Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Caroline Chase. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Caroline, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I’ve always loved to draw, but when I was younger I used to look up tutorials on how to draw anime on YouTube, I watched a lot of videos on digital painting techniques as well when I became more interested in digital art. I also looked at several “How To Draw…” books and I would copy the tutorials from those. While I loved the art style of anime, in hindsight it would have been more beneficial for me to study from life earlier on, when I first started taking art seriously.
I used t0 find drawing from life to be boring, but I really started to enjoy it while taking classes that brought in models. Drawing the same pose from different angles, drawing under time limits, or using different mediums really improved my ability to loosen up in my approach and depict the human body in a convincing manner. I think the most helpful advice or skill I have learned is to not be precious while sketching. This was something I really struggled with, wanting everything to be perfect even when doing something that is just for practice held me back.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I truly believe as long as I get to create I will be happy. I’m not sure I’ll ever know exactly where I want to take my art or ever only want to create one type of art. I find too many types of art too interesting and there are too many subject matters and genres to explore, even though I have my favorites. I think exploration is beneficial no matter what type of art you do, this has helped me to become a more well rounded artist.
I have always loved looking at the concept art for my favorite video games and animations and the idea of creating artwork as a part of a larger project that includes many different mediums and teams became fascinating to me. While earning my degree I got to explore my love of world building and story telling through illustration and character design, this led to my focus becoming concept art and visual development, though I still love creating one off illustrations of characters that may not lead to a larger story. I am able to design characters that fit within their given world and really feel like they belong there.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is the ability to imagine new worlds with their own characters, environments and stories and being able to translate these ideas into imagery. As an artist you are able to transform the ideas inside your head or the ideas of others into something that is understandable to an audience. You are able to get people excited about and invested into fictional worlds through art and design. I have a deep love and appreciation for concept art and the work that goes into designing a convincing world, even if the story is not based in reality, the design of the characters and environments is what makes it believable and cohesive.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I love designing and depicting all types of characters, from humans to monsters. Stylized horror games have become a huge source of inspiration for me. The type of art that blurs the lines between eerie and cute is what I am happiest doing and has greatly influenced how I design characters. I want the person viewing the characters to be just a little unsettled, in a way that makes them want to know more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/view/clcillustration/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-chase-57646825b