Artist Focus: Merve Özcan

Hello, this is Merve.

Today, I would like to talk about the stops and details of my works. This is my table; an insufficient space when it is scattered, an adequate space when it is cluttered.

I keep an agenda. It's a habit I acquired at an age when I'm tired of saying “Oh, how could I forget this!”, its responsibility to take care of me.

My coffee station is the likely place I am if I'm not at my desk. The combination I enjoy working with is the first light of the day and morning coffee.

When I come across a text to be illustrated or when I want to illustrate an idea, I start to think about which color, light, composition and character can best reflect it then start my researches. I sleep with the text for a while and try to just imagine and see before attempting to draw possible compositions. In order not to think about the same things persistently, I read the text a few times and then stay away for a while and then come back and the process begins.

I do almost all of my work digitally, sometimes using traditional reflective techniques such as watercolor and sometimes lead.

I have color palettes and character style that I love and save aside. But these days, I feel that leaving my comfort zone and looking for new colors, lines and character styles has improved me a lot.

Since I have been dealing with watercolor for many years, it is quite enjoyable for me to choose this medium as a channel for expressing myself. Another channel that I often use is to describe something not only by drawing, but also with the language of literature. I am also dealing with texts as an author, my first book was published at the age of nineteen and my other stories have been published afterwards.

I have been teaching digital illustration in several places since a day not far from when I said, "I would never be a teacher."

I can also briefly talk about ceramics, which I am interested in as an amateur these days but I do not have the experience to talk about it in detail yet.

I believe that inspiration is not a disappearance, but pervades every moment and detail of life. The things that give me the satisfaction of inspiration are the lights and shadows first, then the food, the colors, the streets and the places. Cooking, pairing things and discovering a new flavor, espresso cream, coffee cups, historical buildings, quiet coves and forest fruits... There are hundreds of things that I enjoy tasting, watching, photographing, encountering these blessings in the flow and making good use of this coincidence; These are all inspirations for me.

If light and shadow are to be used heavily in my drawing, I like to plan it at the sketch stage. Sometimes I use contour lines and sometimes I don't, I haven't idealized a single way in this regard. I try to take advantage of many ways with a good implementation. Another thing I want to talk about is getting references. At a time when there is such a rich visual content pool, I often refer to the reference system for colors, shapes, angles, compositions. By examining the works of many different artists, I try to keep my aesthetic perception in a wide range because my intention is to be included in the development flow without insisting on the same point.