Meet Quazar Bloem

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quazar Bloem a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Quazar, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I’ve always had an affinity to be an artist, if a person asked me (it happens quite often) when I started to draw I would always respond by gesturing at a short height, the answer being since I was little.

Throughout primary school it was dressing up as a cartoonist for work day, at high-school it was taking my first art class and cultivating my skills with wonderful teachers, scoring excellent marks. However the year I graduated I did not have the opportunity to go to an art college rather taking a tertiary education in something I was not happy with.

Years go by working in retail, with flashes of painting miniatures as hobbies were my only creative outlet. Then Covid-19 happened.

The weeks of no work but straining income would take its toll. I picked up my mouse and wanted to do something on the side to keep myself busy. It started with pixel art, streaming said pixel art and fostering a community of like minded artists. Eventually I was approached by a fellow artist and was asked why I was not commissioning my skills. At first I was shy about the aspect of selling my art, however with the encouragement of my girlfriend (now wife), friends and fellow artists I started and eventually saved up enough to buy a digital tablet and begin learning digital art.

The rest is history.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Quazar (That is my real name), I’m 29 years old. I’m an illustrator and digital artist. I’ve been a full freelance artist since 2021.

My artist name is ClappingDonuts and I have been in the pursuit of improving my art and constantly experimenting with new styles and aesthetics. Funky fresh is my jam. I enjoy illustrating comical adult themes with a provocative sexy tones similar to the pin-up era of art. I tend to mix anime inspired works with pop art to give colour, vibrancy and style to all of my art pieces.

I grew with early anime, watching on VHS, constantly rewinding and being awe inspired by just how whimsical it can be. Then videogames were my next big influence to becoming an artist. Playing games like Warcraft, Grim Fandango, Ratchet and Clank where the unlockable concept art was my favorite thing to see. Those moments really inspired me to become a concept artist.

Though life is strange and now with the advent of social media and the internet being as prevalent more than ever I am able to work for myself. Making art I want, selling art at big Conventions like Comic Con and growing my fanbase. Did I see myself doing what I am doing five years ago? Hell no, but I am glad I’m doing it.

Currently working on several projects, commissions and concept art. One project being my newest and probably biggest project is starting my web-comic series, Wasabi Flavoured Donuts. A Sci-Fi Comedy where a Mad Scientist named Wasabi rents out a room to a demon named Donuts, will this post apocalyptic world survive while these two try to live together? Find out on Webtoons and Tapas.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three most important qualities as a new upcoming digital artist I learnt and it wasn’t over night were;

1. Always, always, always be willing to learn new techniques and art skills. Youtube is your friend, you don’t need a fancy degree but you do need the passion and willingness to self improve and there is countless resources out there for free. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Correct Practice does.

2. Accept that learning art is not parallel. If it takes you months to get better at drawing hands but it takes another person a week that’s fine. We are all different, our brains work differently, art is just a medium on which we put what we see with our mind on paper. The most important thing is to keep on it, because at some point you’ll be fantastic, it just takes time.

3. Never give up, especially because you feel you are too old. I have had countless people say that they wish they could’ve been better artists and pursuit art to be more than just a hobby all because they have stopped for years or never began in the first place. I have friends who only started drawing in their early 40’s and became professionals five years later. Artists who stopped for a decade only to pick up the pen again and reignite the passion they had and became even better and bigger artists. It’s never too late.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

Improving on what strengths we have is very important in defining what type of artist we become. Be it a graphic designer, concept artist, illustrator and so on. By focusing on your core strengths can lead to some interesting developments along the way. For me I was a really good pixel artist at first but I felt that by designing the pixel art characters was such a strong passion that it lead me to become a digital artist and be exceptionally good at designing characters for other media.

Though a massive however was put right in front of me when I started doing freelance.

When beginning your own business its very important that you start learning very new skills that are outside your comfort zone of art. Like schedule keeping, finances, marketing and learning social media skills. Being all rounded in those skills is what makes a starving artist become a successful artist. I wouldn’t be here making commissions, having a good fanbase and attending events if I didn’t learn these skills.

Focus on your artistic strengths but be willing to learn things that very much are not apart of art, as that will propel your career as an artist.

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