Punk Is Not Dead! by Artbycaos

Who said that punk is dead?!

Artbycaos, an Instagram artist with over 68k followers, who I suppose agree with her, proved us the opposite! Her art combines beauty and spookiness, inspired by gothic and renaissance details. Talking with her I discovered a new side of Oil painting that I would never have imagined. So, i think you should take a seat and read our little chat with Artbycaos!

It’s obvious.. Your art has a strong goth background! You have a different and interesting conception of beauty.. What’s your biggest inspiration? Do you think that your art fits well with your personality and personal style?

Inspiration is always such a tricky thing to describe in words. Throughout my life I’ve always had an affinity for dark visuals I guess you could say. I found religious renaissance paintings/sculptures so intriguing and eerie, take that and merge it with my full love for all Halloween related things and alternative rock music it was a match made in hell. When it comes to comparing my creations or fashion sense to me as a person I get the comment “your art is haunting but you’re not at all”, which I find it funny since it seems like people have a certain expectation of how an artist is judging by the art they make. Same thing with a lot of goths, they get the rep of being super scary and intimidating but end up being extremely friendly!

You use a lot of traditional tools, and I think they give very much the idea of grunge and scary vibes. Have you ever tried digital drawing? Or do you think that traditional tools could give a more grungy effect to your art?

I have a very physical process when it comes to creating art. I need to have all hands on deck. Digital work requires me to be very static which is not my favorite thing but I do a lot of custom work digitally, especially for tattoo work since it’s more convenient to fix things according to the client’s needs. I am a firm believer that a medium shouldn’t dictate what kind of thing you do, you should be able to create with no strings attached. Having said that, even when I’m working digitally I try to emulate my traditional ink work as much as I can simply because it feels genuine to me. I’m not attracted to creating that perfect render and vector look through technology (at least at this stage in my life, who knows what I’m into in the future haha).

Wanna be always updated?

Don’t lose our new posts, activities, exercises and some behind-the-scenes. Joining our newsletter is easy and free.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

How do you manage commissions and freelancing? Could you give some tip or advice to every artist who’s reading this post?

OKAY, commission work is no joke. It can be super fun but like any other job it can have tough times. You need to be ready to expect difficult clients sometimes, correcting your work or tight deadlines. I’ve been lucky that majority of the people I worked with in my years so far have been super lovely but that is not always the case. Having said that, it feels so rewarding to bring someone’s vision to life and make them happy, and for those moments I’ll take any Karen on my DMs any day.

My biggest recommendations I can give from what I’ve learned so far if you’re looking into jumping into freelancing is A- Set your boundaries: Make sure you have it written first hand your working process, how many revisions are included before an extra fee is added, what kind of work you do/don’t etc. and B- Get paid upfront. Scammers exist, it’s really easy to point one out if they refuse to accept your rules!

I love every oil piece you made but “Torn apart” left me absolutely speechless. How’s the oil paint process?

I only started with Oils around May of this year, I had dabbled in them before but nothing serious. Oil paint was such a beautiful medium to get into I can’t recommend it enough. With my usual ink/watercolor work I can finish in a day/a week but oils teach you to be patient since they require different drying times between layers. My Torn Apart painting was my most ambitious work I’ve ever done and the reaction from my audience was pretty overwhelming! It took around five or six weeks to complete and it’ll take a couple months more before I’m able to varnish it so I still have that to look forward to.

(Swipe to see the process!)

I’m really curious to know what your favourite tool could be among all those you are using! What would you recommend to those who follow you?

Back to my previous answer, Oil paints! They seem really intimidating from the outside, trust me I know -been there done that, but they are more easy to play with than what you think! Once you get the hang of it and basic tools you’re good to go. During the pandemic being stuck in repetitive tendencies has been a problem and picking up oils was the best cure for it!

You’d like to teach drawing or painting someday? Maybe making a class or something like that?

Funny you ask that, some of my followers know I was supposed to do an online class last year. But life happens and sometimes technicalities that are out of your hands and things don’t work out. I would love to one day help out and instruct fellow beginner creatives on all art things in my head!