Interview with Zoe Badini

Could you tell us something about yourself?

Hi, I'm Zoe and I live in Italy. Aside from painting I love cooking and spending my time outdoors, preferably snorkeling in the sea.

Do you paint professionally, as a hobby artist, or both?

I'm just now starting to take my first steps professionally after many years of painting as a hobby.

What genre(s) do you work in?

I love to imagine worlds and stories for my paintings, so most of what I've done is related to fantasy illustration and some concept art. I also do portraiture occasionally.

Whose work inspires you most -- who are your role models as an artist?

There are way too many to mention, I try to learn as much as I can from other artists, so there are a lot of people I look up to. There are a few I often watch on Youtube, Twitch, or other platforms, I learned a lot from their videos: Clint Cearley, Marco Bucci, Suzanne Helmigh, David Revoy.

How and when did you get to try digital painting for the first time?

I was used to traditional drawing, then a few years ago I saw some beautiful digital illustrations and was curious to try my hand at it, there was this old graphic tablet at my parents' house, so I tried it. What I made was atrocious, but it didn't discourage me!

What makes you choose digital over traditional painting?

Working digitally I feel like a wizard, with a touch of my wand I have a huge array of tools at my disposal: different techniques, effects, trying out ideas and discarding them freely if they don't work out. It's also a big space saver!

How did you find out about Krita?

I had heard it mentioned a couple of times, then I posted a painting on reddit and a user recommended Krita to me, I was a bit uncertain because I was used to my setup, my brushes and so on... But the seed was planted, in the span of a few months I was using Krita exclusively and I never went back.

What was your first impression?

I was understandably a bit lost and watched a few tutorials, but I found the program intuitive and easy to navigate.

What do you love about Krita?

Its accessibility and completeness: there's everything I may need to paint at a professional level and it's easy to find and figure out. Krita also comes with a very nice selection of brushes right out of the box.

What do you think needs improvement in Krita? Is there anything that really annoys you?

Nothing really annoys me, as for improvements I wanted to say the text tool, but I know you're working on it and it was already improved in 4.0.

What sets Krita apart from the other tools that you use?

As I said it's professional and easy to use, I feel like it's made for me. It's also free, which is great for people just starting out.

If you had to pick one favourite of all your work done in Krita so far, what would it be, and why?

My favourite is always one of the latest I did, just because I get better over time. In this case it's "Big Game Hunt".

What techniques and brushes did you use in it?

Nothing particular in terms of technique, my brushes come from the Krita presets, my own experiments and a lot of bundles I gathered from the internet over time.

Where can people see more of your work?

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/zoebadini Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZoeBadini

Anything else you'd like to share?

I want to thank the Krita team for making a great software and I encourage people to try it, you won't be disappointed. If you use it and like it, consider donating to help fund the project!