Wednesday, September 7, 2016

STGCC 2016: Artist Stephanie Hans Ponders About Travel and Art


Freelance artist Stephanie Hans has been working with Marvel for quite some time, most notably in titles like "1602 Witch Hunger Angela" and "Angela: Queen of Hel". Her artwork is stunning, and Red Dot Diva found herself instantly captivated by Stephanie's penchant for strong, contrasting colours that stand out against her fluid painting style. In particular, Red Dot Diva loves how Stephanie is able to portray the women characters being defiantly strong and beautiful.

For the last few months, Stephanie has been on a personal road trip and getting on the convention circuit whilst she is at it. She has since visited Japan, China and South Korea, posting travel photos on her Instagram as she experienced new sights and things. In fact, Stephanie is already in Red Dot Island. She arrived earlier this week, with the local zoo as one of her first touristy stops. She will then make her appearance as a guest at STGCC 2016 this weekend.

Despite Stephanie's busy schedule, Agent W managed to get hold of her for a quick pre-convention Q&A.

STGCC 2016 : Stepping up with Stupendous Stephanie Hans

Everyone who has picked up "1602 : Angela Witch Hunter", would surely be mesmerized by that cover of Angela rendered in the woodcut style art that graced the original covers of the first series 1602 (that was witten by Neil Gaiman, coincidentally one of the original creators of Angela, but that's another story...). The cover art and interiors are by our STGCC guest, simply stupendous Stephanie Hans!


Grabbing the opportunity to follow her on all the social media, i reached out to her and asked her a few questions and she gamely replied, YAY! :

W: You mentioned you'll be "travelling for 8 months though 7 countries and 8 conventions", some of which I've gathered are China, Japan, Korea and very soon Singapore, how are you enjoying visiting these countries in Asia, I mean, would it translate to some work that would be inspired by your time here (like David Mack)? Or would you intend to publish some autobiographical work of your travels like Craig Thompson's Travelogue?
Stephanie: I haven't decided yet what I will do about my travels. I thought about writing a book, with some illustrations, or a comic book, but really, I didn't start with anything else in mind than finding inner peace, pushing my limits and confront my fears. In a way or another I imagine it will have an impact on my whole self, and since art is a huge part of me, it will also get affected, I just don't know exactly how, but I am sure it will be positive anyway.

W: You're a big fan of Neil Gaiman and excited for Angela to come to the Marvel Universe and your job is "to draw a warrior in a really tiny armour & still make her look scary & full of dignity. She's a warrior, an assassin, that's how I'll paint her". Whew, ok, are you excited that at the recent SDCC, they announced that they'll be making a new Hasbro Marvel Legends action figure that is based on your/Joe Quesada's design. Do you think that you have succeeded in creating a fearsome warrior? (I personally think you have, I think for her and Wonder Woman, it's believable that they wear little as they are Goddesses/ Immortals, I'm not sure about Red Sonja whom I think needs chain mail), and Do you feel any pressure drawing Neil Gaiman's character?
Stephanie: I gave Angela my best. I was particularly happy to be able to design her outfit and everybody's in "1602 Witch Hunter" and in "Queen of Hel". Concept art is one of my old fantasies. I didn't have a lot of occasions to try my hand on it but each time was deeply satisfying. I didn't know about the Hasbro figurine but I hope I can get one. Honestly, all the credit goes to Joe Quesada for the design of the new bikini armor. As for me, I am used to working with a lot of pressure on my shoulders. Deadlines, expectations from fans or from myself already are enough, if I got used to them, adding the one of working on the creation of Neil Gaiman was not so much more pressure in the end.

The Angela Hasbro action figure
W: Your art is extremely beautiful and reminiscent of classical paintings, although I noticed you are a digital artist who also does some traditional painting. At the moment, what other characters do you hope or wish to be able to draw/ paint?
Stephanie: First of all : thanks! To be honest, I would love to be able to paint every single one of them, maybe even give them a bit of redesign! That would be great!


W: Will this be your first time in Singapore, and what have you heard (from your fellow creators who have come to Singapore before) and what do you wish to experience? any food that you have heard about? (its very hot and humid for your info)
Stephanie: It will be my first time in Singapore and right now I don't know anything about it beside the fact that fans seem awesome and incredibly helpful. Ho, and apparently food is a very important thing there, so I am curious to try that.


W: Tell us more about the contest you are having :D on your instagram.
Stephanie: ho it is finished already but I will certainly do another one when I get back in France. I just Have a lot of books and I am happy to know somebody will be happy to have them.

W: OK thanks very much for taking the time to answer our questions, the last question I was going to ask is which is your favourite recent work but I saw that you have posted your 10 favourite covers done recently on June 7th post so I will include them here for the fans to see.

Click here to view Stephanie Hans' List of her own 10 favourite covers.

Please check them out! Here are some of these beauties!






With that, I would just like to end by wishing Stephanie a great time at STGCC and hope that her travels have been useful and fruitful to her and for her!

You can also read a recent interview with the creators of Angela on Comics Alliance.
Find out more about her and her art and follow her on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and her Facebook!


W!
comic weporter
Toys-3tc

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This article was originally posted in Ed's own website, Toys-etc!

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The Glam Bloggers Alliance - a collaboration of four geeks - Red Dot Diva, Ed from Toys-etc, Agent W and Andre aka Mr Million Dollar Smile - will be back at STGCC 2016 being busybodies checking out the guests, exhibitors, cosplayers and all forms of biceps during the convention.

Both Red Dot Diva and Toys-etc blogs are also proud to continue their Supporting Blog status with STGCC.



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