Interview with Artist Valentina Paz
In this month’s cover resides the faceless, yet emotional creatures of Valentina Paz, an artist who uses 2D and 3D applications together to create intricate fanart and beautifully dramatic original works. With a focus on the “fantastique,” Paz’s work features many different creatures and worlds to be explored.
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BRADLEY POWERS: In this month’s cover piece, titled “zone2,” we see a turquoise figure coming out from behind an orange, wrapping around, and bleeding into the orange. One perception of this might be of a parasite, bringing to mind the idea of dependency. With this idea in mind, the bulging muscles and positions of the creatures show an intense, strained relationship between the two. The merging colors give the impression that this is a snapshot amidst a tussle, change, or an inbetween state in the relationship. The inverse colored headpieces indicate that the two are possibly using each other for presentation, or that they are not complete without the other. These small details, along with countless others, can create so much meaning when there are no faces, a limited palette, and unhuman creatures. With an alternate title such as “Capture” it adds an entirely new element to the story with the implication that one, presumably the turquoise, was purposefully attempting to capture the orange. It brings to mind questions like why? What do they gain? Is the orange figure resisting the capture? … As the artist what does this piece mean to you and what questions are you hoping to provoke from viewers?
VALENTINA PAZ: I love that you have given a title to this artwork! This artwork is part of a series I would not title at all if I could. In my files I name them "Zone," shorthand for "comfort zone" because the only goal is to do something I fully enjoy, from initial mental image to sketching and painting, not worrying if it's gonna look good, make sense or be interpreted correctly. The subject for these comfort artworks were almost always melancholy humanoid creatures, who on rare occasions were showing affection for a small animal. I've always been deeply uninterested in romantic stories and depicting such relationships was almost never among my interests. Then in 2021, while playing a certain videogame, I didn't resist interpreting romantic subtext between two characters. I entertained that reading and months later I was wondering what a romantic depiction of these lonely creatures would look like and this artwork was the result.
I like that you interpreted a struggle between the creatures, because that was not at all my intention. I wanted their hands to look like they were gently grasping at each other, for their unhuman faces to be merging into one another imitating a kiss. Their colors are such because they both carry something from the other in themselves. I did this artwork years ago depicting a theme I hadn't practiced much before. I guess if I had titled it "Gentle Kiss" my original intention would be clear, but as I said, these types of artworks are just for me. I don't burden myself with trying to provoke anything specific on anyone else. All the questions and answers are for me only. Just like I read romantic subtext where there was none, I hope viewers have fun coming up with readings of their own!
BP: The majority of the original works on your website include thin humanoid figures with lean muscles and extended limbs. These humanoid figures, despite their lack of a face, are excellent at expressing emotion. As an artist, why do you work with these faceless creatures and how do you emphasize their emotion?
VP: There's some worldbuilding behind these creatures, their origin taking place way before anything resembling a human face takes shape, but they're not hostile or unknowable creatures. They're weird, but no weirder than the realization you have something in common with something ancient.
Faces and expressions are not among my favorite things to work with. They require a lot of attention and effort to look decent and are very easy to mess up. In their absence I've found it's the rest of the body that connects with humanity in the unhuman.
It helps to be aware and take note where in the body emotions and feelings are held. If they move, in what direction and how deep? Do they drag or pass through unobstructed, how do the muscles and joints react, how heavy or light or dense do they get. I think about their texture and temperature, if they burn or freeze, if they attract things and crumple on themselves or repel and disintegrate, the sounds they'd make and shape they'd leave behind. Then, I exaggerate those movements and textures.
BP: In your original works, I notice repeated imagery of serpents and winding maze-like structures, which visually mirror each other with the long twisting lines. What is significant to you about serpents and mazes as artistic symbols?
VP: Reptiles, and snakes specifically, have always been my favorite animals! They're nothing but joy to me. They're at the top of the list of things in my comfort zone. They're strange and if you don't give them any thought you may think they're boring tubes of flesh, all tail and small head, but upon further inspection, you'll notice a variety of shapes between species. Shout out to the gaboon viper! Its venom is extremely deadly and yet they're very mild tempered animals. Also, they look very funny when they move.
As for the maze-like structures, that's something I picked up from a certain videogame. Before that it was all about organic shapes, defined muscles, bony landmarks, and visible tendons. That videogame made me look at hard surfaces with desire. I felt a strong need to integrate flat, geometrical structures and stone monoliths in some way, to make two very different textures and shapes intertwine and resemble each other—find common ground between opposites.
BP: In the illustrations section on your website, you show progress photos for each piece, including the transition between blender and photoshop for various parts of the process. Can you walk us through your artistic process? How do the different applications facilitate your process?
VP: I usually start by picturing an image in my head, trying to visualize where different objects, figures, and light sources are supposed to be. If it's one of my original works I do a very rough sketch which is meant as a guideline to place 3D models. Otherwise, I jump straight into posing models and placing them in a simple scene in Blender to try to match the scene I imagined. I take a few test renders into Photoshop and start sketching on top of them, go back and move things in Blender and back to Photoshop and so on.
