This week’s artist’s spotlight focuses on Kreugan, who has a wide array of fandom and original artwork.
The Artist’s Spotlight is a Hypable weekly feature that will focus on someone who has caught our attention for fandom-related art, whether it be drawings, songs, crafts, or more! Every week you can expect a new talented artist we think you should be aware of!
Hypable: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Kreugan: Most people online know me by “Kreugan,” which is kind of an accidental handle. Nobody can spell it, but attempts to change it have only led to more confusion, so I guess I’m stuck with it! My real name is Melissa, and I live in Colorado and split my time between working at a local bookstore and doing art for fun and freelance, and have just recently started to attend conventions to sell art. I have degrees in history and literature, so not much formal art training, but I still enjoy pulling from both for inspiration.
What first interested you in art?
My mother! She used to do a lot of sketching and painting when I was little. She did less and less as I got older, but she always encouraged my creative side. My parents gave me and my sister some really beautifully illustrated kids’ books when I was little that I enjoyed trying to imitate. Later on most of my inspiration came from animation and comics. Lots of Disney and random television shows, including MTV cartoons, so there were some weird blends going on! Some princes and princesses, some Maxx and Aeon Flux.
What are some of your favorite fandoms to draw for?
Going by the numbers, I think I’ve drawn the most for Marvel and Teen Wolf. I did Marvel sketch cards a few years back and have drawn quite a bit of fanart for the comics, and when the movies started to come out I was a big fan of the costume work, especially in Thor. I also just love the characters, and the same goes for Teen Wolf. I’ve always been a huge fan of werewolves, but I enjoyed the characters and thought they had a neat variety of archetypes. I usually draw fanart because I think something has a cool aesthetic or it engages my imagination, and Marvel and Teen Wolf have been a good mix of both.
Can you tell us a bit about your process?
It depends! Sometimes it’s as easy as getting an idea and just plowing ahead, sometimes I have to spend a few hours Googling ideas and inspiration before I can get more than a few lines down. For more involved things, I do usually start with an inspiration board. It’s a good way to keep yourself focused, and you’re more likely to sprinkle in new things/challenge yourself if you actively seek out new ideas rather than relying on old habits. Otherwise it’s just sketching, grayscale to plan values if there’s complicated shading, and then color, with between five and a billion photoshop layers in between.
“I usually draw fanart because I think something has a cool aesthetic or it engages my imagination, and ‘Marvel’ and ‘Teen Wolf’ have been a good mix of both.”
What’s the biggest challenge you face when you create some of your work?
I struggle with my artwork looking too stiff and have a tendency to overwork images to death. Since animation is one of my biggest inspirations, character and energy are some of my favorite things in artwork. Sometimes putting too much focus on “perfecting” a picture can remove flaws that give it character, and sometimes I have a hard time finding a good balance between making things look clean without rendering them totally lifeless.
Your genderbending art is really well done! How did that come about and what’s the appeal there for you?
Thank you! I’ve always really loved the idea of genderbending and the discussions that usually surround it. I think it brings up important topics regarding gender identity and representation, and from a more shallow standpoint it’s just an interesting exercise in character design. When I drew a genderbend of the Avengers, it was a totally selfish endeavor. A lot of genderbent artwork relies on long hair and cleavage as a shorthand for femininity. I do actually think there can be some merit (and fun) in this approach, particularly when women embrace redesigns for cosplay, but it’s a shorthand that I personally struggle to relate to. The big appeal in designing my own genderbends is reinterpreting the character, not swapping out features – so when I genderbend Tony Stark, it isn’t “make him a lady,” it’s “how would I draw a lady who built a superhero suit out of scraps and talks back to gods?” Tony ended up with short hair just because I decided it would get stuck in her helmet and she’d eventually chop it off. So while I’d like to say deep thoughts always go into my genderbent artwork, I’m mostly just focused on staying faithful to the character.
You were featured in a booklet of fan art MTV put together for the release of Teen Wolf season 3B on DVD. Can you tell us a little bit about how you were included in that?
I was contacted by some really lovely people working for MTV, and they asked me if I’d be interested in contributing to the booklet. The whole exchange took about two days and was a very unexpected but nice surprise. The finished booklet is full of gorgeous work by other fanartists, and I’m honored to be a part of it!
“I do a lot of worldbuilding and character creation in my spare time, and what usually happens is one story idea will splinter off into 10 unique ones.” |
You also have some original art! Do you have any plans for those characters?
Plenty of plans, not enough focus. I do a lot of worldbuilding and character creation in my spare time, and what usually happens is one story idea will splinter off into 10 unique ones. I have two personal projects I’ve been hacking at for a while. One’s basically werewolves in space and the other is a pseudo-Victorian supernatural adventure, so most of my original work tends to fall into one of those categories. I am working on honing my efforts so that I can get a script going on a webcomic, so hopefully there will be more of that trickling onto my blog soon.
What advice would you give to other artists?
Draw! Draw as often as you can. I know it’s kind of cliché and almost every artist out there says it, but that’s because it’s completely true. I gave up art for about a year while I was studying and it was a huge chore to make up for that lost time. It’s a skill, so you have to develop it with a lot of hard work, and if you don’t put the work in, you’ll probably notice. The other big one is to swap discouragement out for inspiration as often as you can. It’s easy to look at another artist and give up because you don’t think you’ll ever be as good as them. It’s much harder to draw a billion pictures in an effort to catch up, but odds are that’s exactly how the artist you’re looking up to got to where they are.
What’s your ultimate goal as an artist?
Creating my own comic has been a long-time dream, so finally following through on that and sharing it with others is definitely on the bucket list. In terms of artistic goals, I think the goalpost is always moving. I want to get better about challenging myself and learning new things, and in the meantime I want to stay inspired and surround myself with people who are as excited about creativity as I am.
“Swap discouragement out for inspiration as often as you can.”
You can find Kreugan on her website or her Tumblr, where she keeps an updated blog with all her latest work, including concept sketches and some other fun pieces!
You can also catch her on Twitter, or even check out her shop.
Be sure to browse and support a talented artist if you can!
Note: The rendition of Scott McCall featured to the right is the artwork that made it into MTV’s fan art booklet, which came with the Teen Wolf season 3B DVD. Congratulations again, Melissa!
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