Aura Print Spotlight: Kherm

“I’m an Italian illustrator and small business owner based in the UK! Most of my work is focused on TTRPG games, animation, and more. I’ve been doing digital art since 2014, but perfected it in 2020, during quarantine. During COVID I explored the idea of turning my art into physical merchandise and opened my first online shop, which I still run! Artists have always surrounded me, as my family has art in their blood from both sides, so my biggest inspiration has always been my mum, who couldn’t follow her art dreams due to her becoming a mother of three (oops, sorry mum). Another big inspiration that keeps me creative is anything that helps me escape reality and dream of fantasy settings and out-of-this-world scenarios.”

“I started working with Aura Print last July, and I’m so grateful someone suggested them. I love adding that extra shimmer to my prints with the foiling technique, and Aura Print is always on point with it.”

“I have a degree in printmaking and illustration, so print quality is very important to me. I feel like I always try to look for the best paper and ink quality for my prints, as they are what I’m best known for."

“I feel like you already have a wide range of options that other manufacturers don’t offer.”

“Soft touch finish and foil! Perfect combo."

“I am a Procreate defender. I’ve tried all types of software during my university years, but Procreate has always been my favourite. It’s beginner-friendly, one time purchase, and you can draw wherever you like! When it comes to preparing my files for prints, I use InDesign.”

“I have a couple. My all-time favourite creative skill is to make thumbnails before I work on an illustration (big thanks to my illustration professor). Thumbnails help you envision the whole composition before you start properly working on the illustration. It’s also a super quick technique which helps your creative process!

My second favourite creative skill is colour theory. There’s a reason why a lot of beginner artists prefer to work in black and white, or are scared to move to colours. Colours are scary!! But all it takes is research colour theory and learn how to position colours next to each other. It took me a bit to perfect it, but it’s worth the time! Last but not least, I’m very proud of my painting technique. It took me a long time to perfect the brushstrokes, and I still have a long way to go. I went through many painting phases: flats, lasso tool only, more comic style, and lastly painterly. Most people know me for my painterly style, which I perfected at the start of my university career in 2021!”

“I don’t. There are times when I call a piece finished, but go back to it after a couple of days. That’s the curse about being an artist: we’re rarely satisfied with our work.”

“Find something that inspires you to be creative. It could be a tv series, a podcast, music, animation, a video game, literally anything. Have it in the background whilst you work, get inspired, and create. There will be times when you hit a wall and feel burnout or blocked; my best advice to defeat that is to keep yourself always inspired by something."

"I have way too many interests, but my main ones are video games, animation and writing. Growing up, I’ve always written and drawn my own stories! I hope one day I can make one of them public."

"Because of the nature of being a small business owner, I already had to get my hands into video production, marketing and live streaming. I’m still a beginner, but I’d love to perfect these skills!"

"At the moment, I’m preparing for the summer convention season, so I have a lot of projects that I’m working on behind the scenes. I’m planning to re-polish some old portraits into a themed foil print series, make a themed tarot deck, and turn most of my well known portraits into photocards."

"The creative industry is one of the most competitive industries out there. You will always feel like someone else is better than you, or you’re not performing as good as you hoped. When I started posting my art online, I used to compare my followers and likes to other artists who were way more experienced than me. I remember feeling discouraged; I would never see a future where my passion could also be my profession.

I changed my mindset when I started university and became surrounded by other artists. I started focusing only on my journey, I would ask my peers for advice, I became open to critiques without feeling bad about the response, and I stopped focusing on online performance. Only then did my art improve!

My other advice is to avoid being too competitive with your peers. At the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat. Our industry is loved by lots of people, but it’s also at great risk with the rise of AI. We don’t have time to have internal fights. Focus on your journey and you’ll be fine."

"I used to offer commissions throughout my university years. I unfortunately don’t offer them any longer because being a content creator, small business owner, and convention artist keeps me busy enough."

"You can find me at MCM London this May, Twitchcon Europe in Rotterdam this June, and at various UK conventions during the year!"