This month dot-art speaks to local artist Anne Wiziack.
Anne started practising Japanese illustration at a young age and has studied art and graphic design throughout her adult life. Creating botanical illustrations and female portraits, her illustrations communicate a message of sustainability, feminine power and cultural elements from her home country of Brazil.
How would you describe your style?
It is organic, with botanical, geometric and astrological elements. I try to transmit some important values within my work such as sustainability, feminism and equality.
Which medium do you work with and how would you describe your work?
I work with sustainable watercolour paper, made of 100% cotton, and with a rich texture. I enjoy working on this surface as the texture adds to the images I create as well as how it looks, it means a lot to work with sustainable materials.
Can you talk us through your process? Do you begin with a sketch, or do you just go straight in? How long do you spend on one piece? How do you know when it is finished?
I begin with seeking out some inspiration, Pinterest is great for searching for plants, portraits, colours and texture.
After that, I like to do a first sketch to visualise the movements and dimensions of my drawing and once I’m happy with that, I begin a new sketch on watercolour paper, I enjoy working in A3 size for most of my works. Once I am happy with the sketch, the painting starts with creating the colour palette for the piece and working into the illustration with paint.
I work a lot with plant and botanical imagery and can work quite quickly on these pieces, getting lost in them and completing them all in a day’s worth of sketching and painting. My portraiture work tends to be a longer process as I like to build up layers as I work into it.
Also, I use Procreate to finish these works, adding in more elements and gaining a new perspective with a digital medium, and have the freedom to take more risks in working into the piece without adding any permanent paint that could not be removed on the physical work.
All my original works are then transformed into digital copies creating limited editions to be sold.
When did you begin your career in art?
I have been doing illustration since I was a child, but only last year did I decide to do return to illustration and share and sell my work online. I am still developing my career in art having only recently begun my practice again, but I hope as time goes on that I can dedicate more time to my work.
Who or what inspires your art?
Most my inspiration comes from nature, but artists whose work inspires me includes Ana Santos, Isabela Quintes, Esther Gill, Studio Ghibli and more
Why is art and creativity so important to you?
It is what feeds my soul and also it is a way to transmit my ideas and values.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am continuing to work on my botanical illustration series of works, incorporating more flora elements, currently I have a sunflower piece underway. I have added in some figurative elements to this new work, there will be three hands holding the stems, each a different skin tone to represent all the hands in the fight for equality.
Discover more of Anne Wiziack on our online shop!