Today we have a very special guest in our artist spotlight: Here I present you Lars, known by his artist name Laovaan, who is a renowned Manga & illustration artist and YouTube video creator that is loved by the art community. Me and Lars talked about how he started his career as an artist, what his inspirations are, and which techniques he likes using.
If you are interested in learning about how to make a career as an artist, this interview is for you. Letβs go!
Hi Lars, we are very happy to have you here with us! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Hello! I am an illustrator and Manga artist from Germany, and I have been working as a freelancer since 2017. Online I go by Laovaan, and I am mainly known for my digital and watercolor work, and I also have a YouTube channel where I share tutorials and other art related stuff.
For how long have you been drawing?
As many artists I drew a lot as a kid. But I think my journey as an artist really began in
about 2005/ 2006, so it has been almost 18 years already. It was when I first published my art online and actually wanted to learn drawing.
You look like you are very passionate about your artwork, which has been my favorite thing about you as an artist. How did you manage to turn your passion into business?
Thank you! It took me quite a long time to consider doing art as some sort of job for me and it definitely wasn’t an easy decision.
Art related jobs are hard to find and the risks of being self-employed always scared me too much to pursue living off my art. That’s why after school I studied Art and German to become a teacher and only did my Manga related work as a hobby. But doing it as a hobby grew over the years, and in around 2017 when I released my first artbook, I felt confident enough to take the step and do art as a full-time thing.
Usually, artists who like drawing portraits donβt like drawing the rest of the body so much, but you draw both. Did it take long for you to learn anatomy? Are there any tips that you can give to artists who want to get better at drawing different body poses?
It’s hard to tell if it took long for me. I started drawing full body artworks much later, because when I first started drawing, I mainly focused on getting the faces right. That taught me a lot about proportions and composition. Once I got decent results and shifted my focus on learning anatomy, it was at first difficult, but luckily and because of the previous practice, it felt much more comfortable in time.
I think skills like recognizing correct proportions are universal and they help with whatever you draw. The anatomy doesn’t need to be right at the first attempt, just like when drawing a portrait. Even after almost two decades of drawing I still find myself struggling occasionally. But being able to tell what needs to be corrected is what takes practice and experience.
So, my advice would be to work with references. It’s helpful to analyze what’s wrong with your drawing when you have a clearer image in mind of what your drawing should look like.
In most of your artwork we see good looking boys with slim and fit bodies posing in a sexy way. Can you explain what βbishΕnenβ is to people who may be hearing it for the first time? Where does your interest in this come from? Is it a popular concept in Manga or Anime genres?
BishΕnen, as Wikipedia puts it, is a Japanese term basically meaning “beautiful boy”. And the characters in Manga/ Anime are often drawn beautifully, but it is also kind of a given with every genre. But of course, there are some genres that have a heavier focus on portraying pretty boys or men, for example romance stories. Although personally I preferred titles like “D. Gray-Man”, “Death Note”, and “Naruto” that are more action driven but still have pretty-looking characters. The fan art I saw online really amped up their looks and I think that influenced me. So, when I made fan art, I wanted them to look just as good, too. And with my own characters itβs the same.
I guess the BishΕnen type goes hand in hand with sexy vampires π Do you have a
special interest in vampires or are the fangs merely an aesthetical choice?
Haha I can see where this connection could come from with some of my characters like Darius. It’s not specifically about vampires but I like more dark gothic aesthetics in general.
Vampires are kind of related to that subculture, but overall, the fangs often are an aesthetical choice.
You are always drawing people, but there are some special ones that youβve been creating content for, more often than others. Can you introduce some of these characters that youβve created to us?
Sure! As he already came up, I’ll start with Darius. He is inspired by my nostalgia for the 2000s gothic/emo scene: black hair, lip piercing, tattoos, smoky eyes, and black nail polish. He is supposed to be more of a quiet character, someone who is unapproachable and distant towards other people, so you never really know what’s going on in his head. In the lore I made up for him, he takes the role of a guardian.
Another character, from a different story, is Ian. His design is more inspired by the skater scene with side-cut, bleached hair, tunnels, and a band-aid on the nose. He is far more outgoing, bold, and extroverted and I created him for my first Comic. He is bad at school but he has a really good heart.
I am still learning to write characters. So, the ones I made up are roughly following archetypes that I haven’t really fleshed out yet.
Itβs good to know your characters and about your character design process. Now letβs talk about time planning. You are successful in managing your art business; a YouTube channel with over 800.000 subscribers, a successful Instagram page with a big following, an Etsy store, a TikTok page, brand collaborationsβ¦ How do you manage to stay so well organized?
I appreciate it appears like that to you but to be honest I am quite horrible when it comes to time management. Typically, when I take care of one thing, something else falls flat and I prioritize what gives me the most anxiety. That’s why my last video was uploaded in April, because reopening the online shop became my focus after the video was done.
Do you have a favorite platform to share your artwork on? Would you give an advice to other artists on which platform(s) would help them gain more visibility?
