Q: Is your art digital or traditional? What programs do you use?

A: Most of my work nowadays is digital. I use Photoshop CC and a Wacom Intuos. When I was a student I had a Monoprice tablet and that’s what I would recommend to beginners.

Q: What brushes/settings do you use?

A: I prefer to make my own brushes, though I also have a few of Kyle T Webster’s brush packs. I used default hard round for years, though; don’t worry too much about having fancy brushes.

Q: Where do you get reference material for historical costumes?

A: Contemporary portraiture! Wikiart is my favorite place. But when you don’t know where to start, check Wikipedia’s articles on historical fashion by century/period/decade. Museum websites are good too. For me, having a good awareness of art history and painters who do good portraits and good costumes is important, so that for example when I hop on over to Wikiart I know I’m going to look up Lucas Cranach because I want early sixteenth-century Germany. For fashions from a bit earlier, manuscript illustrations are good, though finding a good manuscript can require a bit more hunting. Some manuscripts I’ve referenced off of have been the Luttrell Psalter, the Tacuinum Sanitatis, and the Smithfield Decretals. Pictures or even the full text from these can be found online with relative ease.

I don’t personally put much stock in books on the history of fashion; they can be good for a primer if you don’t know anything, but they are so general that you at most get 1 outfit per country per century. The artwork is also often referenced off of non-contemporary sources, such as Victorian prints and Preraphaelite paintings, which aren’t reliable.

In the case of ancient costumes where you won’t find many contemporary depictions, you’ll have to resort to modern artist’s interpretations or costumes put together by reenactors. Just do your research to make sure the artist has done theirs, before you reference off of them. Scholarly books that discuss costume finds in archaeology and attempt to reconstruct them are an example of sources against which to cross-check artist’s interpretations.

Q: Do you have process videos/tutorials? Can you tell me about your technique?

A: I have some process gifs floating around; I compiled a couple in this post.

Q: Do you have any tips on drawing/composition/color/lighting/art/what-have-you?

A: My tip for everything art-related is just practice. Unfortunately, there’s no secret beyond that. Critique among peers is also pretty much necessary in my opinion, if you can find it. Good critique is a seminar in critical visual thinking and will develop your ability to look at your art and understand where to go next. Art school was great for this specifically.

Q: What’s the deal with you talking about Swedish stuff all the time? Are you from Sweden? 

A: I’m American, but my ancestry is half-Swedish and I studied as an exchange student at Konstfack in Stockholm.

Q: Do you take commissions? What are your rates?

A: I am available for professional freelance work; if you’re interested please email me. As for private commissions – I don’t have them open at the moment, but whenever I do open them I will post about the specifications and prices.

Q: Are you related to Yuri Lowenthal?

A: No.

Q: Do you have a print shop?

A: Yes!

Q: Do you sell your zines online?

A: Not at the moment.