#sparkchamber 011121 — Kailee Ingber
As the new year continues to unfold, full of bright sparks of optimism and possibility, there is none brighter than today’s #sparkchamber guest, artist Kailee Ingber. At age 12, Kailee may be the youngest person to take part in our creative-process series, but she is perhaps one of the oldest souls. Her first name means ocean village in Japanese — a fitting metaphor for the depth of her creativity and curiosity, vast and beautiful as the sea itself.
Kailee has an incredible sense of color, and an ability to absorb many different influences and approaches to inform her own vivid voice. Taking inspiration from other artists, and from a range of interests from children’s books to mythology — especially Hestia, in Greek mythology, the goddess of the home, the hearth, and its fire — her work is expressed in everything from quick, gestural line sketches to the steady and skilled intricacy of a mandala. And she’s now dabbling in animation!
Kailee uses sketchbooks, as well as an iPad.PRO and an app called Procreate — she finds that the digital space really allows her imagination to come to life. And she made the most of sheltering-in-place in 2020, taking classes in calligraphy and comic-book drawing. She also took a class designed around creative instinct, allowing her to work on anything she wanted. Kailee’s current focus is adapting her one-page comic book — about an emotional fire elf from the land of Galactia — into a full-length graphic novel. We can’t wait to see the finished product, and will absolutely keep you in the loop.
Until then, follow along on Instagram.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
I get a lot of inspiration from other artists. I see their work online or Pinterest and I kind of go off on that; and other times I just make up something and I draw it. I enjoy watching YouTube artists. One of my favorites is Drawing Wiff Waffles. Her name is Rin, she’s a really good artist. My style started off by copying her style of art and then my work evolved.
Another artist whose work I enjoy is Dina Norlund. She has really cool art, and works in watercolor and digital. Also Kasey Golden. I tried her style for a little while. Now though, I am at the point where I just get ideas — I draw whatever comes to mind in whatever style I feel like in the moment. Another artist whose work I really like is Joanna Nagy.
I’ve been doing a lot of digital art lately. I find it easier working in the digital space, I can go back more easily and layer things and all of my tools are in one spot. I don’t have to gather everything together to begin a project, and clean it all up when I’m done. I really like the ease of digital a lot.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
For an art class, I created a one-page comic. I use Copic brush pens — they are alcohol-based markers, it gives you better coverage over a larger area of space and you can blend them without ripping the page.
I will often rework a piece to perfect my technique. When I am approaching a piece, I have a vision in my brain and get it down in a bunch of sketches, and then make a bunch of different thumbnails. For example, I sketched a character’s lines and I wasn’t sure what do exactly for the colors so I made tiny images as a test to see which direction I wanted to go in.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I am a total night owl. I draw really late and read really late and I write really late. I just finished reading a really good book, called Hold Fast. it’s about a girl who lost her home and her dad and everything and she’s in a shelter, and her dad went missing, everyone is losing hope, but she unravels the mystery — there’s a lot of cool rhythms.
Depending on what I am drawing – if I am drawing just a character it will take me one or two hours but if I’m drawing a whole page of more complex images with more story, it will take a bit longer. If it’s just a loose sketch, it will only take an hour. I don’t do outlines, I like the look of a pencil sketch and I color under that, that’s what I’ve been doing lately.
The thing I struggle with the most is proportion, but I’ve always been able to draw. When I draw animals, I often have a reference picture of that animal. I prefer drawing mythical people like elves or angels or demons, and I jump around between a lot of different styles and approaches. I am still testing styles and adding to my toolbox.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
When I am happy with it. Even if I am not technically done but I am happy with it, at that point I consider it done until I start again and then I can add certain things to it or until I get bored of it.
Once I start something, I always finish it. For example, if I have to eat, I always finish my work before I eat. Nothing else can happen until my art piece is done.
