Lisa-Marie Melin or LittleGeekyFanArt is a very talented 22 yr. old artist in Sweden. Today, her account has over 25,000 followers on instagram and that’s due not only in part to her incredibly detailed art work and nerdy references but her fantastic color sense and rainbows. Nerds and Rainbows?, I just knew that I had to interview her for the site. She was gracious enough to talk with me about her art and her life
Here are her social media and her shop if you see something you love in the article. I fell in love with her work and I’m sure you will too!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleGeekyFanArt
https://twitter.com/LittleGeekyFA
http://instagram.com/littlegeekyfanart
GayNerds: Hi! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
LittleGeekyFanArt: My name is Lisa-Marie Melin and I am 22 years old. I was born and raised in the countryside, outside small community named Dorotea, located in northern Sweden.
As a person, I can be very shy and cautious at first. Many who do not know me might perceive me as a boring person, but as soon as people get to know me, they will see that I am full of humor, sometimes sarcastic. A caring person who holds my family and friends close at heart.. In addition to painting, which is one of my greatest interests in life, video games is also a great hobby. I am passionate about fairness and equality questions. I’m not the typical big city girl who constantly have something going on in their lives. I am happiest together with my family and my closest friends.
GN: What was a defining moment for your growth as an artist?
LGFA: When I was 16 I moved to a small town called Lycksele, where I would study art. The studies went pretty bad and I did not get along with my art teacher. It was about to end with an F grade when other art teacher stepped in and demanded fair grades based on my talent and knowledge, not on how my teacher liked me or not. After that, I graduated with honors in art.
I decided to stay here, along with my boyfriend who I met during high school. We have now been together for 5 years now, we’re engaged and has two Russian wolfhounds together.
GN: That must’ve been frustrating. How did you deal with that moving forward?
LGFA: I wanted to focus on my talent and also get the chance to continue to develop my art at my own pace. I chose to open an instagram account called LittleGeekyFanArt where I could share my work with other people and let them follow me through my art journey. Today I have 25,000 followers and gaining more and more every day that passes. I’ve got so much support from my followers that I only could have dreamed of. It feels almost surreal
GN: What was your inspiration for these drawings?
LGFA: From the beginning, my paintings was not nearly as colorful as they are today. At first I took inspiration from old impressionist paintings, and over time, I became more comfortable in using much more color. It was not just the colors that developed, but I put down even more time on the details today than I did from the beginning.
GN: Are you right-handed or left-handed?
LGFA: I am right handed.
GN: I do feel like your sense of color is very strong even though you started out in black and white. Your rainbows are always purposeful and accentuate the original color palettes. How do you pick which characters to do?
LGFA: I’m not thinking so much about it actually, and I’m not a planner type of person. I choose what feels best at the moment. Not planning or have a specific “this is how I want my painting to look like” picture in mind when start, that’s what makes the process a little bit more exciting, because you never know what you end up with.
GN: What drew you to use rainbows so significantly in your work?
LGFA: Previously, I only worked with realistic black and white portraits, but came to a point where I felt I started to get tired of it. What I did, did not feel special. I was just another portrait artist in the crowd amongst all the other talented portrait artists. I decided to try out working with watercolors, something I was not previously so used to. There are for sure already many artists using rainbow colors in their works, but it feels like I have found a personal style to my own works. And the most important thing is that I actually enjoy what I do now, I feel special, and I feel happy
GN: Now, you might be aware, but the rainbow is associated with LGBT people. It is what drew me initially to your work. Were you ever worried about using it?
LGFA: I’m not worried at all. Why would I be? I’ll all people need a little dash of colors in their everyday life, regardless of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation! 🙂
GN: What is your typical artistic process? How do you create these?
LGFA: I always start with a sketch, then I transfer the sketch to watercolor paper. I’m always careful to measure it so I know where on watercolor paper I will place the object. Now I have the line art finished and I am ready for coloring. I always start with the basic colors and add the dark and light areas afterwards. Last of all I add these splash / splatter effects I use most of the time.
GN: What is your favorite piece of art that you’ve done?
LGFA: My own personal favorite piece at the moment is the original eeveelutions trio
GN: What are your nerdiest passions and indulgences?
LGFA: I love video games and have done so ever since I got my first playstation when I was 5 years old. I’m a sucker for old Japanese RPG’s. Almost all the old RPG games in general have extremely good storylines, something that many new games completely lack. Many of these games does also have stunning music. A great story combined with epic music gives me so much enjoyment!
GN: What is your favorite RPG series for the Playstation?
LGFA: I am totally in love with the Final Fantasy series, but I am also enjoying smaller titles as Saga Frontier and Brigandine
GN: If you had to create fanfiction of any series, who would you pair up together?
LGFA: Hmm. Tricky question, since I am a big fan of the Anime Shingeki No Kyojin I would probably ship Eren and Levi, alternatively Eren and Mikasa.
Check out more of her work here and follow her on everything:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleGeekyFanArt
https://twitter.com/LittleGeekyFA
http://instagram.com/littlegeekyfanart
Tags: art, lisa-marie melin, littlegeekyfanart, Rainbow, watercolor
