Question 1

Are you currently available for commissions or freelance work?

Accepted Answer

That depends. Sometimes I am available and sometimes I am not. It is best to either check my social media accounts or to keep an eye out for an email from me if you are subscribed to my mailing list.

However, there is no harm in shooting me a message either by email at kayaskosmos@gmail.com or filling in a contact form.

Please be aware that I may not be able to get back to you immediately due to my schedule. Please also check my prices and terms and conditions to make sure I am the right artist for you.

Question 2

What are your prices and terms and conditions?

Accepted Answer

I have placed a link to prices, terms and conditions at the top of this page. Click on it to view them. Please do not ask me for free work or art trades as I need to prioritise my job.

Question 3

Where did you learn your skills? Please could you teach me/critique my work?

Accepted Answer

I have taken multiple routes in getting to where I am today. I took two art GSCEs (Art Graphics and Fine Art), two art A-levels, (Art Graphics and Fine Art), a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Animation and a Master's level Degree in Creative Technology. In the meantime, I have also picked up my skills from a variety of different online artists and courses, including "Istebrak", "Schoolism", "The Society of Visual Storytelling", "Volen CK - Pursuing Mastery", "Marco Bucci", "Proko", "The Structure of Man" and "Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL"
 
Sadly, I cannot do one-on-one tutoring, nor do I plan to make tutorials. Part of this is down to the fact that there are already so many art teaching resources out there. I also do not do critiques of other people's work. I may be an artist, but unfortunately I lack the communication skills to be a teacher of art.

Question 4

Please could you review my art/portfolio?

Accepted Answer

I'm afraid that I do not have the expertise to review entire portfolios or to critique the work of others. Again, I can only point to other people who are better at critique than I am.

Question 5

Would you like to collaborate on a project?

Accepted Answer

I am happy to collaborate on a project as long as there is the promise of paid work. "Exposure" and "Royalties" do not count as viable methods of payment, nor do NFTs. There are no exceptions to this. Even if you are a large company or a charity, I cannot except unpaid work of any kind. I will also not work with MCNs or Networks.

Question 6

Can I use your work for noncommercial purposes?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but with major exceptions.

You may use my work for personal study, including referencing lighting, poses etc. for the sake of learning. Please be aware that my work does have mistakes and you will pick up my mistakes if you study my work.
All of my commissions are not available for noncommercial use outside of study. These do not belong to me so you are not allowed to use these.
All personal work - especially that within the "Flowerpunk" universe - falls under a CC BY-NC licence. To break that down a bit - "This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. Credit must be given to the creator. Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted." You may therefore take any characters or creature designs from this IP and create derivatives of any kind so long as they are noncommercial and for noncommercial use. All designs relating to the Flowerpunk IP and other personal work will immediately transfer to the public domain upon my death and will be free for all use.
All works created for use in activism (including Love the Dogs) fall under the same licence with the exception of charity/activism groups who may wish to use the work for fundraising. In which place, please contact me immediately so we may discuss the details of this.

Question 7

Can I use your work for commercial purposes?

Accepted Answer

Under no circumstances are you permitted to use any commissioned work of mine for commercial use.

If you intend to use my personal/activism work for commercial purposes, you must contact me first so that we can discuss a licence. Under no circumstances are you permitted to use my work commercially without my explicit consent.

Question 8

What programs/equipment do you use?

Accepted Answer

~ Adobe Photoshop (For Digital Paintings).
~ Quicktime (For Screen Recording).
~ Da Vinci Resolve (For video editing and animation compilations). 
~ ToonBoom Harmony (For Animating). 
~ Zbrush (For 3D modelling). 
~ Apple Macbook.
~ Wacom Cintiq 13HD.
~ Blue Yeti microphone (For voice recording).

Question 9

Where can I buy prints of your work?

Accepted Answer

Currently I have a RedBubble account on which I sell prints, although only a limited amount of my work is on there. I may be changing this in the future. You can find a link to my Redbubble on the front page of this website.

Question 10

Do you sell NFTs? Would you like to collaborate on NFTs?

Accepted Answer

No. Absolutely not.

I have no intention of ever minting my work as an NFT, nor will I collaborate with someone who would like to mint my NFTs.

Please contact me immediately if you see my work being minted because it is not me doing it.

Question 11

Why don't you like NFTs?

Accepted Answer

They are a pyramid scheme that does nothing to meaningfully help the art community, they are most effective for money laundering if anything. A good number of my friends have had their art stolen and minted on Opensea and it is devastating to see. NFTs have a hefty environmental cost, plus they use up scarce resources needed to create video game consoles and computer hardware.

They create false scarcity for something that can be infinitely replicated - that being a digital image.

