Artist Spotlight: KC Gillies
February 26, 2020
In our regular Spotlight segment we explore artists’ experiences and inspiration to understand what defines and inspires their unique styles.
KC Gillies has a bold and unique style and is open to commissions, when creating hyper real 'portraits'. KC likes to study animals, in particular birds.
Can you give us a brief background on yourself?
I never intended to be an artist. I drew a lot as a kid, but my teen years were spent mostly outside with dogs and horses. I didn't have the time or desire to be inside drawing. However, about four years ago, I was snowed in and picked up an old sketchbook in an effort to relieve some boredom. It wasn't something I was exceptionally good at, but I quickly became addicted to creating and seeing my skills progress. Since then, more days have gone by that I have drawn than days that I have not. I started posting work on Instagram, and after a couple of years, people started inquiring about buying and commissioning me for work. Now, commissions are my main source of income. Previously, I did freelance WordPress support for work.
What kind of influence does your location have on your career?
I moved to South East Asia about a year and half ago. When I first moved here, the majority of my work was done in pen and ink. But with the expensive and unreliable shipping to and from here, I switched over to digital art. This area is also very... urban. Buildings are crammed into every little spare piece of land. Leaving very little room for nature in between. As a result, people here create beauty around them by keeping songbirds and plants. While the songbird trade isn't the most humane, regularly seeing and hearing these beautiful birds up close both inspires me as an artist and motives me to educate others through art about conservation and ethical aviculture. As a result, birds feature heavily in my work. Another way that being here has impacted my work is in my use of color. Being surrounded by concrete and steel makes me crave and seek out more color in my life. My work since being here has become progressively more vibrant.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
Could you pick one piece of art that has made a lasting influence on you, and if so why?
A few years ago I had the privilege of seeing Frederic Edwin Church's The Icebergs in Dallas, TX. It's a ginormous painting from 1861 that has the most incredible detail and coloring in the highlights and shadows. It completely blew my mind that someone could create something so lifelike and detailed from just sketches and studies before the time of color photographs. It also really cemented in my brain that realism comes from lights and shadows, more than detail and coloring. That piece is always in the back of my mind when I'm trying to figure out how to light my portraits and paintings.
What skills or techniques do you find most useful in your line of work? Do you use primarily traditional or digital methods to create your artwork?
I think the most useful skills are always the most basic. A good understanding of form, anatomy, lighting, and shadows goes a very long way, no matter the media. These days, I paint and draw mostly with an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and a Wacom Cintiq display tablet. I can work fast and from anywhere, sketching out idea after idea without worrying about wasting paper or paint. When I need to slow down though I always bring my fountain pens back out for a stippling session. I don't sell much pen and ink work, but nothing is quite as therapeutic for me as drawing thousands of tiny dots!
How can people who are interested in discovering more of your work find it?
I post regularly on two Instagram accounts. @kcgillies
is my digital work and @kcgilliesillustration
is my traditional work. I also have a website kcgillies.com.
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