Nik Page (ex-Blind Passengers) has been one of the most influential solo artist of the European electro-goth / industrial scene of the last decade. We have been big fans for many years, ever since we had the pleasure to meet each other at the Luxembourg concert organized by The Black Angel. Are we biased because the band wears some of our clothing on stage? Hell no, watch the official video for the single and you’ll know WHY we love their music so much!
Avelina de Moray is a full blood artist, embracing the many creative facets of gothic and vampire art by creating poetry, music and art inspired by the surreal works of Dali, Giger and Hieronymus Bosch. Her striking paintings rely on wonderfully vivid colors to trigger emotional response. Where other gothic artist like to use cold colors to create an aura of fear, death and despair, Avelina paints with hellfire, burning red and charcoal black.
I fall into the category of Art and Photography. I am an Artist from Sydney, Australia who fuses Hi-resolution photography with fine art digital drawing. My art is (most recently) vampiric, dark and intensely colorful. I love using bright greens, deeply burnt color schemes and always try to make the artwork look as exciting as possible for the onlooker.
I also dabble with live band photography, being a musician myself, capturing the effervescence of a live performance has always intrigued me, and I have had the pleasure of personally shooting many of my favorite bands throughout the course of the past 2 years.
It all started with a keen interested in photography. I bought my first DSLR camera (at the time this was a 400D) and found myself drawn to the photographic beauty found within cemeteries. There’s something about graveyards that I find very calming & peaceful (Is that messed up?)
I soon grew tired of capturing scenery and I personally find the lack of humanity a little un-emotive. I contacted a model and headed straight to my favorite cemetery (Rookwood). This photo shoot would bring forth the artwork ‘Vampires Of Rookwood’, which was my first Vampire artwork.
I can’t remember a pinnacle moment or one particular thing that inspired me to start creating art, it just kinda happened, but for many years the art I’d work on was shit, and I didn’t really take it that seriously. 
I was more into playing guitar and writing songs. After years of constantly watching vampire & gothic movies, I realized that there seemed to be a void in both the plot and the imagery. I got stick of re-writing the movies in my head and recasting the characters.
Particularly the female characters, I had a vision in my head of what the female vampires should look like, and was sick of being disappointed. There are very few movies where the main vampire has been female, besides the recent Underwold trilogy, and a few movies from the 60’s and 70’s. I think my fans find it refreshing to see female vampires as the centerpiece.
And personally, would rather hang an artwork of a sexy girl on my wall, than some guy! (I think most would agree with me right??)I’d like to do some artworks with both male and female vampires, but so far, I haven’t found any men with the right look, After all, Gary Oldman is a tough act to follow you know! And If I can’t do it better, I’d rather leave that alone for now.
I’m still in love with Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Dracula. The cinematography within that movie is incredible and has inspired many of my artworks. Just last week, I staged a photo shoot based on the character Lucy Westenra which I’m very excited about!
I also find Gothic architecture very inspiring; the shape of the archways, the church windows and gargoyles lend themselves beautifully to gothic art, and I’ve started to include some of these elements in my new artworks.
Yes. Before I started with photography, I would use random photos and manipulate them within Photoshop. As a huge HIM fan, I created a HIM artwork with Ville Valo as the centerpiece. I have also had the pleasure of shooting many of my favorite metal bands, although these are not part of my artworks, I still post them on my website for fans to see.
No, I prefer darker subject matter, but I do find the evil clowns very scary. You have to wonder how Van Gogh painted sunflower after sunflower without tiring of the content, but I guess I’ll get similar comments if I continue with my Vampire art. 
And who knows, if I can consume enough Absinthe, perhaps I’ll start painting vampiric flowers! I enjoy mixing beauty with horror and femininity with aggression. They’re both strong traits that I think make the art more powerful or even disturbing.
In ‘Vampires Of Rookwood’, my favorite part of the artwork is the scaring on the vampires face, to me, this gave the entire artwork a different vibe.
