The Digital Paintings of Kristina Gehrmann
Q. How did you get started in your medium?
A. I've always loved drawing, and have been doodling ever since I can remember, but I started taking it seriously when I was about 13 (in 2002/2003). That was the time when I recognized that randomly drawing wouldn't lead to improvement and that I actually had to do studies and exercises and read books about it if I wanted to get anywhere. In digital painting and drawing, I'm fully self taught. I started working with a graphics tablet in 2002. Back then there weren't as many tutorials on the internet as today, so I relied a lot on experimenting and figuring out things on my own. I still worked with traditional media alongside often, right until I finished my courses of classical academic art at Angel Academy of Art (Florence, Italy) in 2011. From about 2012 I worked mostly digitally.
Q. What is the biggest influence on your art?
A. Reading, seeing and consuming interesting, new things whenever I can. For example, traveling – I love towns like Florence, Siena, Ljubljana, Amsterdam or Antwerp (Right now it's not an option, obviously). Then there are books and movies of all kinds, fiction as well as nonfiction. And, of course, looking at artwork! I have way too many favorite artists to name, and there are always more to discover.
Q. Did art play a role in your childhood? (Were you exposed to artists, did you enjoy making art)
A. Yes, I drew as every kid does, I just didn't stop drawing when I got older. There's one other artist in my family; my grandpa who used to paint with watercolor as a hobby.
Q. Who is your favorite artist?
A. I have way too many favorite artists to name, and there are always more to discover.
Q. How does art impact your life?
A. It's my profession, it's what I do every day. It can be easy to take it for granted because even with art, routine sets in so I regularly remind myself that I'm lucky to be in this place.
Q. Do you ever get bored drawing your characters and what do you do about that?
A. I haven't gotten bored with any art subject so far, there's always something new to try and discover.
Summer Rain
Icebound
Captain Fitzjames
Victorian Girlfriends or The New Colors of 1858
Little Red Riding Hood
Medieval Town Scene and 15th Century Joust
The Artist at Home
Find more of Kristina's work on Artstation and her website.
All of the above images are copyright Kristina Gehrmann and shared here with permission.
Try it yourself
Learn to Make Your Own Digital Paintings
Gimp is a free downloadable program (open source software) for creating digital art or manipulating images.
I find it is easiest to draw on a tablet with a stylus, but you can use a computer and mouse if that is what you have.
On the Gimp website there is a tutorials page, linked in the menu at the top. Everything
you need to start learning to make your own digital art is right there, so download it and give it a try.