Ariel Burgess

Colorist, Graphic Designer

Ariel Burgess hails from the Washington, D.C area, where she has lived most of her life. Her family is filled with artists and red heads, so she was destined for both. At an early age she set her sights on a career in comic book illustration, and recently finished her Associates of Web Design at Montgomery College.
In her art, Ariel chooses to bring fictitious things and people to life. As well as being a freelance artist she has been an Official artist for The Wheel of Time® since 2012 and has worked with Dawnrunner productions on story boarding, character design, marketing and much more.
Ariel’s art can be seen at www.artistarielburgess.com, as well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/artistarielb/

How long have you been drawing?
I have been drawing, studying and practicing consistently since I was four.

What got you started?
Well, I watched my father sketch, my mother paint, my grandmother draw cartoons (Disney) and my brother illustrated everything he could think of. But really the moment I wanted to draw comics and graphic novels was when my father read and showed me the original Phoenix saga by MARVEL. That was also when my obsession with Jean Grey began. Together we watched X-Men and Gargoyles on Fox every morning. I also would watch Disney classics like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Little Mermaid (I thought I was her.) When I watched I would look at the flow of the animation, the different styles and character designs. I would pause and draw the scenes to the point of the tapes destruction. So since then it has been my dream to work for MARVEL and Disney.

Training?
In the professional level I have just begun. But as for training I have always tried to better myself, I wanted to know what to do in order to be able to efficient, exceptional, fast, and at the best of my ability. I also wanted to know what to do so that I would not have to be told, so that my employers have less work to do and more confidence in me.

Other talents and skills?
Here is a list of skills, Photo retouching, Character design, Logo design, Business card design, Web design, Portraits, Murals, Acrylic paint, Soft pastel, Pencil, Cover art, Photo manipulation, Teaching fundamentals of art, Pointillism, Scratch board, Four years of Adobe Flash animation, five years of Adobe Photoshop, three years of Adobe Illustrator, two years of Adobe DreamWorks and Fireworks, Corel painter, Microsoft word.

As I have mentioned before I also do web design as well as html code, Flash videos and advertisements. I have been writing as long as I’ve been drawing, reading books like the “Dragon Lance series” at age eight.

My brother is a writer and often my editor. Growing up with him and all his friends I would say I’m not a Tomboy, but I’m also not emotional and always appreciate a blunt straightforward approach with anything. I am surprisingly organized for an artist.

As listed I am not only a line artist but a colorist, bringing lines to life with color can be my favorite part of art. I have been told that I am pretty since I was very little by everyone I meet. This is part of my hope to model as well as draw; I have always wanted to be a costume model at conventions or a model in Disney world, with no other choice but the little mermaid.

Favorite music/movies?
Well this is a question. I am always listening to music and it is part of ritual for art. I would say that I mainly listen to 70s-80’s rock (CCR, Tom Petty, David Bowie), but it really depends on my mood. I love some Doo-Op, there is some new rock I like, classical and bluegrass can be an obsession. I love techno, trance, rave, most dance music. I listen to most music genres, just no screaming. For example I’m listening to “You can get it if you really want” by Jimmy Cliff. I like upbeat music mostly. You could say music is my other passion, I sing and write songs as well as can tell you the name, who wrote, what year and the lyrics to most songs I know, which is a lot. As for movies, look at my favorite movies piece, there are a few that need to be added, True Romance, Inglorious Basterds,Rocky Horror, Demolition Man.

Heroes?
Joss Whedon, Adam Hughes, Maxfield Parrish, David Bowie, Stan Lee, RobertJordan, Jim Butcher, Greg Land, Tim Curry, my family, my boyfriend, Mr. Leonard Edward Cave, Kindra Cantrell, myself.

What do you bring to the Table?
Sexy enthusiasm, with bursting creativity is what comes to mind.

I picture everything and am constantly thinking up paintings. For instances during this interview three ideas came into my head, two were rejected and I’m going to start the third after this interview. I bring the idea of “what if?” of thinking differently, a woman who thinks like a man and is always trying to illustrate the constant stream of stories flowing through me. Put in words that is what I bring to the table but I’d rather just show you.

Gallery

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