This super awesome form of human being is a Traditional Painter on deviantART, Shadowness and her own website Katherine-Cheng.com where she hosts many of her own walkthroughs.
She's also responsible for these beautiful walkthroughs on deviantART:
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
Hello! My name is Katherine Cheng Franke, friends call me Katie. I came from Hong Kong all the way out to Vegas, where I am pampered by my husband, amused by my cats and dog, and I get to paint - doing what I love most for a living [♥]
How did you get into your chosen media?
Well right now I am painting with oils, although I have nothing but studies to show for at the moment. I am working on two large oil paintings for a show in April. I used to paint with watercolours, which I got into through watersoluble pencils. They were rather limiting for the effects I like to achieve, so I moved on to something way more versatile. I "graduated" from watercolours to oils after a few years of discovering and honing my own technique and style with watercolours, feeling confident enough to tackle what's regarded as a "higher" medium. And I love it. Oils give me so much more freedom.
What do your tutorials provide information wise to a reader?
Well they're not so much tutorials as walkthroughs. I like sharing the way I do things purely to offer a glimpse "behind-the-scenes", I love exchanging information with other artists, about our experiments, the tools and techniques we use and find through trial and error. It's not my intention to tell people, "hey, this is how something is done". Rather, it's "this is how something -can- be done. It may not work for you, but it works for me."
What motivated you set up your tutorials in your particular format?
I am a huge fan of art tools and gadgets. I have flat files, drawers, buckets and canisters chock full of wonderful treasures I've collected over the years, all of which have a use, some very specific. All my walkthroughs so far only showcased the process of painting in watercolours, and there are a lot of tools and materials I use, some slightly unconventional or not known to people just starting out with watercolours, that came very much in handy for my methods.
Do your tutorials reflect how you create artwork as an artist?
It's just something that came natural to me. Detailed images, supported by text. I try to keep things short and sweet, paying especial attention to providing the names and brands of the tools involved, with links to places where they can be bought. Since I'm sharing information, I might as well be informative
How do you feel about "copying a tutorial”?
(I don't understand your meaning of "copying a tutorial".)
Have you used tutorials yourself?
I've learned a few things from tutorials, but mostly I just take them with a grain of salt. I learn the most from my own mistakes.
What do you hope people take from your tutorials?
Just an insight, an idea, and maybe a little motivation to get out and make something with your own two hands. Not necessarily having to follow my walkthroughs, just to create things and try something new. The fun never ends.
Do you think tutorials are a necessity to developing as an artist? Why or why not?
I think tutorials are helpful but perhaps not a necessity to developing as an artist. Then again, this applies just to me. Like I said, I learn from falling, and falling hard. I like to see how other people do things, but I can also immediately recognise when someone else's methods would not work for me. We all have our own preferences. Sometimes I feel tutorials can be too "binding" and give people the wrong idea, that maybe this is the "only" way an effect or final outcome can be achieved, when really it cannot be more the contrary. It just depends on the individual, and how they like to learn and discover.
What advice or words do you have for readers out there?
We all suck at some point. If you love it enough, get at it more. You can only get better.
Also something Thomas Keller wrote in his French Laundry cookbook that hits me in some deep, deep nerve -
"Take your time. Take a very long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention."
Thank you for the opportunity! I enjoyed this interview [♥]