However, despite the fact that I do not like NFTs at all, I will not come down on artists (especially those who are BIPOC, trans or disabled) who feel like they don't have a choice but to mint their work. Artists are highly unappreciated under Capitalism and we should be attacking the system, not the people struggling to survive under it.

There are plenty of videos out there breaking down the issues with NFTs. Here is the most thorough I could find:

Question 12

What media/people inspire your work?

Accepted Answer

I have far too many inspirations to list here, but let's just say "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

I do not hide my influences because all art is derivative, after all. We create through absorbing as much of the outside world as we can.

Anyway, here is a quick breakdown of a few of my influences and inspirations:

People:

Kev Crossley. David Bunting. Salvador Dali. Kagaya. Max Magnus Norman. Therese Larsson. Aaron Blaise. Marco Bucci. Wayne Barlowe. Chris Riddell. RJ Palmer.

Films and TV.

Studio Ghibli films (most notably Princess Mononoke). The films of Satoshi Kon. The films of Ralph Bakshi. Ben 10. Watership Down. Barefoot Gen. Mary and Max.

Games.

Shadow of the Colossus. Okami. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Spyro. Inside. Machinarium. Rayman (1,3 and Legends). God of War series. Little Nightmares. Ori and the Blind Forest.

Comics.

Sandman. V for Vendetta. Covenant (webcomic). Melvina's therapy (webcomic).

Question 13

How did you find your style?

Accepted Answer

That's a bit of a tricky question to answer. The lazy answer is the same as every other artist, I explored a lot of different artists over the years and took inspiration. I also took inspiration from the world around me.

The thing is that I have quite a versatile style that changes from project to project.

My cute creature drawings are bold with strong shadows and caricatured proportions since they are intended for children.

Last Chance has no colour besides red and uses dogs and humans with very realistic proportions. This is to hammer home the bleak and severe tone of the film.

Flowerpunk uses a lot of organic shape language in its machinery to express how the world is merely a pale imitation of nature. There is a lot of geometry such as spirals (since spirals show up a lot in nature, such as in whirlpools and galaxies), and Celtic knots (to express the concept of "infinity"). It uses bright colour to express the queerness and strangeness of the world with harsh shadows to express its darkness. There are cute creatures juxtaposed with horrific ones. "Duality" and "contradiction" are major themes in the story and the style reflects that.

Young artists often see style as a way to "brand" yourself and will therefore often chase a style. But style is not a brand, it its a tool to enhance your work like any other tool.

Question 14

What has been the most difficult part of being an artist?

Accepted Answer

Being disabled under Capitalism.

No, I'm not joking.

Of all the things to absolutely ruin my creativity and the ability to become the artist I have always wanted to be, constantly coming up against systemic barriers and having completely unreasonable expectations put on me as a disabled individual has led to repeated episodes of burnout and fatigue. I could go on for a very long time about this, but about 90% of my issues relating to art are down to a socio-economic system that does little to properly support artists or disabled individuals and is actively making our lives worse with each passing day.

This is why - once again - I propose it is time to move to a socio-economic system that places human need (including our creative needs) over profit and GDP.

Question 15

How do you manage art block and burnout?

Accepted Answer

For me, art block has never really been much of an issue. If anything, I generally tend to have too many ideas and I become paralysed trying to think of a way to get all of my ideas down at once.

Burnout, on the other hand, is something I deal with very regularly. There are only two things that work in this case, proper rest and self care (which I realise can be very difficult in our hectic world) and re-invigorating my inspiration. Proper rest means completely coming away from social media, ensuring that I have a regular sleep schedule and also practising mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness doesn't necessarily mean meditation, (which I can't do), but working hard to avoid negative thought patterns, as well as taking time to myself to properly process emotions. I don't hide my emotions by trying to put on a happy face, but I also don't wallow in negative emotions because I know anxiety and depression are liars. Learning how your brain works and taking notice of your thought patterns is essential to understanding how to properly look after yourself.

Also it helps to install a feed killer Chrome extension for Twitter and Facebook if you can. Doom-scrolling will zap your motivation like nothing else.

Reinvigorating inspiration usually involves trying to find new media or try something new, even if I am bad at it. I quite often go down various media rabbit holes to try and find stuff that is interesting, new and weird. Getting out of a rut means finding the right circuit-breaker, and this advice also works for art block in other artists I've seen.

Your mentality towards art is also a big part of this. If you become paralysed with fear of "not being good enough", that can kill your creativity. The only reason I push myself to become a good artist is because I have to in order to get work, but I do not tie my self worth in with my art or judge myself too much. I have learnt that sometimes, drawing badly can be fun and I sometimes even do "bad" drawings on purpose.

Frequently asked questions