Exclusive Interview With VZEWL, 2nd Prize Winner of the Digital Art Award, 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
For a 3D character artist, VZEWL is on an extraordinary pursuit of realism —the expressions, the poses, the gestures of his uncompromising female figures ooze emotion. If the eyes are the window to the soul, the self-taught creative instantly grabs you and dives deep into states unknown, yet somehow familiar. VZEWL is there to observe and channel this by turns dark, uplifting and weirdly wonderful energy back to the viewer.
It’s a practice he has been perfecting οver time, moving from the punky, Harley Quinn-inspired, gaming characters to ever-more ambitious digital art explorations of the human psyche, where little more than a piercing pair of eyes and a startlingly revealing stream of light are needed. VZEWL’s winning piece, The Bee’s Knees was an even bolder move, breaking with the artist’s tradition of eye-catching accessories and head-turning beauties to a honey-coloured portrait of a girl’s knees stung by bees —cute yet uncomfortable, playful yet painful, buzzing with energy yet numbing.
It’s just one of the ways VZEWL keeps surprising himself and his audience, as he masters his 3D craft and dreams bigger. He looks to gradually expand into painting and animation on ever-badder and bolder missions to reach new emotional corners and creative landscapes.
In this exclusive interview, I asked VZEWL to take us deeper into his digital art world and let us in on his practices, inspirations and plans for the future. Let’s dive in!
Interview with VZEWL
What appealed to you most in digital art?
The thing that appealed to me the most with digital art is the ability to iterate. Being able to save incremental versions as you create a piece of artwork is one of the most valuable aspects to me. I rarely start a piece with anything more than a vague idea. I love being able to try poses, angles, colors, etc. and find the artwork in the process. This means no rough sketches, no brainstorming, just head first into creating. Naturally working this way, the ability to be able to look at a bunch of my ideas at once allows me to more accurately see what I was trying to create in the first place.
What are, in your view, the greatest rewards and challenges of being a self-taught artist?
The greatest reward in being a self-taught artist, in my opinion, is being able to have a sense of ownership of my ideas. Not having any formal education I feel like I am not encumbered with the knowledge of knowing the various industry standards or practices. Obviously, I have learned some along the way but I have a feeling that not being told the “correct way” has relieved some of my anxiety in exploring different directions.
The greatest challenges I think I face as a self-taught artist are two things. Networking is a huge one. I have met incredible people through my artwork on social media, but my physical influence and representation I think has suffered from that. I think the other aspect that is challenged is my efficiency. I feel like I have many potential inefficient workflows that maybe could have been improved with comparison to peers and guidance from a mentor of some kind.
Not having any formal education I feel like I am not encumbered with the knowledge of knowing the various industry standards or practices.
VZEWL
Your recent posts focus on more intimate, psychologically charged portraits as opposed to eye-catching, stylised fantasy. What prompted this change?
What prompted this change was hours of experimentation with different techniques for realism. Realistic humans are still one of the hardest things to create and I personally find it extremely rewarding. Also, naturally I think this change was influenced by my personal life. When I was creating high fantasy, bubbly, fun, energetic characters I was in a very vibrant and thriving place. It took a huge left turn for me after that and through exploring the subtle aspects of depression, strength, and isolation I was trying to just make sense of something.
One of the most important things to me though when I am creating a portrait is that I try my hardest to never make them look helpless. I know what it feels like to be there and I think pushing myself to show resilience helps me digest my own advice in a weird way.
Can you name the artists or works of art –whether that’s digital art, photography, cinema and beyond– that you feel have most shaped your VZEWL identity?
Although a more recent inspiration, Alberto Mielgo is probably my biggest inspiration. When I saw his episode of “Love, Death, and Robots” called “The Witness” I was absolutely smitten. I had never seen an animation like that in my life and I couldn’t believe that the medium I was so involved with was able to create something like that. His Oscar-winning short film “The Windshield Wiper” is one of the greatest pieces of media I have ever consumed.
I also can’t forget Panos Cosmatos. A film director that only has a few theatrical releases, his movies are unlike any other. His ability to make films that are so unconventional really speaks to me and reinforces my feelings about being self-taught. Both of his latest films “Beyond the Black Rainbow” and “Mandy” will forever be seeded in my artwork moving forward.
Words mean something, and sometimes in normal conversation, colloquialisms are tossed around and the idea of hitting pause and actually looking at what we are saying was intriguing to me.
VZEWL
Talk to us a bit about the inspiration behind your BB Art Prize-winning artwork The Bee’s Knees. I love how it conveys a strongly emotional state, although the viewer can’t even see the character’s face.
The Bee’s Knees was originally a concept I had come up with for just a general weekly art prompt challenge that I occasionally take part in. The theme was “Literal Idiom” and I was entranced with all of the possibilities. Words mean something, and sometimes in normal conversation, colloquialisms are tossed around and the idea of hitting pause and actually looking at what we are saying was intriguing to me. I wanted it to be as grotesque but as beautiful as possible. In complete honesty, when I was creating the initial versions of it, I thought that it would be perfect for Beautiful Bizarre.
It is extremely ironic and will probably feel untrue, but the fact that it landed me second place in the competition that I intuitively had the idea for was truly surreal for me. I wanted it to be both mesmerizing and hard to look at. That uncomfortability is sometimes a very inspiring emotion for me and I think that I achieved it with this piece. Showing only the legs was, surprisingly, always the composition I had in mind. Although basically everything I create are facial portraits, something about the idea just lended itself to something different.
