Alisa Dempster

DESCRIPTION // A random object or animal is drawn from an isometric perspective with a grey tone colour scheme. With these kinds of projects, it makes me think about how I can animate them and put focus on motion, rather than texture and other details. I also wonder what kind of meaning others associate each image with as its narrative is quite vague.

This was inspired by the music video ‘Supernaive’ by Opal Waltz. The video was an independent animation by Vincent Tsui. I made this series as a daily challenge during October, when I was motivated to do a digital daily challenge rather than doing ‘Inktober’. I later decided that some could be animated as well.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style leans towards isometric illustrations that can be translated into simple animations. I tried to keep it simple in every way, while trying to make it endearing by keeping the illustration small on the canvas.

Q: Briefly outline your creative process. What are the major steps?

A: Before getting into any program I sketch out my idea quickly in a small sketchbook, where I annotate and brainstorm to expand on the concept. This is important as it sometimes lets me see other possibilities, where it leads to thumb-nailing different varieties of the same idea.

Q: Who and/or what influences your work and why?

A: David O’Reilly and the game ‘Monument Valley’ by Ustwo Studio are great influences on my work. I grew up with games, and while I am impressed with how far graphics have come with games like ‘Dark Souls’, I am drawn more to subtle graphics that are able to capture great atmospheric moods.

My works were also inspired by feelings of mundanity and meaninglessness that one can feel sometimes in life.

Q: Are you a part of any creative groups that you would recommend everyone to join?

A: Weekly life-drawing has been a consistent activity I participate in. I highly recommend joining any local ones you can be part of. It’s been one of the only days I practice my hand drawing skills as I have been focusing more on motion graphics. It has also been a great way to meet new people and be part of a community.

Q: In your opinion, what is the funniest word in the English language and why?

A: Asymptote. It just sounds funny, don’t remember what it means because maths class was a long time ago.

BENTO Editor’s Note: An asymptote is a straight line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet at any finite distance.

Q: If you built a themed hotel, what would the theme be and what would the rooms look like?

A: An obvious one for me would be cat cafe theme (who doesn’t love cats), but I’d also love to see an escape room themed hotel. I’d hope it’s not too difficult to find your keys but it would be very rewarding when you finally get to your room after solving puzzles, though it could be a bit too stressful. The hotel would have a few separate escape rooms, while the guest rooms would have riddles, board games and mini puzzles as I don’t think the guests will appreciate being trapped in their bedrooms.

AGE | 23

INSTAGRAM | @trexia.art

TOOLS | Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects