This week we are featuring Anne Stokes, a spectacular fantasy artist hailing from Leeds, Yorkshire in England. Using eye-catching colors and bold designs, she reinvents classic topics ranging from romantic and magical enchanted forests to the dark underworld of Gothic vampires.  

Enjoy this brief interview with Anne about her life as an artist. 

This wolf and her blood-sister will protect each other in this lifetime and the next.

What is your creative process like? Could you share the story of how you made something?

The first step in any artwork is deciding what to paint. I like to use symbolism in many of my fantasy subjects to represent a sentiment or emotion, so a good deal of thought goes into the picture before I ever start putting pen to paper. Once I have an idea then it is important to plan out the composition of the image and I do this as a rough sketch on paper. I then scan this in to my computer and do the painting digitally using a Wacom graphics tablet and pen. The digital painting process is essentially the same as the more traditional processes with actual paint on canvas, you pick and mix the colours on the screen and choose different brush sizes to obtain the different effects. It does however have the advantage that the pictures can be more easily edited, like for example when they are used on a Mountain shirt, the background might be faded off or altered in colour to best match the garment.

 What is your favorite medium?

Art can be so varied and in fantasy so many different subject to paint. I love the variety of this and different mediums can suits different subjects. I do a lot of work on the computer which I enjoy, but it is nice to take a break from this every now and then and do some sculpting with clay. I sometime rough out a creature like a dragon in clay and use that as reference when doing a picture

What is the best part of working with your genre?

It is a great blessing to be able to earn my living doing something that I love. Fantasy subject have always inspired me right from when I was a little girl and it is a real joy to do art each day

What are you most proud of as an artist?

That I stuck with my art and have got to where I am today in my career. It takes a lot of practise and determination to do this. I followed my dream and my heart and I am very proud that has worked out.

What has been a challenge for you in your career? How did you resolve the challenge?

Before I moved into producing my art for license I did a lot of work as a commercial illustrator within the games industry. There are many products within this genre that require fantasy illustration and I worked on many great projects that I enjoyed. I did however experience prejudice there because I was a woman. In some cases it was assumed that a woman was only good for painting fairies and lighter subject. One art director even told me I should give up as this was no place for a female. It is a very male dominated industry but I stuck at it. One of my favourite memes is “the best revenge is massive success” and this spurred me with even greater determination.

What design have you created for The Mountain that would you like to be most remembered for?

I’m particularly pleased with the Fire Dragon t-shirt. Dragons are my favourite subject to paint and I think this picture works well on the T-shirt. The Mountain do an amazing quality reproduction of the colours in their shirt printing and I like the way the design fades into the tie dyes effect behind it.

In the Age Of Dragons, you want the fire-breathers on your side. 

What advice would you give to a young artist?

Keep practising. Try lots of different mediums and techniques. Look at reference photos when drawing people and animals. Never give up.

Is there anything in particular that you would want a fan to know about – thoughts, upcoming projects, events, collaborations, etc.

I am doing some European signing events in the new few months, in the UK, Austria and Belgium. These are being held in some great locations including the historic town and Ledbury, Castle Rosenburg and Castle Ooidonk. Beautiful places that I’m sure will be a great inspiration. More details of the events can be found on my web site, annestokes.com and my Facebook page at facebook.com/annestokesart.