It has been over a year since our first interview, when Tanya Davis was first expanding her creative work from sculpting and painting figurines to applying the same skills onto vinyl platforms. After all this time and

Penguin Engineer by Tanya Davis

checking in regularly, there has truly been no pause in her actively making new art. In this interview I will attempt to bring our readers up to speed with her latest artistic endeavors.

How far has your experiment with vinyl platforms taken you?

It is still going and I am still trying different platforms. Most recently, I am tackling going larger. Outside of the initial MunnyWorld brand, my most successful work done on blank vinyls has been the Google Android mascot and Zukie bases. My most recent droid is a Penguin Engineer based on an illustration I created by the same name.

Penguin Engineer Droid by Tanya Davis

Illustration, that is something new.  How did you get into that type of art?

It was more about me practicing drawing and also giving my hands a break from sculpting. Aside from chiefly commission figurine work, illustrative drawing and painting is my main art form right now.

Since the beginning of 2014 which one of your illustrations is your personal favorite? 

My Penguin Engineer because it is the first original character I created that has a completely developed background. It was done free-hand from start to finish on the illustration board without any transferring. It was also the first one I did with the Derwent watercolor pencils. This illustration is currently available in limited edition signed watercolor prints done by local printer Mindzai Creative. Right now (mid-June 2014) there are 18 left. I have them on hand when I publicly show my work or you may obtain this print here.

So you have drawn something into your sketchbook or on loose scratch paper that you wish to transfer to either illustration board or better paper, but you aren't sure if you can do it free hand again? I have a solution for you that I learned in one of my drafting classes in college. This process is best for transferring onto paper or illustration board; I have not used this process on anything else. I have also only used it for small images. The largest size has been 8.5 x 11 inch, however, art and drafting stores will have larger sheets of Carbon paper if you want to go larger.

This technique is also helpful when you have traveled from home or don't have a nifty light box for tracing.

Materials needed

1. Image you want to transfer
2. Carbon Paper - find at craft or office supply stores; the sheets are reusable and 1 package can last for many years
3. Drafting dots or tape specific to painting - for easy removal
4. Embossing pen tool
5. Eraser
6. Pens (if inking)

Tracing with embossing tool (top), close-up detail
(middle),transferred image (bottom).

• Take your drawn image and make a photocopy of it. This way you can change size easily and position it on the desired paper easier.
• Place a sheet of carbon paper darker side down and set it aside, but not on your target area yet. Carbon paper is also available in white which is useful if you are transferring to a black or simply darker target.
• Trim the excess paper from around the copy of the image.  
• Using the drafting dots take the copy of your drawing to the carbon paper.   Remember the dark (inked) side should be lying on the work surface.
• Now position the carbon paper gently onto your chosen medium. Gently place tape to at least two corners so that it is secure.

*Do not rub or press too hard on the image as this will transfer*

• Without pressing too hard trace your image with the embossing pen tool.  It is best to plan where you are to start and what path you will take. This way you can be sure to transfer the whole drawing. You can lift the paper to also see progress as you go, but try not to do so too often because you could accidentally move the image the image. When done remove the carbon paper. If inking by  hand go ahead and do so using the eraser to get rid of transfer lines. I use a gum eraser for my work. It doesn't leave smears or residue. They also work better at taking up lines.

*If you press too hard during the tracing they will NOT erase - be GENTLE*

• At this point if you want the final artwork to be painted -  just paint.

Although there are many different transfer methods, this is one that I have been adept with since my days in architecture classes. This is easy, fast, without needing much space or set-up ahead of time and it can be done anywhere. I like to share information about tools and materials I use.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

All images © Tanya Davis

Lauren Moss is an Austin-area Mixed Media Artist. I have had the privilege to meet her and experience her art live.  She is in the beginning years of her career as an artist.  Lauren is strongly predisposed to drawing and she creates first and foremost in graphite. Colored pencils, paint and printmaking inks are also mainstays in her art.  She bases her artworks on stories from her own life and these are easy to relate to.  I am pleased to be able to publish this interview to share Lauren's perspective with more people who may find that they also resonate with her art on some level(s).

Artist, Lauren Moss at Art Show in Austin, TX

When did you first come to think of yourself as an artist?

I have always thought of myself as an artist but truly fought against myself in the full embodiment of the concept.  It wasn't until after having my daughter and some much needed soul searching that I finally accepted the terminology as being the title that I should hold and use.  It was after the move down to Central Texas that I seriously started pursuing my career as an Artist.

Tell me about your first experience creating art:

The first time I began to create art was monumental.  I literally lost all sense of time and space and became one with the inspirational muse that flowed through me.  It was incredible and awe inspiring and in that particular moment I fell hard, head over heels in love with the experience.  

Why mixed media? 

I love the fact that mixed media marries all of my favorite mediums into a flexible fun way to create.  I do not have to stick to one area of expertise to create art, I can combine three or more areas into a piece to have a coherent and flowing space.

Pelvic Thrust  © Lauren Moss

How do you define your style of art, and how does it stand apart from other established styles?  

Steve Morris is from a small farm town in Southern Iowa.  He has always had a passion to draw and has been doing so since the age of about 8-years-old. Over the decades, his passion for drawing and art in general has grown and expanded to the point where he is always trying new mediums and surfaces.  Morris draws, paints and even etches to create interesting original pieces. He likes to work with an assortment of different kinds of ink pens and will use color pencils blended in among the ink in some pieces. Many different types of mediums and surfaces are utilized in his artworks. Most notable is his unique style which so many people inquire about and comment on how unusual it is.  As there is not an exact proper name, Morris says that he has always referred to it as a diversionary style. 

