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Instagram Spotlight: Senior Texture Artist Fierrany Halita





Looking for some creative artist accounts to follow on Instagram? Don't worry, we've got you covered!

This month we chatted with Senior Texture Artist, Fierrany Halita, who is based in our Bali studio. Her Instagram account @fieartss is packed full of interesting character designs and beautifully colourful pieces.

We scrolled through Fierrany's artwork and chatted with her about some of our favourites!

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Art and Travel. I think those two things really represent me. If I ever feel sad, angry or in a bad mood, the first thing that comes to my mind is either doing some arty stuff (drawing, colouring, sketching) or traveling!

In terms of art, I'm a very idealistic person. I've loved to paint and draw since I was a kid. I loved to join every art competition and spent most of my free time improving my art skills. My interest in art led me to enter animation as my major in university and as you know, now I've ended up making it career, which is fun!

On the other hand, I don't feel comfortable if I have to spend my whole day inside my room so that's why I love to go outside, even if it's just going to nearby places!

On a long weekend or holiday, I like to travel far away from my country to see the outside world, to learn new cultures, and take in a different atmosphere, and that's also the reason why I chose to work in Bali.

How would you best describe your work?

Colourful! Yep, I love a colourful palette! I choose vivid colours in most of my work. And I love to depict natural elements such as forests, flowers, fairies. I think it's become my comfort zone.

Besides that, I also like to create personal projects or OC (original characters) more than fan art and currently, I'm exploring a lot about Indonesian culture and using those elements in my art.

A lot of your pieces have a connection to nature, can you explain why this appeals to you so much?

The first reason is that I love fairies so much and where do fairies live… enchanted forests!

This is why I love to illustrate magical forests in most of my pieces. I remember when I was a kid, my mom bought me many children’s storybooks about fairies and I think the illustrations in those books kinda “moulded” me somehow and affected my artistic sensibilities!

I also remember the first art book that I bought, it was around 6 years ago, from a movie called “EPIC” from Blue Sky Studios. I am so in love with the nature and the concepts for the environment in that book, I learned how to make concept art from there!

The other reason, I think, is because I love to travel, so basically I feel comfortable whenever I meet nature, it makes me feel fresh! I think these factors influenced my artwork as a result.

Your Instagram shows your many different skills which are very impressive, BG Artist, Character Design, Concept work, do these skills influence/help each other when you are working?

Haha, I love to explore styles! There are a lot of outstanding artists out there on social media that inspire me to learn new skills. I feel like I want to master everything which is kinda impossible but I wish I could, haha.

Since I work as a texture artist, all of the skills I have learned are very helpful. I now understand how to paint all kinds of things, for example, not just clothes, wool, etc but also natural elements such as leaves, stone, wood. And the good thing is I've got plenty of different kinds of brush packs on Photoshop to help! It feels like I've got the tools to face all different kinds of situations, as you know that you can be faced with different challenges every day and on every assignment.

What artists/things inspire you and your work?

There are lots! I wish I could mention them all, but we wouldn’t have enough time!

Well, for colour studies I usually learn from the one and only Goro Fujita. He somehow creates amazing imaginary scenes but still gets a realistic atmosphere, I don't know how to describe it, I just love his colour schemes!

For character design and poses I study a lot from Ming Jue Chen and Clio Chiang, their character designs are so great, if you look at their sketches, you instantly know the characteristic of each character without any description needed.

And for environments, honestly, Tinkerbell has inspired me a lot and also the PC game, Ori and the Blind Forest, you guys need to check out the landscape, so pretty!

Can you explain the piece below for us?

It shows a Balinese girl with fruit offerings on her head and was inspired by one of the Balinese ceremonies called “Mapeed Tradition”.

In this tradition, women wear traditional clothing called “Kebaya” and they all line up and walk while carrying a “Gebongan”, which means offerings, on their heads, and which consists of a selection of fruits. This procession is held as an expression of gratitude to God.

And this one?

This green forest landscape was for a project that I did last year. It's one of the concept environments where the main characters live.

The story tells about a group of mushroom characters who live inside the tree in the middle, and who play amongst the trees. The story could take place on the river or on the flower bed since they are small characters. This one landscape is big enough for the whole story I think.

How do you develop your work and skill set and what motivates you to do so?

I spend most of my free time practicing and improving my skills. Even when I travel somewhere, I always bring a small sketchbook and a drawing pen so I can sketch some random things I find during my travels, usually while waiting for my flight.

Sometimes, during my free time like at the weekend or after work, I'd rather relax or play games, so I need a very strong intention to develop my art skills. That's why I decided to make an art account on Instagram and I set rules that I only follow art accounts, nothing else. So as a result, my art account feed is full of artists that are posting their new artwork everytime I scroll and that motivates me a lot to create more! Thanks to my artist friends out there!

How do you approach a personal project and is this very different than your approach to a professional one?

Honestly, approaching a personal project is easier because you can create whatever you want without any rules to follow.

If it is a professional one, there are some boundaries and some standards that need to be achieved outside your own style and of course, out of your comfort zone, so it can feel more restictive.

I consider myself quiet idealistic when it comes to creating artwork. So by doing a personal project, I can be the real me, I can express everything. But I also feel thankful that I work as a texture artist and have interesting projects to work on.

For someone starting out in their career what is the one piece of information you would give them that you feel could help them most?

In terms of an art career, some tips from me would be start by watching lots of tutorials on the internet. There are a lot of wonderful artists sharing their skills and techniques.

And by following lots of art accounts on social media, observing the work on ArtStation or Sketchfab, or buy some artbooks. Because basically in the art industry a good portfolio will determine your career. Practice, practice and practice! You master something by getting used to doing it.

What tools do you use in your work and what is your favourite?

Photoshop and Wacom! Those 2 are my loves, best friends, favourites, simply the best! Haha

Maybe because when I first started getting familiar with digital art, I learned to paint using Photoshop and Wacom, and as I already mentioned you master something by getting used to it. So it's already been 14 years in total, I think, since I first touched digital art. But for traditional work, I like watercolours.

Do you have any other creative outlets?

Doodling! Sometimes doodling random stuff without any goals is nice. Playing games and making scrapbooks are also fun!

What are your aspirations for the future?

I really want to create a new animation series concept about my own country, Indonesia, either for school age or preschool kids. I think there are a lot of interesting cultural topics to explore here, so I hope that one day I can introduce Indonesian culture to the world through our great animation skills here!

You can check out loads more of Fierrany's gorgeous work at @fieartss!


Eoghan.Lynch


We Love Animation®

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