Tace
Tace is an artist based in the city of Québec. After graduating from Dawson College with a DEC in Illustration in 2022, they are now learning 2D animation at Université Laval. As a hobby, Tace writes, learns languages, and, most importantly, draws digitally. Their entire family is very artistic, but none have really pursued it as a profession or even just as a hobby, with the exception of Tace and their sister.
Tace's interest in creating began when their mom taught them how to draw using a step-by-step book as a child, but their passion for art really grew when they got into anime as a teenager. Although they are not as much into anime now, it still plays a significant role in their current art style.
Today, Tace is an aspiring illustrator, finding inspiration and motivation in imagining unique characters and stories. They recently illustrated a children’s book for their teacher and have completed several other commissions as well as made a few sales at conventions in Montréal and Québec.
An artistic injury recently forced Tace to take a break for a few months and focus on their health. If Tace could send a message to every artist, it would be this: taking care of your body and posture will greatly benefit you in the long term.
Tace finds inspiration primarily in music. When they discover a song they really like, they might listen to it on repeat and daydream all day. While this can be disadvantageous at times, it greatly helps spark their creativity. Tace also draws ideas from real-life events and situations, exploring themes such as mental health, psychology, relationships, life struggles, and life experiences. Making their characters feel human and realistic is very important to them.
Typically, Tace skips the planning part and dives straight into creating. Even though they enjoy planning and recognize its benefits, their perfectionism makes it difficult. For instance, they are currently working on a writing project and only have a vague idea of its final form. Tace's tendency to want everything to be perfect can limit their creativity, but they are constantly working on overcoming this.
Tace loves both drawing and painting digitally. When painting, they start with a quick, rough sketch, adding details and corrections on the same layer. They then determine the base colors of the character and the background to decide the atmosphere, lighting, and shadows. Tace enjoys working with complementary colors, such as magenta and green or purple and yellow. After choosing the colors, they add shades to the character, then paint over the sketch. If necessary, they paint the background while working on the characters to ensure everything blends nicely. They finish by adding subtle color filters and noise and blur filters to polish the piece.
When drawing digitally, Tace uses a similar technique but with a more refined sketch. They paint under the lines and often duplicate the lineart layer, change it to a reddish color, and add a filter for a subtle touch.
While Tace enjoys traditional art, they prefer it for practice rather than actual projects. After finishing an art piece, they like to look back at previous work to notice their progress and feel encouraged by their improvement.