I think every creature is capable of both good and evil and that all iconic vampire characters have had elements of the two. If you look at Gary Oldman’s performance in Bram Stokers Dracula, his character (Dracula) would swing back and forth from incredibly sensuality and romantic, to a little eccentric and violent.
Vampires need to kill and feed on human blood to survive, but does that make them murderers? If it’s required for their survival isn’t that just nature taking control? I mean, we slaughter animals’ everyday to feed ourselves, and the vampire kill is probably more elegant and civilized than how we kill our livestock.
My art is available on canvas, T-shirts and greeting cards. My upcoming range of T-shirts & singlets will be available in early December.
And I’m very excited to announce that I have just signed a licensing deal in the US, so in the coming months my art will be available on posters, Zippo lighters, puzzles, pins & stickers!
My website features all of my Art and photography: Avelina de Moray- Gothic Art and Clothing I have just launched my new online store where these products can be purchased: http://www.avelinademoray.com/store/
The first clothing item to be released is the girls ‘rest in peace’ singlet. This can be seen at my shop.
The first step in created an artwork is to come up with a concept. Once I’m abele to visualize an artwork in my head, I can determine which medium I need to use, be it photography, drawing or a mixture of both. My artwork ‘Dracula’ for example, was my first artwork completely drawn from scratch.
Many of my other artworks need a dedicated photo shoot of which I am the photographer. If I myself need to model in an artwork, (artwork examples ‘Vampire Dawn’ & ‘Love, Death and what lies beneath’) I will direct the photography/lighting and my Fiancé’ Von kindly 
pulls the trigger. I have never released any photos straight from the camera, there is always a long Photoshop process that follows, which can take 10 to 20 hours for me to find something I’m happy with.
Another element of the vampire art that is timely is drawing the fangs. Many people think there is a photo shot brush for that shit, ( I wish!), sadly this is not the case. Each fang is hand drawn and sometimes can take me hours to get them right!
I adore HIM, so yeh that one’s pretty obviously! My other favorites were Nightwish, Lacuna Coil and Cradle Of Filth. Spending the day with Nightwish was especially fun as I ended up shopping with Anette in Newtown!
And if so, how can they get in contact with you? Of course, I’m always interested in working with new people, especially bands. Anyone can contact me by visiting my website or sending me an email.
Fantasio
Fantasio is a household name among friends of fine fantasy illustrations with a dark and gloomy twist. This fine young man is constantly creating new and fantastic worlds to explore, populated with surreal creatures, half man, half plant, half something else. His spectacular work has grown from illustrating fliers for goth parties in Germany to supplying the cover for international book publications. Enter the fantastic world of Fantasio while we scry his mind!
Wings of Steel
Well, if you consider scribbling in books and doodles on the walls to be artistic activity, then I have done so as far as I can think back. Consciously, I got interested in art back in school, in sixth grade, probably, when I found out that caricatures of teachers and fellow students will trigger lots of interesting reactions.
At age 12 I got into the possibilities of “Deluxe Paint 4” on the Amiga 500, and also 3D modelling software like “Reflektions 2.0”. Up to my 19th year this was only fooling around though, usually with a ballpoint pen and aquarelle colours.
Later, with roleplaying games, I started putting more efforts into drawing characters, and that was the turning point when I started getting serious about putting down work that others really like.
Twilight Angelheart
Drawing always was more relaxation or therapy to me than anything else, but I have to admit that the reaction of my fellows had some attraction on me.
But the real trigger was when I moved out from my parents home into a flat-sharing community, other people noticed my skills and encouraged me to pursue, I really owe them some!
I first got into contact with PCs and Photoshop 5 back in 2000, this had a major influence on me, but failed to convince me yet that it is possible to render your ideas 1:1 with those tools. In 2002, next to my regular job, I decided to study Airbrush Design at the IbKK in Bochum, Germany. Initially I had applied at public design schools in Saarbrücken and other places In my area, but in the end I am very happy that it did not work out with the state schools, as the IbKK taught me self-discipline and how to deliver results in less than 4 weeks, in the form of semester exams. This prepared me really well for freelance business.
