Avant Guardians

By Leticia Gonzales

From cakes to comics

Kat Baumann’s passion in art began in elementary school

Mankato illustrator and comic artist Kat Baumann can’t remember a time in her life when she was not drawing.

“I started to get more serious about it around age 12 when I started making fan art for the ‘His Dark Materials’ book series on oldschool message boards,” shared 29-year-old Baumann. “Soon after that, I got really into reading manga and manwha and decided I wanted to be a comic artist around that same time.”

Most people are familiar with manga, which are comics from Japan, but may not know that manhwa are comics in South Korea.

Baumann’s “Community Draws” feature is published every month in Mankato Magazine.

She graduated from the Visual Arts department at The Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley before earning a bachelor’s degree in studio art in 2013. While her education trained her to become an artist, Baumann credits working as a grocerystore cake designer in college for providing added visual arts and communication skills.

“Ultimately, I think my years decorating cakes had a bigger effect on how I use visual space and incorporate the elements I think are most important in my illustrations,” she said. “I think before I had to spend a lot of time wisely spacing out designs in icing on a sheet cake, I had a tendency to be less thoughtful of how I filled a canvas or page full of comic panels.”

Instead of decorating sheet cakes, Baumann now creates designs on Bristol drawing paper using India Ink or creates them digitally.

“Some designs are made from start to finish with my Wacom tablet and a couple different programs, and some comics pages I ink traditionally and color digitally,” Baumann said. “Although, I also still enjoy breaking out my watercolors and oil paints when I get the occasional commission in either of those mediums — I’ll always have a soft spot for painting portraits.”

Much of her work focuses on articulated hand and facial expressions, mostly inspired from music.

“I always listen to music while I work because it helps me focus. Plus, that feeling you get when a song hits you just right and kind of energizes you — that’s something I’m always chasing and try to emulate in pivotal moments of stories I’ve illustrated.”

Her work as a full-time illustrator varies from producing digitally hand-drawn line art on T-shirts to creating commissioned oil portraits.

“It’s really fun to have a variety of things to work on, though, and it feels really good to cross logos or shirt designs off my to-do list before going back to work on a behemoth like a 50-page comic.”

Her largest project this year is a 180-page graphic novel called “Golden Voice.”

“The manuscript was written by Gregory Cahill, who hired me as the illustrator for the book,” Baumann said. “The story is about the life of a Cambodian rock and roll singer named Ros Serey Sothea who disappeared during the Vietnam War. It’s been an incredible project to work on.”

Mastering the ability to “cartoon” properly by not overworking her drawings has made all the difference for Baumann.

“The last couple years my drawing style has turned into something that feels a lot more natural in the comics medium. Capturing motion in drawing has become a lot easier, too.”