Q: Where are you from?

Effect14: Aweh everybody! I'm a graphic designer and illustrator from the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa, but I'm currently living in Abu Dhabi, UAE, at this present moment. P.S. "Aweh" Is a South African slang word used to acknowledge something or greet someone, pronounced "ah-weh" 😀

Q: How would you best describe your art style?

Effect14: I think my art style varies depending on the work that I produce. As a designer you have to be multidisciplinary to stay on top of the current trends and markets, so I think this filters into my illustration work as well. My style is always evolving and mixed depending on inspiration and what I currently find appealing, but often has a bold line, flat color, graffiti-esk feel to it.

Q: Where do you find your inspiration when creating your art?

Effect14: Most of my inspiration comes from general life, pop culture, skateboarding and my surroundings. Music also plays a big influence in my art, I like doing work inspired by particular songs and trying to portray the song, in a visual way! Also sites like DBH and the competitions they host, gives me good inspiration and challenges me to create art in themes I wouldn't usually think of!

Q: When did you know you wanted to make a career in the art world?

Effect14: I've been drawing since I was a little kid, art is something that was always there and captured my imagination, so it was a natural choice as a career. Finding my other passion skateboarding in high school, and being inspired by the art on the boards, was one of the biggest motivators to want to do art as a career. My dream is still to create art for one of the big skateboarding brands around the world. Hopefully I'll get to accomplish that one day!

Q: What does a day of creating artwork look like for you and how do you start your creative process?

Effect14: It usually starts with looking at Behance or Pinterest, for my daily dose of amazing art inspiration. Then taking a walk to the park or just finding a place outside to sit, think, people watch and draw. I find drawing outside or in nature to the one of the most inspiring things. This is usually just a doodle/rough drawing, which I then redraw and color, before I go digital. That's about it, I also like to listen to a particular type of music associated with the theme of an art piece I'm creating, so if its a summer theme, I'll listen to chilled summer vibe music while I'm working, to get into the mood!

Q: What artist (either current or past) do you most admire and why?

Effect14: Artists I admire the most would have to be the likes of Jeremy Fish, Marc McKee and Mark Gonzales. They were big influences when I first started taking art seriously. Later was South African artists Kris Hewitt (Kronk) and Gerhard Human. All of these artists have amazing conceptual skill and great styles, that they carry through a variety of different mediums, but still keep true to there essence. For me, those are the qualities of a great artist.

Q: What's the best advice that's been given to you as an artist?

Effect14: The best advice would have to be, to enjoy the process of creation more and get in touch with that real joy of creating a piece of art again, no matter what it looks like! For example, a child drawing random scribbles on a page, but its pure joy for them. I think too many artist get so caught up in wanting to create great art all the time, it soon becomes a burden. Find time to create work that lets you have that feeling, that made you love creating art in the first place! Then when you create awesome art with that joy, it really shows in your work, and people gravitate towards it!