I think the entire amount of information you need to understand the image is in the composition and anything else, in my opinion, would have been redundant and unnecessary.
How long does it take to finish an artwork on average – what is your process, and when do you know it’s ready to be shared?
An average length of time for me to finish a piece varies, but I would say 4-7 days is probably accurate. Depending on how sure I am of the idea it will be on the lower end, but I spend a lot of time in the last 15% of all of my pieces. My process, as I mentioned before, is very abrupt and advancing. I like to just get in there and start making something happen.
Sometimes I have no idea what I am even trying to accomplish or if my idea even works but I try and find it. This leads to a ton of artwork that never makes it out of the gate but it’s my version of just getting the ideas out and seeing what sticks. My most common workflow is to start posing my characters. This is one of the most satisfying parts for me. I still surprise myself by how a small eyebrow raise or eyeline can entirely change the mood of a portrait.
Since I am going for realism, I really try to make sure that it feels like the different parts are interacting with each other. If a finger is resting on a cheek, the indentation and conformation is very important to the final piece and, working in a digital space, this is sometimes something that can easily be overlooked. Once I feel satisfied with the pose I move on to creating the materials for the skin, hair, glasses, etc. This is where I also try and find the camera angle.
Sometimes I have a vague idea based on the pose but it is usually not the final. Like a photographer, I look at the model from every possible angle trying to find a natural but flattering angle that will help tell my story.
Lastly, lighting. Something I have been using lately is very harsh and broken-up sunlight. I think this really helps sell the realism while giving that feeling of the “brightness and vibrance” trying to affect us, but we aren’t in the place to fully allow ourselves into it. I believe that an artwork is ready to share when the changes I start making to it are just different and not an increase in quality. Sometimes this manifests as a last second hair or eye color change, or it is me just going back and forth between two different focal lengths over and over. It’s also ready to share when I am enthusiastically tired of looking at it.
What are the parallels between your everyday reality and your VZEWL art? The most fantastical moments may obviously stray far from real life, but to what extent are the emotions, attitudes or fashions inspired by the people and truths populating your world?
The parallels between my artwork and my life are simultaneously non-existent and completely overlapped. Although that is quite oxymoronic, I feel a deep connection to my pieces and everything I do isn’t by accident. One of the main things that never really comes up but is very apparent in my artwork is that a lot of my characters have fairer skin complexions.
Personally, I am mixed, but I never knew one side of my family. My upbringing was very homogeneous and whenever I interacted with the culture that I would have been a part of if my life was different, I felt like an imposter. I was never able to connect with that aspect of my life and sometimes resented that I personally had to deal with that.
I truly feel like I am ill-prepared to represent half of myself in an authentic way. Aesthetically though, the tattoos, piercings, just general punky, bad-ass vibes of my characters are the non-existent part. I am a very shy and reserved person, and openly having an attitude is something I will probably never do. I think female characters are extremely interesting, I usually play female characters in video games and my favorite comic book character is Harley Quinn. I think that all of these things bleed into my work and I just love creating people that seem like they would be awesome to meet.
What is your vision and goals for the future? How do you see VZEWL’s art growing?
Some mixed media incorporating digital and physical mediums is also definitely something I would like to explore. I think that my artwork will grow to become more “sophisticated” for lack of a better term. I am looking to create concise coherent artworks, like The Bee’s Knees, that feel exclusive and singular. That convey a tone but still have my essence. I would like to create conceptually broader pieces that allow me to pour more time and ideas into them.
My ultimate goal for the future is to create a proper short film. I have dabbled in creating short teasers and short lore explanations but working on an animation to an acceptable polished state is what I’m striving for. I currently am invested in creating still images, but animation is something I have the luxury of accessing with my medium and I think it could open up a lot of avenues for me.
Personally, I see my art growing outside of the digital space. Painting has always been intriguing to me and now that I am on a good track, I would love to be able to create in other locations other than in front of my computer. Painting, I feel, is the opposite of the rigidity of digital, while being a very expressive and nuanced medium that I think would lend itself well to my ideologies.
Why did you enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
I entered the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize because I felt that my artwork was perfect for it. I think that it portrayed that ideology behind the magazine and being such an avid follower, I needed to be a part of it. Being able to have my artwork seen at this capacity was something that for a long time I wasn’t ready to do, and it just so happened that when this was available to enter it was at a perfect time for me to dip my toe into that pool again.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
I feel that I have gained a ton from this experience. I think my biggest take away was dealing with the art exhibition workflow and seeing that all come together. A vast majority of my art career has been online and through social media so gallery customs and protocols were completely new to me. Seeing many of my fellow artists have representing galleries was pretty intimidating and I definitely suffered from a bit of imposter syndrome. Having access to the more established art scene was an honor and something I definitely want to explore more.
The other biggest thing I’ll be taking away is trusting myself more. I was very pessimistic towards myself all the way through the process and ending up with second place has allowed me to trust my artistic instincts and give myself a bit more personal credit.
Would you recommend it and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
I would 100% recommend this to anyone and everyone. Beautiful Bizarre as a concept alone is an incredibly interesting concept. When I found your social media I was instantly hooked, and felt a place that was just purely creative. Entering this competition allows you to be a part of something that is not only a great introduction to the fine art scene, but is also a great place to have your artwork seen by some incredible people. Like me, if you are struggling with feeling like you don’t belong or aren’t being seen, this community was incredible. I will be submitting again.
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