Feature by Taylor Bhaiji
Photos by Jasmine Wang
Bea Villers is a digital and animation artist. Using photoshop as her canvas, Bea creates a fantastical world with saturated and contrasting tones that rival the colors we see in our reality. Inspired by the runway that is the city, Bea displays fashion through a whole new window that dresses her imaginative characters.
Go ahead and introduce yourself!
I am Bea Villiers and I am a freshman at Columbia College. I’m also from London.
When was your first encounter with art?
I’ve been basically drawing since I was born. It’s always been something that I didn’t really have to think about, sort of like a safe space. At the end of the day, I can go and relax and get into my art. It’s always been therapeutic for me.
I also grew up in a very artistic household. My mother is also into art and we went to galleries in London where we lived. It’s a great place to get inspired.
Tell me about the different media you use.
I mainly use digital art, animation, sculpture and oil painting. Digital art and animation kind of intersect because I use Photoshop for both. I do 2D animation, so I can create a single drawing and from there I can create animation. In terms of sculpting, I tend to do figure sculpting with polymer clay. I made a ring collection of necklaces. I also sculpt a lot of faces, like alien faces and fantastical creatures. Oil painting is something I want to explore more. It’s very different from my other styles.
What prompted your movement into the digital realm of art?
It was actually my neighbor. My neighbor works in animation and concept art. He worked on the film Paddington. For my eleventh birthday he gifted me a Wacom tablet and gave me a free Photoshop download, which allowed me to experiment. It took a long time for me to create art I was proud of.
Can you talk about how your art has evolved?
My art has gone through a major evolution this summer. Before I was doing a lot of fashion drawings and I was mainly focusing on the clothes. Then, I started experimenting with big scale paintings and using a loose brush stroke style. I started to incorporate my painting style into my digital art, so that it would seem more fluid but still have a digital element. I also moved towards more fantastical themes in my work.
How do you discover your subjects or find your muse?
My characters come from my mind, and I get fashion inspiration from Pinterest. I also get inspiration from my friends, and the way they dress in real life. I like to represent them in my artwork.
Who or what are your artistic influences?
I am very inspired by Japanese art. Studio Ghibli films are a big inspiration for me with the fantastical elements. I really like the work of Jenny Saville and the way she depicts women, skin, and the female form.
I am also very interested in Mary Katayama’s art. She’s a disabled artist and she has these very cool photographs where she incorporates fabric appendages. Her color palettes are amazing.
Have you considered branching out into different mediums of art?
Yes! I really want to get more involved with sewing and clothing design, though I'm really bad at technical things. But, I want to try it out for sure. I’ve also been thinking of branching out into graffiti lately.
Can you talk about your choice of using bright, neon colors?
When I moved towards creating art that was more fantastical, I wanted to use more interesting and contrasting colors and go outside of the traditional color palette of the human skin. I wanted to incorporate more blues and greens because I started noticing the tones of our skins. On my phone I would turn up the saturation of pictures of myself and my friends, and you can see that there are so many different colors within our skin tone, and I wanted to emphasize that in my work.
Eye are such a powerful element in your work. Why do you draw them the way you do?
I feel like that’s also definitely inspired by Japanese art. Eyes are so powerful, and I want to exaggerate that because I feel like they are the coolest feature of the human body. I don’t even know if I’m capable of drawing people with normal-sized eyes. I’ve been drawing big eyes since I was little. I guess it’s just a part of my style
How long does it usually take you to finish a piece?
Sometimes in my mind, I’ll have a vision and I will just do it, and I’ll be done thinking that my art is perfect. Other times, there is a little thing wrong and I am experimenting for hours. Sometimes my art is done fast, but sometimes it can take months.
Fashion seems to play an important role in your artwork. How does living in New York, a fashion capital, play into your work?
Definitely. Having grown up in a big city and moving to another big city, you are exposed to lots of cool people and cool styles that have influenced my outlook. New York fashion and London fashion are interesting, and I love to see the differences. I noticed I’ve been more free with my artwork and more explorative since I’ve gotten here.
If you could describe your art in one word, what would it be?
Maybe “saturated” just because my work is so bright and I use such contrasting tones. I feel like the saturation within my art is such a central part of my work.
Is Instagram your main mode of sharing your art?
Instagram and TikTok, but I haven’t been active as much lately. I was gaining popularity on Instagram, so I was sticking with the art that was getting a lot of likes, but in a way it felt like posting for my audience was hindering my artistic development. I’ve done that style since I was fifteen and now I’m eighteen, so it’s time to change it up. I don’t feel like the art I post now gets as much support, but I still like it a lot more. Lately, I’ve been trying to focus on creating art for myself rather than for other people.
What are you working on right now? What's next?
I am working on a piece that takes place at a nickel factory in Norilsk that I watched a documentary about. It has Artic climate and is very polluted and isolated. There are these tower blocks there because it used to be a Soviet labor camp. I’m doing a drawing of two characters in a Norilsk cityscape. I feel like it’s different from my usual drawings because it has a very depressing mood and the colors are very gray and unsaturated.
Where else can we find your work?
My TikTok is @beafcakez and my Instagram is @murpll.