Alex Beltechi is a digital illustrator and designer from the sweet little country Romania. Beside studying design he earns money by creating photoshop tutorials for a popular tutorial site. He is excellent in designing typographic fonts and streaks into the image.
With a click on the pictures you get straight to the photoshop tutorial via psd.tutsplus.com
1. First of all we would like to thank you for taking the time to provide abduzeedo.com with thisinterview. Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
My art and design background is mostly informal. As a kid, I was an artistic person, but rarely joined artistic events or competitions. The mandatory art classes at school and occasional doodles at home were enough for me. I had a go at a couple of art competitions, with reasonable performance, but nothing that would give me a great sense of accomplishment. Art was mostly a hobby, but it became more serious as I began high school. A local art teacher, to which I owe a large amount of gratitude, saw potential in me and took the time about once a week to train me. It involved a lot of drawing, and sketching, from which i benefit a lot, even today.
Soon after, things started to change when I began to do print work for my church. Around the age of 15, me and my older brother started doing brochures, fliers, invitations, cards, booklets, banners etc. Pretty much everything that needed designing within the church. We used to work a lot on two versions of Microsoft “Picture It”. The software made it easy to create these things, but we became hungry for more. As time went by and projects became more sophisticated and demanding, the switch to Adobe software like Photoshop and InDesign opened up totally new possibilities. I think the print world is fascinating, and working in that field was an amazing experience. I still do these things today, but not as much as I used to because of college. It was more than acquiring experience, and working as a volunteer all this time has taught me valuable lessons in life.
Right now, I am in my first year at the Visual Arts College of Oradea, Romania. My first year has proven to be a painful test on my patience and endurance. It was heavily focused on free hand drawing, which is not exactly a foremost skill for me… The high standard in drawing has been to my own good, though. I’ve been able to improve greatly during this year, both on paper and on screen.
The digital side of my art is mostly due to PSDTUTS+. The Photoshop tutorial site organized a competition about a year ago, which really peaked my interest. I had been following the site from the very beginning, but never participated. I never even left a comment. At the time, I had only one piece posted on the internet (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexbeltechi/1464349900/) and decided I would have a go at this thing. I was surprised to see the positive response to my work, and amazed to actually win it. I loved the experience so much I decided to have a go at writing my own tutorials. Sean, the editor of the blog, was gracious enough to work with me through a few rejections until I posted my first tutorial. I’ve been writing ever since for them, and also for the Go Mediazine, Digital Arts and Mac User. I love doing it, because I am actually the one that benefits from it the most. I have to push myself further and further to be able to give the readers something new and exciting. I obviously can’t reinvent the wheel every time, but the large artistic freedom is what I love. It puts you under a magnifying glass though, and it can be pretty disappointing when something you’ve worked on a lot doesn’t get the appreciation you expected.
2. Your work is pretty unique and full of creativity. Where does your inspiration come from?
You probably get this answer a lot, but I can’t really put my finger on it. I find inspiration everywhere. Yes the web and seeing other people’s work in all possible creative fields inspires me, but I am usually triggered by day to day objects, sounds, people or places. If it’s the web, it can be a font that I see somewhere, a personal project of some sort, someone’s photography or music. Music actually takes on a big role in my work, and certain movies can give me ideas too. Photoshop, Illustrator and lately Cinema 4D are constantly giving me ideas too. There may be a certain feature that I haven’t used yet, so I usually find a way to put it to practice.
While these things may give me that initial spark, I try to “manufacture” ideas too. I’ll just think about what I haven’t done yet, and that I would like to try. If already done, i try to improve it or switch to related fields. You can usually find a chain of thought from one piece of mine to the other. I may focus on floral illustrations at one time, which leads to an organic type treatment, which gives me the idea if trying out lettering, also in an organic style, whose branches could be cool in a body portrait which… Yeah it’s kind of endless in a way, so I also draw inspiration from my previous work.