Say no good
In 2003 I then bought my firt own computer, so I could at least scan my works and display them on online communities like Epilogue.net and deviantArt, to get feedback and critique in order to learn and grow – something I still do to this day. Eventually I reached the point where even my lecturers at the IbKK were no longer able to tell digital and classic drawings of mine apart. From there on, I used the remainder of my studies to approach tasks and exams on a more experimental level, using collages and other techniques than pure airbrushing. In my final year, I specialized in illustrating, and left custom painting to others, and focused on getting my ideas down directly on computer, through the use of graphic tablets.
Like many of my peers, I steadily moved away from pure “Realism” and got attracted to fantasy, to the niche of “Magic Realism”, which enables me to use traditional as well as digital visions as an outlet, a sort of speaking tube for my creativity, that is not restricted by technique.
Plant or Not
Giger, Royo as well as Sorayama have contributed to “mould” me – I had a phase when I really bought records just because of the cover! Usually it was the work of Dave McKean that fascinated me.
Back then I somehow started analysing, albeit unconsciously, what it takes to make a good image.
Today, my inspirations are basically anyone who has achieved something, hats of to everyone who has dared to give up a well paid job to pursue their passion.
Variable. Very variable. Because I now am essentially working as a mainly digital illustrator, I have to start with sketches, then colouring and finally putting finishing touches to them. However, on free projects, I compensate by experimenting, which results in pictures that are collages created with the computer, then printed, and then assembled as collages again on canvas.
Other images start out with a sculpture I create, a piece of art in its own right, and then doing a photo, retouches and post production, it’s a bit like a movie director presenting his movie to an audience. It’s a very unique challenge.
Nessis & Dragon
As for the challenge, my biggest challenge is and has always been to create something that will astonish onlookers. Especially when it comes down to how the image was created. I have managed to amaze experienced artists and illustrators by creating an image by printing on canvas and using structured acrylic paste, and not relying on oil paint.
And let’s be honest, painting with oil colours is no longer an art, at least not since Bob Ross. To me, using the same effort and amount of time constructively represents a greater incentive, and pushes me to create things that are otherwise difficult to create, even with traditional means.
Marriage
The pencil – it’s the extension of the brain! With a pencil you can create and correct new worlds at a superfast pace, get ideas from the brain down on paper, work out details… Other media have their advantages too, but usually involve much effort and energy – it requires more time to get from a blank page to a satisfying result.
Currently I am working on a Wacom tablet most of the time, with Photoshop and Painter. For private or personal work, as I already mentioned, I like to experiment, for instance with collages, plastilin, plaster, or acrylic.
To be honest, I don’t have a real favourite among my pieces, or if at all, everyone of my new pieces, if I am happy with the result, temporarily becomes my favourite. But as soon as a new work is in progress, it becomes my favourite.. I guess it’s a bit like children. In retrospect, there might be two or three that really stick out, that I’d consider to be milestones in my progression, like a red thread leading through my work, testimonials to specific points in my evolution where I successfully managed to step up and raise the bar.
As for work I don’t like, fortunately most of those only exist in form of sketches, and never made it to a finished image! Phew! But there still are a few I am not particularly proud of, essentially images that were too strongly influenced by the artists inspiring me in my early days.
Einhorn
During the little spare time that I have, I am creating a series of works titled “Fantasio-Girls”, in collaboration with models and photographers, like pin-ups, fantastic creatures and all kind of weird ideas – simply Fantasio Girls! When I have collected enough of them, I will probably release the whole set as a portfolio-book.
I am also collaborating with Christian Aster, it is a fairytale book I am illustrating, but because of lack of time, progress is sluggish. Release of that book is scheduled for end of this year, but more realistically, it will be 2010. And then there are several smaller projects I am collaborating on, or series that are to be finished soon.
Magira
You can see my work in publications and expositions, or lately, more and more frequently on the cover of books published by Lübbe, Piper and Bastei. I have on and off expositions in Germany and abroad, but am always interested in new opportunities to show my work.