CSP Featured Artist: Alex
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How did you become an artist?
I’ve been drawing ever since I was a little kid—pretty much since I was able to hold a pencil. Sometimes I even drew on the walls with my older sisters’ lipsticks. I’d sketch tiny chicks, little houses, anything that sparked my imagination. It didn’t take long for my mom to realize how much creating meant to me, so she started putting on shows on tv like Art Attack and Mister Maker. She saw something in the way I lit up every time I had something—anything—to draw with.
In preschool, I would spend recess tucked away with a huge sketchbook, using the soft-colored pencils my best friend lent me. I’ve always been a fan of things: Strawberry Shortcake when I was a kid, and later Twilight, My Chemical Romance, Stray Kids, that love for things that inspires me has always fueled my art. It pushed me to start making fanart, to draw faces, to spend hours trying to perfect my technique so I could express everything I felt. Fanart quickly became a turning point; it made me want to grow, to capture what truly moved me.
And through every stage of my life, even while studying something completely different from art, one thing has never changed: I always knew that drawing was something I wanted to do every single day of my life.
Where do you get inspiration?
I used to draw traditionally a lot, so in the beginning I found a lot of inspiration in artists like Heather Rooney. Nowadays, I’m mostly a fully digital artist. I consume a lot of art, but my strongest inspirations are: on Instagram, Cranitys for their colors and dynamic style, Vesselester, and Happy_Humbug76 —their comic Deathwish has been a huge source of inspiration as well as 6_teh with their amazing use of color and render. On X, I look up to Sartorial_E for their compositions and A. Smirny for their rendering.
What’s your hardware setup?
I use a Huion Kamvas 13 paired with either my MacBook or my desktop computer. Lately, though, I’ve been using my iPad Air a lot, mostly because I love the mobility of being able to draw anywhere.
What do you like best about Clip Studio Paint?
I love how complete the program is. The interface was incredibly easy for me to learn—very intuitive. It has a wide variety of tools, and honestly, I adore browsing through all the brushes and materials available in the Assets library. Plus, I can use the same interface for animations and for my comics… it’s truly an all-in-one software.
How long does it take you to make a single illustration?
It really depends on the complexity. As I’ve refined my technique, I’ve become much more detail-oriented. Some pieces take less than two hours, but on average, an illustration usually takes me about 4 to 6 hours. Others can take days—or even months—depending on the level of detail in the composition.
How has Clip Studio Paint improved your workflow?
Clip Studio has helped so much. There’s a tool I found on Assets that I absolutely love—it’s a selection tool that lets me fill in colors without having to go over every little line manually. It saves me a ton of time and lets me get to my favorite part of the process sooner: the rendering. There are many tools in Clip Studio that make the workflow faster, smoother, and overall much more efficient. 
Would you like to promote some recent project?
I’m about to launch my rendering and composition course! The waitlist is already open, and you can join it here:
https://www.waitlistcourse.com/alexmusttodraw
Where can we follow your work?