When I'm happy with a composition, I gather references and start sketching characters, trying to make my gestures look fluid and get rid of the stiffness that comes from 3D character models. I don't really like drawing or figuring out perspective. I especially don't like drawing non-organic objects, but I love having lots of shapes to shade and paint. Working with a 3D base has freed my ability to imagine too, with the boring technical details solved I don't intimidate myself out of complicated scenes anymore. Building scenes feels like playing with toys and sometimes I struggle to stop myself from adding more objects because they won't be visible in the drawing at the end. I'm free to think more about the story taking place in the scene, what the objects can say about what has been happening, if their placement can reinforce what each character is feeling, how the lighting and camera angle set the mood, etc.
BP: From your website I notice fanart and inspiration from the game Control by Remedy Entertainment. What are you drawn to about this game and what are some of your other main inspirations?
VP: Music and science fiction in general are my main inspirations. Soundtracks from some of my favorite movies, TV shows, and videogames never fail to feed my imagination: Annihilation, Hyper Light Drifter, Manifold Garden, and most of Remedy Games titles, among many others, while bands such as Tool, Soilwork, Russian Circles, *shels, Pelican, and 65daysofstatic are an excellent source of creative energy.
For painting, it's Caravaggio and the Baroque period in general. Chiaroscuro has a meditative and suffocating quality. A contemplative solitude among all that darkness that turns claustrophobic when you realize there are no blue skies to be found. Then there's Diego Velázquez, obviously. If you're into oil painting you will eventually realize the genius of his work. The impressionists for the freedom in their color palettes and movement of their brushstrokes.
Then there are two behemoths: the works of Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński and the videogame Control by Remedy Games. I discovered Beksiński during a time I wasn't enjoying being an artist or doing art, and his works felt like discovering a whole new universe. Unsettling atmosphere, imposing and impossible structures and textures, his use of color. His uniquely unrestrained imagination. I knew I wanted something out of my art but I didn't know what or how, and seeing his works helped me find many answers. His reluctance to "say or convey something" with his art and yet packing it with things that let the mind wander. The fact he just painted what came to mind, as if photographing dreams. Approaching art with a mindset such as "I'm going to paint whatever I want to paint" coming from an artist who wasn't academically trained, or inspired himself much from other artists, was a freeing experience. He was very prolific! I own five books cataloguing his works, there are very few repeats and every time I search his name I find paintings I hadn't seen before. Right now I have tabs open with five of his works I'm seeing for the first time!
As for Control, the short answer? I love everything about it. If Beksiński's works answered questions I had, Control gave me questions I didn't know I needed to ask, and then didn't give me a straightforward answer. The richness of its writing is palpably deep: its attention to detail, how it balances mundane elements among all the weird, supernatural things, its humor, its ability to suggest a greater narrative by giving you only glimpses of the history of its world and its inhabitants, and it's infuriatingly good at not giving you enough to answer all questions you'll have at the end.
The soundscape is often unsettling and makes me restless. The visual effects, destructible environments, the chaotic and noisy combat, all cracks and whistles in such a satisfying way to offer reprieve from its ominous silence. The art direction as a whole is unique and impeccable. The lighting stands out the most to me. Blinding white light that could make everything look clinical, hostile, and impersonal, but the set dressing is always so on point you never feel too unwelcome or out of place. Each room is a carefully constructed scene. Start photo mode and you'll see how easy it is to end up with 3000 screenshots! This was the first game from the studio I played, so I was unfamiliar with the way they use light. It's the one thing I wish I could just take and add it to my work. No inspiration, just straight up take it! So much so that immediately upon finishing it I spent hours upon hours building scenes in Blender trying to imitate its lighting, or at least build something that reminded me of it.
By the end of my first playthrough I had encountered so many familiar elements from books, films and things I saw during my years in college, intertwined in such a wonderfully cohesive way with so many things I didn't know I needed. This game can be enjoyed on a surface level, with a story that works well enough as an excuse to traverse its environments, packed alongside perfectly serviceable third person shooting mechanics. But the moment one of its myriad of odd juxtapositions grabs your attention you may find there was a universe hiding in plain sight waiting for you. It's that ability to awaken curiosity that's so intense in its restlessness that has strongly drawn me to this game.
Beksiński passed away long before I discovered his work. I can never tell him the impact his paintings had on me. All I am left with is the finite quantity of his paintings and drawings and how I decide to dialogue with them. It can be a rather lonely and melancholy activity.
Control, on the other hand, is a franchise that is very much alive with an audience that has been active since it came out in 2019, I've even made years-long friendships online since I started posting my fanart. And I try not to think too often about a huge print of an illustration I originally did for a friend that's hanging in the studio's building which, as far as I know, is seen on a daily basis by some of the staff from their narrative department. Or the banner they commissioned me to do as part of their 30th anniversary last year. Crazy stuff. Both Beksiński and Control gave me this long lasting need to make things and be curious, to imagine strange yet familiar worlds to get lost into, and leave the door ajar in case others want to take a look.
BP: Wow, Valentina, what a thrilling artistic journey you’ve had with this game! It’s absolutely amazing to hear people talk about things they truly love and find great passion in. There seems to be a great contrast between Bekiński’s work and Control which has obviously helped you create a middle ground in which your work lives.
If you’d like to see more from Valentina check out her website, Bluesky, and tumblr.