Artist Highlight – Milena Briceño
Milena Briceño was born in Valparaíso, Chile before her family moved to the capital city of Santiago. She carries an ongoing love affair with drawing, Italy, wrestling, the colors blue and gray, tattoos, and Taekwondo. Check out more of her work here.
How did you become an illustrator?
Ever since I was a child, I’ve been enchanted by Walt Disney movies and animation from the 80’s and 90’s. This fascination continues to this day and has caused me to develop my penchant for drawing animals of any and every kind. Throughout this time, my parents have strongly encouraged me to keep drawing and also supported my passion with gifts of pencils and sketchbooks for my birthdays and Christmas. This is probably why I absolutely love collecting art supplies.
It wasn’t until high school that I discovered manga, anime, and also World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)! This pushed me to finally begin drawing people, whether it be caricatures of my classmates or fan art.
In 2003, I started studying Animation and Comic art at the Instituto ARCOS. That year I met and befriended many fellow artists and learned various drawing styles and techniques. Those experiences caused me to switch my studies to another passion of mine: languages. I have since learned English, Japanese, and Italian. The study of languages and their countries have been a great influence on my art.
I eventually started my webpage in 2004 which I called “Silicon World”, named after a song by Eiffel 65. The purpose of the website is to share both my digital and traditional ink drawings.
Give us a little insight as to how you use our JetPens products in your illustrations.
The process is the same in everything I draw. If it’s just a sketch, I use a Pentel Graph 600 drafting pencil. If it’s meant to be inked and colored, I use a Zebra Drafix drafting pencil. The reason for this is that the weight of the Pentel Graph 600 requires little pressure get a perfect black/blue/red shade and your sketch becomes much clearer. With the Zebra Drafix I can make a light sketch that minimizes eraser use to avoid ink pigment loss. I also use Pentel Stein Enhanced Silica pencil lead and Staedtler Mars Micro Color leads.
For inking I use either Pentel or Pilot brush pens, and Copic Multiliner SP Black ink pens or Sakura Pigma Micron drawing pens because they’re waterproof and perfect for watercolor art. I’m also trying to use more pen nibs (I found the Tachikawa nibs to be perfect) with the waterproof Kuretake Manga Pen ink.
I then retouch the inking in Photoshop CS5 if the drawing is meant to be colored digitally, otherwise I color with W&N watercolors and Ecoline inks straight onto the canvas for traditional drawings.
Bear in mind that, since I’m an art supply collector, I tend to use more than one brand of pencil for my drawings. I find that you have to try different types and brands of tools to get the desired effect and the best possible lines.
More of Milena’s artwork: (click on images to enlarge)
Ever wonder how artists use JetPens products? JetPens showcases artists every month and interviews them to see what their favorite JetPens tools are. Please send any suggestions for Artist Features to jetpromos(at)jetpens.com!
SOURCE:http://www.jetpens.com/blog/artist-highlight-milena-briceno/pt/481