We recently connected with Dominique Sharpe and have shared our conversation below.

Dominique, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on is actually a current work in progress. I used to stream on Twitch and one of the biggest things I noticed was just how performative the support was for small streamers and POC streamers. Sure they “promoted” Black streamers during Black History month but then it felt like crickets afterward. I also just didn’t see a lot of support coming through from bigger streamers. That’s when I decided to make “Shvde Black” (and yes the v is purposeful haha)! Once finished, this will be a great source for upcoming Black content creators and artists to have access to resources, tutorials, community, and promotion. Of course, the website will be available for anyone to use, but I will be focusing on uplifting the Black community through content creation and the arts be it streaming, long or short-form video creation, indie game developers or comic artists, and more. I hope to have it completed and launched in February 2023!

Stuff like this is so important not just for me but for my community. There have been so many people who are immensely talented and just lack the resources or knowledge needed to really move forward. My dream is to one day have Shvde Black be something that launches the careers forwards of so many amazing artists and creatives, becoming something really useful for everyone who uses the services there. I am currently doing the entire project by myself. I’m coding, creating assets, developing applications, writing articles, and filming tutorials. It’s been a great learning experience and something I’m very proud to get going.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m your usual, “born with a paintbrush in my hand” artist. I’ve been drawing since I could remember, taught by my late grandfather. He could draw our house from memory, every detail. I was so in awe as a little girl and with his mentorship and support I’ve grown into the artist I am today. My talents are his legacy and I’m extremely proud of following down the path of my artistic journey. I went to college and got my BA in Graphic Design and I am currently a medical illustrator. I love my job as it gives me space to be creative and I have a lot of time to myself, so I may work on my other projects.

Alongside my website, I also create small video games, some webcomics and I create emotes, overlays and stingers for Twitch streamers. I have a very diverse set of skills and I always try to learn something new. I actually have this sort of goal to learn a new fact or skill every single day. I love incorporating my new skills into my work as well. For example, I started learning how to create 3D models and began incorporating it into my overlays and stingers. I have taught myself how to animate, 3D model, create motion graphics and more. It’s really just amazing to see how much you can create.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The biggest thing non-creatives don’t understand, in my opinion, is something appearing to be simple does not make it easy to worse than something that looks complex. It’s seen in everything, the idea to just add more and more and more as if the quantity of details is what makes the thing better. In video games, you’d hear a lot of people talk about graphics. They don’t actually know what they’re talking about though. People always say that graphics are better just because they may be hyperrealistic. There is so much work that goes into making something deceptively simple yet still aesthetically pleasing, consistent, and effective in portraying a game feel. The same goes with visual art, people look at hyperrealistic paintings and think they are significantly harder than stylized imagery. It really all just depends on what someone has practiced more, and creating stylized characters requires a fundamental understanding of shape and form. Someone creating a cartoon image is just as talented as someone who can draw realistically, which is the first thing you learn to draw in art school anyway.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Here’s a fun little hack that I only learned about in the past year. So, I have played The Sims 3 and 4, it’s one of my most favorite games and I’ve been a Simmer since 2013. It’s also a fantastic resource for when backgrounds are much too hard (or you’re feeling lazy which is my excuse!) My game of choice for these backgrounds is the Sims 4, along with Custom Content or CC as we call it for short, and the camera function, it helps tremendously with perspectives. The best part is you don’t have to learn how to 3D model in programs like Blender (though I do suggest learning! Blender is free and it’s always good to have a new skill in your belt). You can just build a house in the game, take screenshots and trace for your backgrounds. An even better hack is to use the game alongside shaders and you can get a “coloring book” effect that only shows outlines with a solid white background. You’ll be able to have consistent viewpoints of the room you need for your drawing or comic, and it drastically cuts down on redrawing time which is especially helpful if you’re working solo. The best part, The Sims 4 is now free.99 and you can download CC for free across the internet to fill in the gaps if you don’t have all of the packs!

Another awesome resource is this app I use called Magic Poser for any odd poses or angles. I’m all about saving time since I have so many projects to keep up with, and this is definitely a time saver for me. My friend introduced me to Adobe color, which is surprisingly free for anyone to use, and it’s a great spot to find color palettes and schemes. Lastly, is a website called Film Grab. They take stills from different movies. It’s a fantastic way to find references for poses or colors. It’s also a fantastic way to have content for studies and practice composition, color, form, and the like. It’s been one of my favorite sites that I’ve found and doing screencap redraws are a fun way to strengthen your skills!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://domsharpe.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/peribay

Image Credits
Dominique Sharpe