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Interview with Cosmic Spectrum at Lightbox Expo 2023
🕑 Added 2023-09-14 00:35:27 +0000 UTCNote: Due to circumstances outside of our control, this will go live on the main Anime Herald site on 9/14/2023. We apologize for the inconvenience.
- Interviewer: Seth Burn
- Editor: Samantha Ferreira
Anime Herald: What is your origin story as an artist?
Cosmic Spectrum: Oh, that’s a tough question. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, so there isn’t much of a story to tell. It’s just something that I’ve worked towards since a pretty young age. I’ve never done anything other than that.
Anime Herald: So this is always what you wanted to do. What’s your training?
Cosmic Spectrum: I did one year of graphic design, and one year in illustration, and then I switched over. I went to Sheridan College for traditional animation. I have a bachelor's degree in that. I decided to go back to the illustration route because that’s what I ended up preferring.
Anime Herald: When you first started, did you start with your own art, or did you join the corporate world?
Cosmic Spectrum: I’ve always done a lot of personal art. I started posting my artwork online very early on, before social media exploded. I think, as a result, because I have a social media following, I’ve never had to actively search for work. I haven’t worked much in the studio environment, just a little bit here and there. Overall, I mostly work from home. I’m full-time freelance.
Anime Herald: If someone wants you to work on something, you take the call directly.
Cosmic Spectrum: Yes. I try not to do a lot of client work these days. I prefer to focus on building my own brand. I’m currently writing my own comic series.
(Editor’s note: Gloamingvale.)
Anime Herald: I first discovered your art through Grimoire Noir. How did you first get involved in that project?
Cosmic Spectrum: That was the very short time I was working at a mobile games studio. It was right after I graduated from Sheridan Animation. I was already contemplating quitting the job because I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I figured it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. The author of the book reached out to me.
I’d heard of her work before, and seen her collaborate with artists that I admired in the past. I took a look at what she had to offer. She already had a deal with a publisher. She asked me if I wanted to illustrate her graphic novel. After some back and forth I agreed and quit my job and decided to do that instead.
Anime Herald: Good for you. Who were the artists who inspired you when you were growing up?
Cosmic Spectrum: I think I’ve been through a lot of different phases. Earlier on in life, like many other artists around my age, or from my generation, I was inspired by Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, and a lot of other anime, like Dragon Ball Z. Things that we watched as kids. That was one of my first inspirations.
Afterwards, I started reading a lot of Japanese comics, and then Korean comics. I discovered some Korean video game character designers. It kind of went all over the place. Eventually, when I went to get an education, I started to get into classical artists. I’m a big fan of John Singer Sargeant. I love J.C. Leyndecker. My influences are kind of all over the place.
Anime Herald: You mentioned Korean video game character designers. Any in particular?
Cosmic Spectrum: One in particular is Hyung-tae Kim. He was pretty popular at the time, which was 17-18 years ago.
Anime Herald: You do two different styles to create your art: traditional and digital. Can you walk us through how you create a digital piece?
Cosmic Spectrum: For digital artwork, I primarily use Adobe Photoshop. That’s something I’ve been using for a very long time so that’s the program I’m most used to. I prefer to work on a large screen so I have a (Wacom) Cintiq. I’m also a PC user, so I have a Windows PC.
I tend to do primarily digital work for my clients. I guess that’s what people are seeking these days, for commercial purposes. For my personal artwork, I prefer to use inks. Colored inks are one of my favorite mediums. A bit of a mixed media approach, where I’ll use Polychromos, colored pencils, and just bring in a bunch of other random mediums to fuse altogether.
Anime Herald: How long do the traditional pieces take you?
Cosmic Spectrum: I generally don’t work on the traditional pieces longer than a day. Maybe six hours, tops. It really depends. Some of them are much shorter than that. A few years ago I was participating in the Inktober challenge. I only had a two-hour window every day. A lot of them are only two hours of work to complete. It varies, depending on the detail level.
Anime Herald: The Scholar is one of the six-hour pieces?
Cosmic Spectrum: Yeah. That’s one of the longer ones, but I did it in a day, I’m pretty sure. The original is actually smaller than this.
Anime Herald: So this is blown up.
Cosmic Spectrum: Yes. I always do that, I always blow up work. Most of the time I prefer working smaller. It seems to work out pretty well somehow, even when it’s blown up
Anime Herald: That speaks to the detail of your strokes. How long do the digital pieces take you?
Cosmic Spectrum: The digital pieces vary depending on what I’m doing, but they do tend to take longer. Around double the time. I find myself being perfectionistic with them. I tend to zoom in unnecessarily. That’s one of the reasons that for personal work I prefer to stick with traditional. Depending on what time frame I have to work with, I’ll adjust my digital process to make sure I hit all of my deadlines.
Anime Herald: What artists inspire you these days?
Cosmic Spectrum: That’s a tough one. I’ve been focused on work. I haven’t had a lot of time to look around for inspiration. I do want to say I was very shocked and devastated by the passing of Kim-jung Gi recently. I have so many of his art books. He was a huge inspiration for sure as far as current artists go.
There are just so many. A ton of artists that I follow are here at Lightbox Expo. I admire their work so much. They’re basically just everywhere.
Anime Herald: How did you first get involved with Lightbox Expo?
Cosmic Spectrum: I had heard of it when it first came around in 2019. I had really wanted to attend since it seemed like a really cool event. I took my chance and applied as soon as the physical show was back on. Thankfully, here I am.
Anime Herald: Any closing comments?
Cosmic Spectrum: On any particular topic?
Anime Herald: Yep. This is free range.
Cosmic Spectrum: Just to stay on topic, I think Lightbox Expo is such a great event. It’s an incredible opportunity to make connections with people, and meet a ton of artists that you or I may admire. I think personally it’s one of my favorite conventions I’ve been to so far. I find it’s quite different from the comic cons and the anime conventions. It’s a great con. I love it.
Anime Herald: I have to tell you, I was in front of another booth and someone was talking about Anime Expo and she said “This is a little bit like Anime Expo except you don’t have all the anime boobies.”
Cosmic Spectrum: Exactly. It’s a little classier.
Anime Herald: Thank you very much for this.
Cosmic Spectrum: Thank you.
Cosmic Spectrum’s work can be found on her website, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
