Creator Interview：Roletta

Roletta

〜Friends in the air dancing, friends in forest singing〜

When I was an elementary school student, many of my friends drew a lot. And I started to think that I wanted to draw too.

I was extremely into the works of CLAMP such as Kādokyaputā Sakura. I also was absorbed in Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

And so, I drew a lot of wizard girls, angels and mermaids back then.

My best friend from junior high school and high school who also drew told me that she was thinking of going to the art university.

I had a vague feeling of desiring to go to an art university too. But seeing my friend being busy going to the prep school every day after school, I got a bit intimidated.

Besides, there were new interesting things in the world like games, movies, music, PVs etc. So I was thinking of getting into a university which had a strong reputation for getting a job.

My friend who went to the prep school successfully made it to the art university.

And I heard an amazing story that she worked as an assistant of renovating the paintings on church walls in France while she was a student.

This was an opportunity for me to think about if there were any chance for me to work as a designer who produce, create and make things.

When I started to work, I read many people’s diaries and followed many communities through SNS,

attending meet-ups for people who liked drawing.

I got a lot of inspiration by being around people striving to become manga artists or designers.

It motivated me to draw many pictures and present at events, and got me away from just being content in drawing by myself.

At that point, I didn’t have any of my original works colored. (I said I got motivated but until then, I still used the ordinary papers and pencils….)

So I added a few more paintings to the one I already had from my high school art class and practiced drawing.

I was aching to use colored ink, since my favorite manga artist used it for coloring.

But colored ink was too expensive for me, and so I had to wait until it was the right time to start using this.

I started to post my work on the drawing-related SNS page that I got to know through the meet-ups I attended.

There, I was exposed to many beautiful drawings done digitally; I began to feel more attracted to the digital medium, and how it has its own unique form of expression.

One of the reason that made me inactive was, you needed to prepare the set to draw digital. But I decided to purchase a pen tablet, SAI and Adobe Photoshop.

Since then, I practiced by looking at my favorite artist’s works. I made my own drawings mixed with the motif that I liked.

And I started to participate in sokubaikai (art exhibition and sales event) such as Design Festa and Comic Market.

Now, I work as a graphic designer in the IT industry.

My job is to respond to my client’s request and to create works that conform to their tastes. But I would be very happy if I could draw under my own name at the same time!

From our Editor

Interviewed month: May, 2014

Isn’t it wonderful?? When you see Roletta-san’s drawings, some of these make your heart feel warm inside, and some make you very excited.
Roletta-san is very nice and friendly, and she made the reporter feel very cheerful.

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