We take a moment to chat with Elton D’Souza on his exhibition at Bivouac.
We’re so happy to have your artworks gracing the walls at Bivs. Can you walk us through how this collection came about?
Thank you. I have a large body of artwork from 2016 onwards and I started selling prints in mid-2019, where I did a variety of market events in Perth. In general, the artworks you see are the successful ones, which some I consider flukes.
Your work references Japanese anime and even reminds us of Studio Ghibli! What would you say your style is?
My style is pencil on paper; the feeling that anyone can do it, anyone can pick up a pencil and paper. I guess, I just happen to spend a lot of time mastering that craft. Up-close you can see the texture of the pencil and the paper, and all that colour you see is via digital texture brushes. I then add gold leaf to add an extra dimension to the art work and to make it pop.
I own 8 of the Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) storyboard books, the blueprints of his movies; he uses pencil on paper in such a way that nothing else is necessary. I’m moving towards more storytelling which works as a sequence of illustrations, and hence comics/manga & animation short films. I try to cram as much story as I can in the single image that is an illustration.
What inspires you to create these incredible scenes and characters in your work?
I say my art is inspired by Adventure, Fantasy, Dragons, Japan in general, Studio Ghibli for sure, a bit of Kim Jung Gi, Shaun Tan and Esad Ribic, amongst many other artists. I read comics & manga, watch movies and nature too. I like to say I’m inspired by real world problems and their solutions, of which the storytelling through comics and short films are better suited. It all starts with a single illustration.
“We got a battle”
This one has a deeper message to it, along the lines of environmentalism and animal rights but it is super vague. Messages aside, I am to impress and create something beautiful. I think it’s deep and intricate enough for viewers to spend years figuring out the meaning or some sort of meaning from it. Many of my works at first glance - it’s all cool colours and shapes, but then on repeated viewings there is more to see, such as the little objects here and there. The fisherman’s ‘head’ represents his consciousness perhaps being changed or ‘mind blown’ as if learning something new. The big fish is sort of a spirit creature trying to communicate with the fisherman. There’s a bit of pollution everywhere too which helps get the ball rolling for the viewer to think that there is perhaps a deeper meaning.
“Future Stories”
This one is inspired by Terrace House, Studio Ghibli, Japan in general and Nature. It was also used in my comic/manga, “Cleo’s Drawings and the Frog Prince”. It also featured in Harvard College Children's Stories of which then went on to be winner of Adelaide Books Children’s Illustration Award (2020).
The piece started off with this small thumbnail draft.
I wanted a huge circle of gold on it, hence the sun (or the moon in the night-time version). I went on from there and it came out as it did. The architecture is dominantly Japanese inspired but there is a tint of European architecture in it. I also love piano, hence the piano in it.
"Where is the town?"
Kirby's face can be seen on some windows. A customer once said that perhaps Kirby swallowed the whole town and then moved location, which makes sense with the little character saying, "Where is the town?, I wonder". I originally imagined the character was simply lost and that there was lots of mist hiding the town. My intention was to simply draw a pleasant looking town, mixed with Asian and European architecture. I wanted a person for scale and I was also trying to involve more comic book techniques into my illustrations, such as the speech bubble.
“Attack on Titan Dragon”
This one I did in 2014. It had taken 6 months, a few hours every week. I started off with the head of the dragon and continued to create from there as I drew the rest of the body, which shows bones and muscle tissue too, a concept shown in an anime called Attack on Titan. Though this is an original piece of art that stands alone. The little man has a magic staff, a bow and arrow, a sword and a dagger, to highlight how I like to be all of these classes when playing a video game. Many video games force you to be one or the other. This is also a metaphor, that we can have multiple passions and skills that you might need in order to beat the ‘boss’/dragon.
Thanks for the interview!
-Elton D’Souza ART