After going from watercolour to digital, this artist incorporates organic textures into fantasy characters

Kalina Aleksandrova is an artist from Bulgaria who has been influenced by the fantasy genre from a very early age. Her background is in watercolour and mixed media, but she now tends to use Clip Studio Paint (see our feature on the best digital art software).

Nevertheless, despite now working in digital art, her background still shows in how she strives to mimic fluid shapes and organic textures in her work. Below Kalina tells us a little about four examples of her art.

Minthra

Digital art showing a female fantasy character

(Image credit: Kalina Aleksandrova)

“Fan art of Minthara from Baldur’s Gate 3. As a huge fan of Alphonse Mucha’s artwork, the art nouveau elements combined with decorative foliage felt very natural and fitting for this series of illustrations.”

Mirror

Digital art showing a female fantasy character

(Image credit: Kalina Aleksandrova)

“This is a concept featuring my original character Aphrodite. The colour choices and background aesthetics here are inspired by the mysterious lover’s eye pendants and renaissance-era paintings.”

Solaire

Digital art showing a female fantasy character

(Image credit: Kalina Aleksandrova)

“A portrait of my Dungeons & Dragons character. I wanted to illustrate how I envisioned her when we started playing, and hopefully I’ll soon get to revisit her with all the changes that have taken place since.”

Aphrodite

Digital art showing a female fantasy character

(Image credit: Kalina Aleksandrova)

“Fan art of the goddess Aphrodite from the Hades video game series. I’ve wanted to push my skills and try painting more backgrounds, and this gave me the perfect opportunity.”

You can see more of Kalina's work at her online shop and her Instagram account.

For more inspiration, see our feature what is concept art? Also check out this Blender sketch that people can't believe is 3D.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

ImagineFX staff
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