THE ZAZZLE REVIEW: TODAY’S FEATURE – DIGITAL ARTIST BRIANA BLAIR

Monday, April 4, 2011

TODAY’S FEATURE – DIGITAL ARTIST BRIANA BLAIR

Zazzle shop keeper Briana Blair hails from Byron, Georgia. Briana is a writer and an artist. She has been creating art and crafts of one form or another since she was five years old.

Skelly Claude Monet by brianadragon

Briana loves to crochet and she often creates her own patterns, which she shares for free online. Some of Briana’s other interests include animals and music, and she loves to research all sorts of things when they strike her as intriguing. When Briana is not making art or writing, she is listening to music, watching movies coming up with ideas for new art and blog content.

Dream of the River Unicorns by brianadragon

When asked how she came to be an artist, Briana told me that she feels that it is something that has always been in her. Her grandmother taught her to crochet when she was 5 and then got her into crafts as well. Briana did a lot of crafting, including making jewelry for years. At some point she started sketching and painting. Her move from traditional art to digital art came because of the cost of traditional materials. Briana says she never runs out of supplies and materials on the computer, and she finds it a fantastic outlet for her creative energy and inspiration.

Chepstow Castle at Night by brianadragon

Briana does all kinds of art, but hesitates to put a label on it as it is somewhat varied in subject and style. She says she does have a certain knack for the odd and funny though. Although Briana loves working in the digital medium, she also likes to work with gel pens and pencils, both color and graphite. She says she follows whatever inspiration and style hit her every day, but she does love and is known for her tribal style outline work. She used to do a lot of custom tattoo design with this style and she is very comfortable with it. Another technique that she is quite fond of is taking public domain black and white images, and turning them into full color art. Briana says it’s like having a coloring book for grown ups.

Tribal Style Red Kabuki Mask by brianadragon

Inspiration for Briana’s art comes from all sorts of things. She says it comes in dreams or just the odd things that run through her head on a daily basis. By her own definition, ‘she is an oddball for sure’, and feels that this actually helps her art. Briana also uses her spiritual and social beliefs as inspiration for many of her designs.

Frozen Green Man God of Leaves by brianadragon

Briana has never had any art education outside of regular art classes in school. Beyond what she learned there everything she knows she taught herself, or learned from other self-taught crafters. When Briana sees something she wants to do, she just goes ahead and tries to do it. She finds this fun and feels that when you are not learning by the ‘rules’ you can come up with better or different ways to do things. You can develop new techniques to achieve the same end result. This is a challenge and process that truly appeals to Briana.

Lady of Spring Flowers by brianadragon

Group art endeavors and Gallery showings are not part of Briana’s art activities for now. She does belong to a Zazzle Shop Keeper group. Briana shares her art knowledge with others when she can. She is currently writing a book, in which she shares a collection of tips, tricks and techniques that she uses along with some of her original crafting patterns. She expects to have it available for purchase this summer.

Zentangle Earth Skull by brianadragon

Although Briana has slowed down a little with her artwork because of other commitments, she has plans for some new work this year. She plans to do some more humor designs, because she loves them and so do the buyers. New Tribal style art and more Zentangle pieces are also in the works.

Aqua Zentangle Seahorse by brianadragon

Beyond these current art and design plans Briana can’t say where her art will take her next. She is digging deep to come up with some really unique stuff. She has ideas for a collection of pocket critters and some new kaleidoscope mandalas, but she says she likes to just let it flow.

Mossy Little Green Goblin Man by brianadragon

Briana’s art can be purchased on Zazzle and Wordan’s on a variety of products. She sells her handcrafted jewelry on Bonanzle and her writing and patterns are available on various sites.

Medieval Blue Glass Dragon by brianadragon

This year Briana also plans to publish a new art book in her series of coffee table art books. She hopes it will be available before the end of the year.