a whole project that I´ve been thinking about since 2008! When I´m done with the shoot-ing, it usually takes a couple of weeks until the picture is ready, but sometimes I´m done with the edit the same day.

WSI: Why do you think photo manipulation has be-come so popular ? BR: Firstly, I believe it´s because the technique has de-veloped a lot. Before the digital era, photography was harder to do. Filmstock was expensive and you needed somewhere to develop your film. Nowadays cameras are very affordable, and there are a lot of great editing-programs out there for people to learn and work with.

Secondly, I believe that photomanipulation is popular because it’s so fascinating to make something unreal out of reality. When photography first arrived, it had a strong connection to reality. It was supposed to re-flect reality in different ways. Nowadays I think that photography has a lot of styles. There are still the docu-mentary side of photography, but fantasy and manipu-lation is getting bigger and bigger.

WSI: Did you learn photo editing in school or did you teach yourself? and have you any tips for readers about the editing process?

BR: I’ve been experimenting a lot by myself and that´s how I learned most of it. But I’ve also read about edit-ing on the internet. There are so many wonderful pho-tographers out there that have tons of advice on how to edit a photo. They can tell you about curves, masks, layers, expanding a photograph or whatever it might be.

I think one tip is to task yourself in which direction you want to take your picture. If you have a picture that you admire, it´s good to study it and understand what you like about it. Is it the colour, the light or the expres-sion? Then try to transfer that into your own picture. One advice is to experiment a lot, maybe do a couple of different versions on the same picture, then take a break and do something else. When you go back, look at all the pictures and try to feel which one makes you feel the most. Don´t be afraid to try everything out and read a lot on the internet!

WSI: Do you think social networking has helped you as an artist?

BR: All those communities has helped me in a lot of ways. All the artists on those sites gives me endless in-spiration. It’s amazing to be able to follow everyone’s work and progress. It’s also a very good experience to put your work out there and see what others think about it. It’s a great feeling when someone comment on your work and you feel that people are seeing what you do every day. It has given me a stronger confidence. One of my photos on flickr, “A somewhat unlucky house”, [right] has been re-blogged a lot and now it´s going to be published in a book because the editors found it on the internet!

WSI: Is there anything in particular that fuels your creativity as an artist?

BR: I feel that I’m constantly creative. In one way, I think it´s just a natural reaction to being alive. Life cre-ates the need to express yourself and I think that’s the same for everybody, but we find different ways to do it.I’m inspired by lifes questions. I try to understand what it means to be alive. Why are we here, how are we sup-posed to live our lives, when do we know we’ve made the right choice? We all walk on our path through life. Some paths are straight, others are crooked. Some peo-ple follow their own path, some people follow some-body elses. With my photography, I want to follow my heart and create art that can influence people to look inside themselves.

I´m also very inspired by other photographers and art-ists. I have a few favourites: Lovisa Ringborg, Karrah Kobus, Studio Seek, Lissy Elle, Vee Speers and Brooke Shaden. All of those have their own unique style. Their images are very special and imaginative. Images that gives you a magical feeling, images that show you something you don´t see in the ordinary world. Im-ages that presents inner worlds, dreamworlds or simply shows you the world in a different way.

WSI: Do you have advice for any of the photography newbies out there?

BR: You can make it happen! You don’t need any ones approval to do what you wan´t to do. You don´t need to get accepted at a certain school, or having some-body tell you that you’ve got talent. If you wan’t to do it, then it’s right for you! Find photographers that you love and that inspires you. Experiment to find what style you like the most. Go your own way. Don’t be afraid to get criticism, it can only make you grow. There’s only one version of you in the world, and only you can create what you want to create.

WSI: Where would you like to see yourself and your work going in the future?

BR: I want to strive to find my unique expression and style. I want to continue doing photographic art and I want to improve my skills so that I can get better at visualizing an idea perfectly. I want to continue to get my work out there, by be-ing featured in magazines and do exhibitions. It would be fun to get into portrait photography and weddings, which is something I’m thinking about for the next year. But mostly, I want to have time to create every day, and courage to create the images that I want to create.

Visit Beatawww.beataryden.com/

www.flickr.com/photos/beataryden/www.facebook.com/pages/Beata-Rydén-Photography/207851605964335

..and the spring will leave this room for now..

“I feel safe, I feel wholeknowing that it wasn’t your fault or mineI’ve felt the changein the colours in leavesthe colour of dreamstime passing in sleepand the spring will leave this roomfor nowand the spring will leave this roomarms outand the spring will leave this room for nowand the spring will leave this room for now”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evitaweed/http://evitaweed.tumblr.com/http://evitaweed.carbonmade.com/http://cargocollective.com/EvitaWeed

Image: Dejana Batalovic

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