Chrysocolla, digital painting. Source: Sara K. Diesel Illustration.
Sara K. Diesel is the Kevin Workman Foundation's 2015 Sponsored Artist. She comes to us as the clear winner from a highly competitive group of applicants for the 2015 Sponsorship Program, and we're excited that she accepted our offer for sponsorship at this year's San Diego Comic Con. Sara will join us in the Foundation's booth on the dealer's room floor to exhibit her work, promote, and network.
Read on with us for a minute and let's take a look at one of the most exciting digital portfolios we've seen in a long time.
Read on with us for a minute and let's take a look at one of the most exciting digital portfolios we've seen in a long time.
Sara comes from a family of creatives with lots of love for the visual arts. When we asked her to tell us her origin story of how she found her passion for illustration, Sara's response was immediate: "I just always knew." And we think that surety comes across in her work.
Hellion, digital painting. Source: skdiesel on DeviantArt.
That biding passion emerges most confidently from her character illustrations. They may be ethereal, surreal, beautiful, or diabolical-- But none of the women Sara paints are to be trifled with. Each exudes a sense of power and presence, something that invites curiosity from the viewer. It's hard to glance past a piece of Sara's work on a monitor or a print. The eye lingers on the rich, saturated, sharp colors, the emotive portraits, the almost regal confidence and poise of each figure. We're fascinated as we absorb the lavish attention to detail. We want to know more about these people, and the world they live in.
Yakshini, digital painting. Source: skdiesel on DeviantArt.
While Sara possesses a degree in fine arts, the digital techniques she uses are self-taught, and we feel they really stand out in a rapidly growing field of digital media. Much of the digital art we see today takes its cues from 2D animation and comics with bold lines, halftone shading, hatching, and broad, flat seas of color dropped onto the linework as a separate step. Or, it's 3D art generated by crafting exquisitely detailed solid models, textures, and lighting compositions that a computer renders into a final scene as an illustration with highly technical precision. We feel Sara's work is somewhat special here by its hybrid nature. It's painting in the truest sense, but with digital tools instead of oils, watercolors, acrylics, or similar media. It's a merging of the classical and digital, and we think it looks great.
Hellion Time-Lapse from Sara Diesel on Vimeo.
Sara's based out of Pittsburgh, PA and a recent graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, where her grades were superlative. She was a working student, holding down a job while "making it work" as she described her determination in building a career as a professional artist. Right now she's freelancing, and has built an excellent portfolio that includes about five years of progressively great work. As the next step in her career, she's agreed to join us on the dealer's room floor at Con. We couldn't be happier.
Check out Sara's work online, and if you're at Con, swing by and say hello.
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Digital Portfolio - Sara K. Diesel
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Tumblr - Sara K. Diesel Illustration
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Instagram - sarakdiesel
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Deviantart - skdiesel
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