We recently connected with Avongale Art and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Avongale, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Since my childhood, I’ve always dreamed of publishing my comic. I remember endlessly drafting out pages and sketching, but I realized that I wouldn’t be able to create what I had envisioned due to my abilities at the time. That was when I knew I wanted to improve and take my work more seriously, so I created an agenda of what I needed to teach myself. From there I began studying a multitude of different things, such as realism, anatomy, artist styles, environmental backgrounds, and more. With that much time and effort into my art, I quickly saw improvement which only fueled my drive.

Looking back, I’m proud of what I did. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my dedication and passion. However, there are some fundamentals that I brushed off along the way that I wish I had incorporated with my studies more. I can see the weak points in my artistic foundation now that I’m actively working on my comic and drawing things out of my comfort zone. For example, I never truly focused on learning traditional perspective techniques. When I did incorporate any village or town scenery in my illustrations, I would just try winging it without a proper understanding of how the perspectives worked. It’s just something I wasn’t very interested in, and unfortunately when at that time I didn’t find it necessary to learn. Nowadays, I’ve been wanting to explore different scenery and incorporate more structures into my work, but it’s much harder to since I don’t have a strong foundation with it. Learning perspective is also essential to my comic, and rather than buckling down and learning it out of necessity, I wish I had spent more time dedicated to thoroughly learning about it rather than getting a crash course. I won’t lie it’s overwhelming right now, but given my past I know that if I put my heart into it I will be able to nail it someday.

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?

Hello everyone, my name is AvongaleArt. This is my second meeting with Canvas Rebel (thank you for having me again!), so I’ll make my introduction a little shorter this time!

I am a daydreamer who creates fantasy worlds, characters, and stories. I started drawing and writing from a very young age, and that passion only grew as I got older. Nowadays as a professional artist, I table at conventions and craft sales where I sell prints of my work and other merch. It’s a great way to stay connected to other creators while still illustrating and doing what I love!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I had ingrained in my mind for a long time was that the finished drawing was more important than the sketch. Back in my early college days I would get so excited to start shading that I would rush into things and skip over steps. I mainly ran into this issue with anatomy. For example, I would tell myself things along the line of “I’ll finish sketching out the character’s hand later”, and then proceed to finish shading in the face and such. As you can imagine, that approach leaves room for a lot of errors. I would get so wrapped up and excited about polishing my work that I wouldn’t notice any problems until I either finished the drawing completely, or I would get to that one part I had barely touched and have to frankenstein things together and hope that the anatomy looked ok.

Nowadays, I make sure to finish my sketches completely before I begin the shading process. That, and if I don’t feel certain about it I either ask for an outside opinion or set aside the drawing for a day or two. That way, I’m more likely to catch my mistakes before I start my shading.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think what a lot of people struggle to understand is that what they see in a finished artwork is an accumulation of years worth of effort. I feel like a lot of people assume that artists are naturally super talented and can make a masterpiece in no time, which makes people hesitant to pick up a pencil and draw. But we all start from somewhere, and in reality it’s just a lot of patience and practice. For those who are beginners or want to pick up drawing, just believe in yourself and keep doing what you love. Be patient, and you will get to where you want to be before you know it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/avongaleart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avongaleart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AvongaleArt
• Other: https://www.deviantart.com/avongaleart