3. Could you describe for us your typical ’start to finish’ workflow when working on a design?
Once I know what I’m going to create, I may chose to look it up on the internet to see if it’s been done before. Obviously that’s true most of the time, so then I think of ways to make it original and fit to my style. I do scribbles and thumbnails on paper to map out ideas in a visual form. If there are hand drawn elements in the design I’m planning, I either try to find online resources, or create my own. I’m doing that more and more lately and find it really satisfying. Online resources don’t always cut it, so I try to make as much by myself as possible, including photography. After that, it’s all computer work. I try to keep my initial thoughts as the main guiding factor, but try variations along the way too. I usually change around or alter the colors until I’m happy with them and the piece is finished.
4. What are your tools of the trade, both hardware and software?
The tools I use on a daily basis extend past my PC. I love my drafting table and drawing gear. A good selection of pencils and paper makes all the difference for me. For Photography I use a Nikon D-90, a zoom and fixed lens, plus strobe. It’s only a hobby at this point, but I plan on using it more and more in my illustrations.
As software, my preferred medium is Photoshop. I also work a lot in Illustrator, of which I am increasingly dependent, and InDesign occasionally. The newest addition is Cinema 4D. I don’t have a lot of experience with it yet, but do see many ways of how I can benefit from it.
5. What, for you personally are the pros and cons of being a designer?
I think the best part of being a designer is the sense of fulfillment you get. At least I do, anyway. The wide range of projects you get keeps you busy and active. It’s better than being bored of doing the same thing over and over again 
One down side is how much discipline it takes to keep your social and professional work in balance. Being in college and working online is not exactly a great combination. I’m constantly being pulled from one side to the other, which can get very exhausting.
In order to be as productive as possible, I try to take advantage of moments when I feel inspired and ready to work. But that usually means disturbing that certain balance. And things get a lot worse when you hit a creative block. If you don’t feel in the mood to create something, it’s very difficult to do anything at all. It can make you wish you had a 9-to-5 job…
6. How does your job as an artist and designer influence your life? Do you feel that you see things around you differently for example?
Being an artist changes everything. One person may look at a poster and simply read the message. I can’t help myself from spotting typos, guessing fonts, finding unaligned elements, pixelated photos, graphic styles, vector stock, brushes etc. That’s why I get distracted a lot when I’m in public. I pretty much absorb everything around me, so being short on inspiration is not really a problem.
7. What are your coming projects?
I am currently developing my drawing skills and practicing line art. It’s something I really want to know how to do, and have been progressing so far. I’m still far from doing portraits, but nature elements I can handle. (http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Twitter-Bird/247386)
A large project that I’m working on is my personal brand. I need a portfolio site, visual identity system, etc. It’s in its infancy right now, and won’t see much development until fall. I’ll get to it eventually
As always, tutorials, tutorials, tutorials. I have lots of ideas, and not much time unfortunately. I’m also taking it easy this summer, so you probably won’t see that much of me on the net from mid-summer.
8. What are your favourite 5 websites, and why?
I follow different websites for different reasons, so placing them in order would be difficult. I enjoy writing on and keeping up with PSDTUTS, and lots of Envato sites for that matter. I may not really use all the techniques that I read about, but who knows? The Go Mediazine is also a favorite. Their design experience, hands on approach and stunning talent is something I learn from a lot. Behance lets me keep up with what’s going on out there; it’s also my main web portfolio so it’s obviously one the most useful tools for me. I back it up with flickr, in which I keep a more personal touch. I am truly loving the new Behance project called Served. Great inspiration, particularly the typography version.
9. Once again , thank you very much for the interview. As a final word, do you have any tips for upcoming artists and designers?
Me too, and thanks for the opportunity! As a personal tip, be patient, and know that you can’t get something for nothing. Personal development comes from hard work, so be determined and consistent.
Where to find him on the web
Alex Beltechi on Behance
Alex Beltechi on Twitter
Alex Beltechi on PSDTUTS
More work of this artist
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