"It is a style, I've been told since I've been drawing, that is original and not often seen."  

New Castle © Stephen Morris

When did you start to think of yourself as an artist?

I have been drawing for the better part of 50 years and although I have been told for many years that I am an artist, I have also been accused of being entirely too humble and my own worst critic. So, for the majority of my creative years I never thought of myself as an artist until probably around 5 years ago when people started accepting and letting me know the appreciation they had for my diversionary, no-boundaries style and crediting it as a true art style.  To be honest, I am still somewhat learning to accept the title artist!

What makes ink your preferred medium?

Ink has become my preferred medium, in part because even as a child I was always drawing something on anything I could, so I always had a pen in my pocket. Since that is what I always have at my ready, I have learned to work the different inks and master using them in so many different ways, from blending bold lines to the finest details and shadowing.

Tell me about other mediums you most enjoy creating with:

I don't always use just inks; some of my pieces include inks, colored pencils spray paint even some acrylic paints that I blend all together in different layers with different brushes and manners. I like to experiment using different mediums together that as a rule they say can't or shouldn't be used together. I also do a lot work on glass. I etch the same finely-detailed kind of pictures and pieces I do on paper on to glass bottles, flat glass, mirrors and even old vinyl record albums with a Dremel and wide assortment of different bits. I often after etching a picture will go back and blend light shades of color into it with various types of mediums from inks to different kinds of paints. Creating etchings and art with a Dremel is something I started about 10 years ago, and I have been working at and experimenting with since.

Green Tree and Bridge © Stephen Morris

How do you define your style of diversionary art, and how does it stand apart from other established styles?

I would define my diversionary art style as art without boundaries. Art has always been said to be in the eye of the person admiring it, so my style is a style without boundaries - meaning the person who is admiring or just even looking at it, is allowed to and can see what they want to see, and not necessarily the same thing that someone else sees. They are free to make of it what they want unlike some of the other established styles where, say, a tree is a tree to everyone who looks at it. The story I intend for my art to tell is whatever story the person looking into reads. My art means a lot to me, it represents my feelings, thoughts and places in my life, both physically, mentally and emotionally. I guess that would lead into the answer to the next question,

What inspires you to create art?

Elizabeth J. White,
 at an art show.

Elizabeth White creates her art at home in Easley, South Carolina.  Working mainly in acrylic, she does not limit herself. White also uses oil, watercolor, pencil, charcoal and other mediums in creating her art. She considers her style as traditional and she also experiments with different forms of art. Her works are sometimes abstract as well as portrait, landscape and fantasy. "I love to paint, and create; I don't want to sound cliche but to me art is me - who I am as a person."  Artworks by White are on display in Greenville, SC at Les Beaux Art, in the village of West Greenville.

Elizabeth White introduces herself:

I have been told my first creation was on mama's pots and pans. I can't say I am from anywhere really; I was born on an airforce base, the middle of three children, so we traveled often.  Creating art from memories is something I love doing. I draw inspiration from the old adage, "The best things in life are free" and they truly are, like a church on the hillside overlooking fields of grain, little children playing with all the wonderment of their first experience of the leaves changing color, a quiet day on a old tire swing by the lake. Many things that inspire me, my granddaughter my family, my country, events, one thing is I always give myself in my art, from something that touches me and warms my heart to something so wonderful that I see and the colors stand out vividly... even from dreams, I love to paint, and in between my paintings I love to sketch; and in all my art I feel I leave something of myself.

The Gathering © Elizabeth J. White

Here I am pleased to be interviewing the prolific artist D.K.Osorio from Northern California. D. K. works primarily in pen and ink drawings and oil paintings, but has been branching out recently into photography. Her black and white abstract and surrealist pieces are the most extensive part of her current body of artwork.

Pendulum Swing  © D.K. Osorio,
A keeper of time where there is none except you.

How long have you considered yourself an artist?

Ever since I was a little girl, drawing Snoopy cartoons.

Tell me about your first experience creating in your current medium:

My first experience in my current medium in pen drawing was around Halloween of 2012. There is for me a constantly present evolving need to create something challenging the metaphysical. And one creative source that I had yet to tap was my dark neurosis that I felt was too disturbing to express to a public forum. However, Halloween presented itself as a golden opportunity to expose this part of my creativity with some comfort.

What results are you looking for in response to your art?

To draw the viewer to experience an emotion that makes he or she react, no matter how positively or negatively. As long as they feel passionately for an artwork that I created then there becomes a strong connection, a link between them and my creative soul.

And She Was © D.K. Osorio,
Joining the world of missing persons. 
Missing enough to feel alright.

What does your art mean to you?

What it conveys is an extension of what I am feeling at the time. What I am experiencing in my day-to-day life will show up in my work.

What is the most annoying remark made to you about your art?

Someone once told me that they liked my art so much that they were going to make copies of it, and put it on their wall.

Do you have any regrets in your life as an artist?

The one regret I have is not having complete confidence in myself as an artist. It is always a constant battle in my head. Especially when I create an artwork that I feel is not up to the standards of others. I am my own worst critic.

What plans do you have for the future of your art?

The plans for my drawings are to one day publish them in a book, possibly in coffee book format telling a story behind each one or interconnect them into one story.

Do you have any advice for emerging artists?

Never stop marketing!

 A Shed Tear For You © D.K. Osorio,

A lot of emotion behind one small drop of water.

How to find D.K. Osorio online….

• Website
• Twitter: @dkosorioartist

In The Hall  © D.K. Osorio,

 A tribal urge among broken glass.