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Oskars Pavlovskis is a Latvian artist who dabbles in a variety of art forms ranging from comic strips to illustrations to 3D game art. After studying the arts for over a decade, Oskars works as a freelance artist as well as working full-time specialising in 3D computer graphic art. Even though Oskars is half way around the world, he found the time to humbly answer some questions from his Australian fans.
How would you describe your style of art?
If I had to name one word that describes my style that would be "organic". I tend to focus mainly on living organisms, characters and the stories behind them. The freedom and randomness within flesh as a material and the patterns in organic shapes are the most interesting for me. I have a big passion for anatomy and my characters sometimes morph with unstructured shapes and become depictions of mixed creatures between reality and fiction.
Your art is very visually striking, where does an idea for a new piece begin? How do you develop that idea?
I think for me there is more than a one way how an idea is born and led to its final form. The starting point can be a thought or a theme that has been stuck and processed in my mind for a while and when I get to drawing it lets itself out on the paper in any way, shape or form that suits the moment. Or it can be a clueless, blind start, looking on a white page or screen and waiting for something to pop out and materialize where its final result is unknown. Sometimes it is dictated by the medium that I choose to work in just because I feel the urge to create something in that exact technique.
Oskars Pavlovskis
You have extensive experience both studying and working as an artist, how have you grown as an artist from when you first started?
Growth is inevitable. With so many things changing all around and at the same rate inside me nothing stays intact and neither does my art. I am always looking for new ways of creating, changing and expanding my art both visually and ideologically, by slowly adding or changing small things and evolving my style step by step. Looking back on the time when I started studying art, I wouldn't call myself an artist then; the awareness of my own art without any influences from the study process came later, after finishing my Bachelor studies. So in a way I feel like I am just at the beginning.
Does your geographical location influence the style of art you create?
It must have an influence. I think it is more on the idea side of my work then a visual. Sources for visual influences can come from everywhere as there are no limitations on what you can get your eyes on now days. But the ideas for characters come from real, every-day experiences and the environment around me that I absorbed unconsciously every day. Most of my characters have prototypes that I have seen or met in reality, mixed with fiction and exaggeration.
Some of your art is comical, others are almost delving into surrealist territory, what dictates the style of art you create?
I like to give everything a turn to a dark humor side, balanced on the border of grotesque. That is the place where I feel the most comfortable in my art.
You’ve been able to use different tools to create different styles of art, whether it’s illustrations or 3D digital models, what tool feels most comfortable to you?
The ones that gives me the most creative freedom, I guess. In my case, it must be digital illustration for its limitless possibilities, speed and ease of use. I don't like when technique is somehow standing in the way of creative process. That is one of the reasons why I don't use traditional painting in any of my work. I hated waiting on paint to dry to continue working.
When you create a comic, what comes first, the dialogue or the art?
Somehow I’ve managed to keep my comic, as I like to call them, "live". It is a simultaneous creative process for dialogue and images, like a journey to the unknown. There is a vague storyline or direction in mind but never a rock solid vision what the next panel will look like and what it will say.
Many of your comic illustrations have an environmental theme running through them, is this something you try to explore through your art?
Yes and no. I try to tie in specific locations in my comics but they are more of a background to give the characters more depth. I am not especially interested in the environment itself but more who and what are living in it.
Finally, what does being an artist mean to you?
For me being an artist means having an ability to create and live in my own universe.
You can check out more of Oskars' work here.
