About the Artist
Lydia Damianeas is an Ethiopian-American who was born in Fairfax, VA and raised in Gainesville,VA with her parents and two siblings. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Arts with a Bachelors in Communication Arts, focusing on Illustration. Her initial interest in art comes from her childhood fascination with animated TV and movies, which provided her with an escape from tedious everyday challenges. By incorporating her own and other cultures; she has created a variety of relatable characters and stories which she intends to use to diversify the characters seen in comics, video games, and animations today. She uses a combination of traditional and digital media to bring her characters to life.
Artist Statement
I often find myself writing out ideas and stories for characters; describing the shape of their nose, the curvature of their eyebrows, and the color of their skin before even attempting to illustrate them. I’ll go as far as to create background stories and personality traits that coincide with their wardrobe and environment. When my graphite finally meets the paper it’s as if I’m playing connect the dots with the ideas in my head, allowing the character to come together using a comic book style of rendering with a soft realism element to invite more serious personalities and designs. I add color either through digital medium or paint so the character is truly alive and ready to thrive.
The idea behind the characters I envision is to diversify each one to represent and include people of all backgrounds, body types, and genders. Bringing a sense of wonder by shining a light on cultures and traditions that people can relate and immerse themselves in while learning about something completely new. I love to watch the hero save the day or the princess meet her prince, but the characters I love never seemed to fully apply to me whether it be the standard of beauty or the color of their skin. Things that are different are always the most interesting and I’m always striving to make things different and most importantly to make things relatable and captivating.