Right now, I still use mainly Instagram and Twitter for posting art. While I feel there have been better days on those platforms it’s still the most convenient for me.
Platforms like TikTok are a bit hard for me to figure out and creating short videos out of your work is just more work on top so I don’t post there that regularly. But I think as TikTokβs “for youβ page also regularly picks up videos of new accounts, it’s far easier to achieve something viral there, which is great. While that creates visibility, sadly that boost also often seems to not last very long, or that’s just my experience.
I think every platform has its strengths and weaknesses so I would recommend just giving all platforms a chance and figuring what works best for you.
Your followers are usually very interactive and they like commenting on your posts and making jokes, and you also respond to them in a very positive way. Do you think that itβs important for an artist to have a community? How has it affected your career or social life?
Whether having a community is important or not comes down to the artists. Some like to stay in the background and let the art speak for itself, while others want to share not only art but also opinions and personal details.
I would actually like to be more active and interact more with people in the comments. That’s something I used to do a lot more, when I was still actively studying and did art as a hobby. Same with streaming. Still, I am glad about having a small community that still follows what I do after so many years. So personally, I feel it’s important for me. I really look forward to every time I get to meet friends and fans at conventions, and I wouldn’t be able to work as an artist if it wasn’t for the support I have received so far.
Weβre sure that you will keep receiving the support from your followers, or at least us, since you can also count us as one of your fans π Now a question about hardships: Since you started your career, what has been the one thing that challenged you the most? Did you ever feel like you were struggling?
Of course, I am struggling all the time! It really depends, but as I said, I also still struggle with basics sometimes, like when a face just doesn’t want to look right, or when Iβm drawing folds on clothing (not my excuse to draw a lot of my characters shirtless, haha). I can’t really identify what I could call βthe biggest challengeβ thoughβ¦ Bureaucracy, maybe? π
Bureaucracy is probably one of the biggest struggles of many artists! Would you like to share with us, how much time per day or per week do you spend drawing? What percentage would you say is for work and what percentage is βjust becauseβ?
I would say that Iβm spending maybe something about 5 hours per day.
As I said earlier, it depends a bit on my time management. When I am busy getting orders ready to ship because of my online shop, it can happen that I don’t draw for a week at all. Same when I am writing and doing preparations for a video.
But when I draw, a lot of it is “just because”, thanks to the support I receive on Patreon!
I know this is a common question, but as a fellow illustration artist Iβm curious to hear your perspective: Do you favor traditional or digital tools? Do you think itβs important to use them both?
That’s a tough one! I started out with markers and watercolor and it has been my medium of choice for most of my journey as an artist. In 2019, I worked on my comic book and ever since then I started to work digitally more and more regularly, so my medium of choice somewhat shifted. Nowadays I favor digital tools, just because I am much quicker with fixing mistakes and bringing my ideas to digital paper. Traditional media always has a place in my heart though, and I try to get back to it every once in a while.
I think it’s good to at least to give everything a try. I could have stuck to only using colored pencils just because it was the first medium I had as a child. But switching mediums and experiencing the challenges each medium brings with it really helps with learning what complements your workflow and what doesn’t.
How has new technology affected your work so far? Can you give a few examples?
One example that had a huge effect for me would be when phones became the perfect reference companion with decent cameras and access to the internet. I have so many photos of my hands on my phone whereas as a kid weirdly posing in front of a mirror would have been my only option π.
Same goes for software: The fact that I can use liquify filters without my computer dying has been a real gamechanger π.
Tablets have become more convenient as well.
In my teenage years I could only dream to one day own a tablet where you’d draw on the screen itself and nowadays I assume it has almost become the standard by now.
Talking about drawing tablets, how did you meet Wacom? Do you have a favourite Wacom tablet?
My first experience with Wacom is a Graphire4 that my twin brother and I got as a birthday present in 2006. After that I won a Wacom tablet at a drawing competition and upgraded to an Intuos4 2011, and after a lot of consideration I bought a Cintiq 13HD in 2013, which was my first display tablet. Since 2018 I am now using a MobileStudio Pro and while it has some issues, a cracked screen and gets really hot in summer it still works and I love working with it. I would definitely consider that my favorite.
Good for us, that you made that decision and now we get to know your artwork.
Thank you dear Lars, for taking us in a journey of your artistic career and letting us know about your muses and inspirations. Itβs been so fun to talk to you and get to know you, as well as your art, from a closer perspective π
To our readers who may be interested in taking their own artistic journeys in the digital world, I canβt recommend taking a look at Wacom products enough! Why donβt you click here and find out which model or models may be suitable for you? And if you are already creating digital art, donβt forget to tag us and use the hashtag #madewithwacom so that we can repost your art and share it with the world!
About the author:
Zeynep Alpay is a freelance multidisciplinary artist and illustrator based in DΓΌsseldorf, Germany. Their work encompasses illustrations, animations, paper cut-outs, and traditional artwork.
For more information or to see more of Zeynepβs works, check out their portfolio, their Instagram, or their Linkedin.
