Junior illustration major, Laysha Adame, talks about her artstyle and experience at Columbia.
Transcript:
0:08: Welcome back to the Chronicle Chronversations.
0:10: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman.
0:12: This week on Chronversations, junior year illustration major, Laysha Adame, talks about her experience at Columbia as an illustration major and the different things that shape her own visual art style.
0:25: As for your original work, a lot of the doodles you do and the cartoons that define your style … describe that.
0:34: If we’re gonna describe it, definitely line art heavy.
0:37: It’s heavily using line art, bright colors. Think of almost like, very saturated.
0:44: If we’re talking about how I draw my persona, very bubbly, cartoony, round.
0:52: With my more original works that are focused on storytelling, very web comic.
0:58: I would say simplistic and not super hyperrealistic or semi-realism, it’s very simple.
1:07: Very much feminine. I think my art can be quite feminine.
1:11: I don’t think it’s what would be perceived as masculine or rugged, I think.
1:16: And the shading is very simple.
1:19: When it comes to making comics or simple pieces, I want it simple.
1:23: But if I’m really deep diving into rendered pieces, it kind of gives a little messy look.
1:28: Not fully nice and soft. It can be, but I think some parts can be slightly messy when details need to be messy.
1:36: Laysha also talks about her experience in tabling for different conventions like Columbia’s own INK Fest that is held annually in the Student Center as well as C3 Expo.
1:48: Let’s talk about your experience tabling for INK Fest and for C3 Expo.
1:54: What is that? What was that experience like for you and how do you think that helps your path?
2:02: That experience, I would say for specifically INK Fest, was probably kind of, I don’t wanna say life changing, but I’m gonna use that word: life changing.
2:11 Because it gave me the firsthand experience of what I always see on TikTok, on YouTube, of being busy because people want to buy your art.
2:23: They want to spend their hardworking money to buy a piece that’s something decorative, that you worked hard on.
2:31: It is one of the most rewarding feelings ever.
2:37: C3 Expo as well. It was being surrounded by people who are nerdy, and like that otaku core, or even simple like, how I do fan art for Minecraft.
2:48: Finding people who like that little niche. Niche little fandoms.
2:53: It was so fun and so exciting, and it’s a community of just warmth because everybody wants everyone to succeed.
3:01: Nobody’s trying to like, “Oh, you’re my competition, I can’t be friends with you.”
3:05: Everyone is there. It’s like, if you need something, they’ll give it to you.
3:09: I was in a stamp rally and that helped too.
3:12: She also talks about how her background as a Latina is important to her work and how it pushes her to explore more about different cultures.
3:20: I’ll talk more about my original art since the majority of the art I do off campus, and like not related, is a lot of fan art, but of course I wanna evolve from that.
3:29: A lot of my original works are from a story I want to create.
3:35: It’s all, it’s fantasy leaning. There’s some queer elements into it.
3:41: I just wanna write a little web comic and story.
3:44: It really inspires the characters I have; [they] are very inspired by my background and backgrounds I wanna learn — backgrounds I’ve seen, and I thought the culture was incredibly pretty.
3:54: I thought there’s plenty of cultures.
3:55: I’m like, “Wow, these are gorgeous. I wanna learn.”
3:57: Specifically, I want to deep dive into Mongolian culture.
4:00: I think their culture is super, like … their history is so rich.
4:04: And I’d love to add that into my stories. And just being Latina, of course the main character is partly Latina, come on.
4:12: I have to add that into it, and when it comes to products for selling, obviously, you’ve seen it.
4:19: I gave you one sticker, the little cafecito with the concha.
4:22: I gotta add my background to it.
4:24: I realized in Columbia there’s not …
4:27: There are Latino artists. I wish there was just like, a little more, you know.
4:32: It is a predominantly white college I’ve noticed.
4:36: I wanna be that little person that adds like, “Oh, these characters are eating something that kind of looks like a tamale.” Or like, “They’re eating a concha.” Like, let them.
4:45: Or them in traditional wear. I want that to be.
4:48: It definitely inspires my art 100%, and I wanna be proud of it.
4:53: I wanna do more research of it.
4:55: I’m very familiar with my Mexican side.
4:58: I’m not very familiar with my Guatemalan side, and I’d love to add that into my art, and let that little community, that Guatemalan community is like,”Hey, I’m here too, so if you also like nerdy stuff, I’m here.”
5:10: I am planning, hopefully, during spring break to finalize some commissions and also work on the comics more because I realized I really like this comic making thing.
5:19: It’s very, very fun.
5:21: It’s nice to challenge myself and try to get the story right. Make sure the audience understands how to follow the speech bubbles and everything.
5:32: You can always find me on Instagram.
5:35: That’s the platform I use to showcase my art. It’s kind of like a mini portfolio until I make an actual portfolio.
5:44: But yeah. It’s a lot of, mostly fan art, so if you like fan art, it’ll be there, but I also wanna sneak in some original art and hopefully garnish an audience off of that.
5:54: That’s all for this week.
5:55: Make sure to stay up to date with our campus and metro news, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on ColumbiaChronicle.com.
6:02: I’m Aaron Guzman.
6:03: Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Katie Peters
