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- Start by introducing yourself.
Hellooo! I’m Wanda and my alias is Katsuwan (Katsu = ambitious, Wan = the first three letters of my name). I’m 20 years old and grew up in a town in the south of Lyon with my parents and my sister.
As you may have guessed, I like to draw! Like all kids, I drew for fun because it was a cool way to express myself and I just never gave up. I started posting my art on the Internet quite early as I was very active on the forum for the game Amour Sucré when I was in my first years of middle school (so around 2014), then I started posting my drawings on Instagram maybe 2 or 3 years after.
- How would you describe your style?
I grew up reading manga and of course my art style has been heavily influenced by it. I like to think that my art is cheerful, cute and romantic. My main focus is on emotions and relationships between humans and their inner-thoughts and struggles. My favourite type of manga is shōjo, and I think my drawings clearly reflect that.
- Who are your biggest artistic influences?
As I mentioned before, I was a big fan (and still am) of Amour Sucré. I believe the art of ChiNoMiko greatly influenced me.
I also love Io Sakisaka (her name always comes up first when I think of my favourite artist) who is one of the queens of shōjo manga nowadays (Blue Spring Ride, Love Be Love Leave Be Left, Strobe Edge…).
Then, I admire the work of Keiko Iwashita, Mika Yamamori, Anaïs Eustache, Cosmic Spectrum Art, Fujita, Kelogsloops, Ashiyaart, Sara Fabrizi, Neko Rina, Hyanna Natsu and Kazuki Yone. That is quite a list…
My second favourite artist with another style, very different from mine but that I love and admire, is Fragonard.
- What is your creative process like?
I first decide what I actually want to do: do I want do finish an illustration? Just sketch? Learn?
After I decide that, it takes on different forms.
If I want to do an illustration, I choose if I want to draw it digitally or traditionally, and if the latter, I choose the medium. Then, I think of what I want to draw: which characters? Doing what and where?
I either try to come up with a composition first in my sketchbook or I search on Pinterest to get inspiration. And I follow this order of steps: rough sketch > clean sketch > lineart > flat colours > shadows/lights > effects.
If I want to sketch, I take out my sketchbook, either a pen or a pencil and freestyle (portraits, gesture drawings, just hands, mini-illustrations…)!
About the tools I use, when I draw digitally, I use Clip Studio Paint and a HUION 191 tablet connected to my computer. Then, traditionally, I mainly draw with watercolour inks on watercolour paper (Dr. Ph. Martin’s) or with alcohol markers (Copic and Graph’it) on Bristol paper.
As to inspiration, it depends on the day, on the season and on my mood. I like to try to imagine my characters in a specific situation (cooking, being at the hairdresser…). Or, I go on Pinterest!
For the stories I create, I’m always thinking about them so… it’s constant work.
- How often do you draw and what motivates you to create?
It depends on the period… Sometimes I’m super motivated and inspired (it used to always be the case until my 2nd year at uni, but those days are gone...) and I will draw all day, every day. And sometimes I don’t draw for a few weeks… or months (but I hate being like this, because I know I love to draw).
So, let’s just say that I, overall, draw at least once a week.
My dream of one day make a living from my art is what motivates me to create. Moreover, I want to share my stories and the only way I can do it is by drawing. Finally, my passion for drawing really motivates me because I know I love it so much and I always, always, have a good time when I draw (even when I struggle).
- What do you struggle with when making art?
Coming up with ideas is the worst… Composition is also really hard to master! But I would say the two go together. For more technical aspects, backgrounds and perspective are very complex (surely because it is scientific to some extent) and depending on the angle or the pose, anatomy can get tricky.
But the key is to accept the imperfectness of our art and just deal with it (it is an opportunity to learn more)!
PS: animals are also hard for me.
- What art styles or medium would you love to try one day?
I’m quite happy with my style, so I’m not sure if I want to try something else (I may change some elements, it will evolve but I will not completely change from manga to realism for instance). But I’d love to give oil painting a try one day… To do that I would like to take lessons given by a professional and not learn on my own (because it is way too technical).
- I heard you published a short manga recently, what can you tell me about it?
Oh yes, I did! It is a very short story of only 23 pages called "L'Eté de notre hiver".
It is a summer love story between a barista and a painter. I will let you discover it because it is so short that any summary will spoil everything.
But here is a little something: “Bianca always hated summer, it’s too hot, there’s too much sun… But this year seems different. While she works at a coffeeshop, she meets a guy called Orion.”
I only had one month to finish it (come up with story, a scenario, characters, storyboard, art…) so it was quite a rush but I loved having a deadline (and that may explain the wonkiness of some drawings).
Overall, I’m quite satisfied.
Now I’m starting a new project of 30 pages (my first completed manga was 5 pages long, 10 for the second one, 23 for the third one, and so on, that’s the logic behind it). My main goal when doing this is to finish the story I planned to tell, so I don’t care if some drawings are not perfect or even ugly because finishing is what matters.
- What are your dream/future projects?
My not-so-long-term-goal would be to finish a manga (one shot, 4 chapters of 60 pages). But my real dream is to finally be able to tell the stories of the characters that you can see on my illustrations (Wilma + Ned, Georgiana + Maurelius, Edolie + Conrad, James + Fuyuko).
And maybe, one day, get published… who knows?
And my objective that will never be completed is to keep learning and getting better at art!
- How do you FEEL about your own art?
I feel really ambivalent about my art. I feel so good about it (proud and happy) but at the same time I feel like I’m a really really bad artist, that I know nothing, that I’m unskilled, that what I do is uninteresting…
And the thing is, when it comes to how I see my art just for myself I like it, but the moment it enters into contact with others I shake with worry and lack self-confidence. So as long as I’m not confronted with anybody, I feel great.
- What message would you like to share with the readers?
Thank you for reading about someone you know nothing of, about an artist whose art is unknown to you (and maybe uninteresting) and I’m so happy to freely share about my passion (if I could, I would talk about my art and my characters all day).
I hope you at least slightly liked my work, that you found something to remember from this interview (maybe you could relate to some stuff). Feel free to ask me anything (maybe not money)!
If you are an artist (of any sort) don’t give up, all artists started as beginners!!
And pleeeeeaaaaase go support me on Instagram (and in my life in general).
Thank you LSS Admin for giving me the opportunity to blabber about something I’m always too shy to talk about <3
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