Your Full Name
Warren Peter Louw, but I generally leave out my middle name. So Warren Louw is what I keep it to.

Tell us about you
Well, I was born in Cape Town, South Africa then a decade later moved to Johannesburg. I have loved drawing ever since I can remember, and have been teaching myself ever since! Art aside, I have a huge love for music of many genres, I really enjoy keeping fit (soccer and kung fu in particular), getting far away from city life when I can and diving the deepest I can in understanding life and the meaning of existence.

Otherwise, I like to keep my life pretty simple. I really enjoy my own imagination, love my own peace and quiet and just being able to develop myself on the inside.

In your opinion, what would be the secret ingredients to become a great illustrator?
I believe that before you get to the process of the work needed, you HAVE TO have a clear idea about what you want to achieve, and then you HAVE TO believe that you can do it.

Intention always comes first. If you can get this first stage right, the universe will give you all the experience you need, best suited for you (the same thing does not always work for everyone). So aim high, believe in yourself and then get working at it. Know that just because you have that mindset and positive feeling driving you, that you will most certainly get there.

Where are you located?
Originally Cape Town, but now currently living in Johannesburg, South Africa.

What is the most fascinating part of being an illustrator?
Well, I personally love the thrill of pushing my abilities the furthest I possibly can. I find it quite incredible at how your work is seriously influenced by your intent in wanting to achieve something greater and just believing you can do it, no matter what. The viewpoints art has added to my life has really helped me see something so much more about life as a whole, and thats what I find truly and amazingly fascinating.

Where do you get inspirations from?
Life in general and appreciating how well designed the human form is in all its simplicity and intricate detail.

Do you promote/ sell/ showcase your work? If so, how?
Um, I barely don’t at all. My success has been completely due to word of mouth and my online community portfolios… I don’t even have my own personal website! Its all been very minimal, so it really does show that it doesn’t take a lot if you can get that first stage of intention and belief right =)

What is your long range goals in your life?
To achieve the so called “impossible”

What types of assignment/ project are you attracted the most? Why so?
I do enjoy story boarding for fun TV commercials since its quick, decent work, and I get to see the commercials later on TV, which can be quite rewarding! Otherwise, I really love drawing beautiful cover girls, trying to always push the limits to how beautiful I can create them. Basically, I’m wanting to go as far as I can, and share that with the rest of the world to help inspire others to do the same and much more. So I’m quite attracted to projects that are able to help expose my work in a bigger way – covers for example.

Who is an illustrator that you look up to? Why so?
Lately, my biggest inspiration has been Adam Hughes. I love the fact that he’s also self taught, because it really does show that one can get to great places without having an “education”. We all have the potential to be our own greatest teacher, which he is a great example of. I also really enjoy his views on art, which are similar in ways to my own. He’s pretty much one of the worlds current greatest pinup artists, which seriously inspires me, giving me the drive to progress even more as an artist.

Describe a difficult work/ project situation and how would you overcome it?
Great question! Ok, well I’m sure many of us are familiar with the ridiculous deadlines that get dished up for us. What I do to overcome this, is, instead of freaking out that I’m not going to finish in time, I just relax and tell myself “I can do this”. I then create a daily schedule to what I would be doing each day up until the deadline – that will show me that according to the schedule, its totally possible. Every time I do this, I always, without exception meet the deadlines of madness, sometimes surprisingly with time to spare. Hey, this works even beyond difficult work situations. When in a tight spot in general, just relax your body by taking a few deep breathes, and just know that somehow, someway, things will work out. You’ll be surprised how well the universe responds to that

What do you think about the Internet and how it is affecting our lifestyle?
I’ve always felt that the internet is simply a reflection of our desire of wanting to connect in a greater way to greater things. Since we now have access a vast amount of information at the click of a button, it has definitely accelerated the rate at which things are achieved among all of us. I find kids these days, and others in general are becoming better and better in their own areas of interest, because they can easily see what is possible out there in the world, so they set higher standards and goals for themselves compared to previous generations.

If you could turn back time, how would you do things differently?
I wouldn’t. I believe everything is happening as it needs to be, whether we understand it or not, for the greater things to come. I am where I am today, because of the exact experiences I’ve gone through in my past (which many from an educated background would disagree with), which is further preparing me for the roads ahead. I believe we only understand why we go through what we do when reach our ever expanding destinations.

How do you keep your work fresh? Do you need to consciously adapt your style or does it progress naturally?
Well, I’ve been through quite a few different art styles, and mediums, (from pencil and paint photo realism, to digital basic and detailed comic styles, manual illustrations, logos, storyboard speed paints and sketches, and more). So when needed, since I have experienced a wide variety of subjects, I am able to easily adapt to new/never before used styles almost seemingly out of nowhere. It’s all got to do with a huge amount of practice, focusing on a wide range of everything to be able to do just so much more in art in general. Most of my work comes naturally, although I still at times need to use art or photo reference for more demanding artworks.

Name 3 of your favorite (art) books/ magazines.
ImagineFX, J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl Sketchbook and the Imagine art book by imaginary Friends.

What is your life motto?
You are the Creator

In what kind of a work environment do you do your best work?
Well I generally do all of my work at home, so I haven’t done much away from it. I work best when I’m alone, away from distractions (TV and people in general). I listen to music that is able to create a timeless and endless atmosphere for myself to help fire up my creative engines – ambient, trance, meditation and classical music in general. My environment also needs to be relatively in order without a big mess… hey, it seems to give me more “mental bandwidth” to keep a focused state more effectively.

What do you like the sound of? Why so?
This is going to sound crazy, but ever since I was a very young kid, I have loved the sound of a vacuum cleaner (a hoover). I never really understood it until very recently actually. It somehow just made me feel extremely relaxed and safe up until this very day. Since I have a huge fascination with discovering more about reality, I came across the Solfreggio frequencies (9 Ancient frequencies of sound/vibration used in spiritual practices of chanting, meditation and so on, for healing and transformation) and the tone of the vacuum cleaner was precisely matched up to one of them (”Return to spiritual order – 852 Hz”). Quite amazing I think! Otherwise, I love the sound of low rumbling planes and jets in the distance, the wind, the ocean, and a few others.

If you have online portfolio (website/awards/credits/client’s showcase), what is the URL?

• Deviantart is my main account – http://warrenlouw.deviantart.com
• CGhub (awarded master artist) – http://warrenlouw.cghub.com
• CGSociety (awarded the CGChoice award a couple times) – http://warrenlouw.cgsociety.org
• GFXartist (awarded the elite artist status) – http://warrenlouw.gfxartist.com

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