Aimee Cozza

Inexplicably, she is drawn to the romance of the dark-beautiful. This theme unifies characters and worlds of her pieces, usually through stylistic choice, color, and other frequently used themes of duality — light versus dark, sharp versus soft, loud versus quiet, protagonist versus antagonist. It is in these contrasts that she finds the best stories lie and can be told. Frequently, she explores worldly concepts of femininity and masculinity, anarchy and structure, and of being hurt, either physically or mentally. She also explores mental health issues such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trichotillomania. In exploring these themes she hopes to help society question what they know as good or bad, and understand there is more than one side to any story.

Aimee Cozza is a 2012 New England College (formerly New Hampshire Institute of Art) graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration. She works digitally, traditionally, and within a mix of the two across a variety of physical mediums, but never with the help of AI.

Along with illustration, Aimee works in the field of graphic design, web design, and digital marketing. She has also created and helped produce many self-published titles for friends, clients, and colleagues. She is also an aspiring writer, with a three-part book series in the works. She likes to work with other artists to collaborate group projects. In addition to collaboration projects, she has worked on community projects in New England such as outreach murals and beautification projects.

In addition to drawing and writing, she also enjoys many kinds of music, dabbles on guitar and bass, and enjoys collecting insects as well as other strange and abnormal oddities. She likes cars and animals, and dislikes coffee and chocolate flavored ice cream.

Aimee has been an INPRNT artist since 2016.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Have you ever heard the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none”? In my head I say that a lot, because I do a lot of things – including if we’re just talking about art styles. I’m an illustrator, a web dev, a writer, a gardener, a musician, and lots of little things in between. I love learning new things, collecting new abilities, and leveling up old ones along the way.

What is the main medium, content, and/or themes that are frequently present in your work?

My main medium is something I call “digitally altered graphite.” That is, the majority of the drawing is drawn traditionally with pencil (usually on bristol board) including all of the shading, scanned, and then colorized and detailed digitally. I thought calling it digitally altered graphite would convey better how I was tackling these works rather than just saying mixed media.

Content and thematic-wise, I’m chasing a lot of dark subjects. A lot of my works have this undertone of sadness or longing, sometimes desperation. I do a lot of depictions of mental trauma and struggles in various states, and I aim for a dark-beautiful ethereal quality in most of my works. You’ll see a lot of glowing eyes, wings, and wolves in my works. And occasionally you’ll see some butts.

What have been some critical moments or challenges in your career/work that have shifted your perspective creatively?

I think the most critical moment in my art making timeline came when I realized I only wanted to make work for me.

Growing up, I had thought I wanted to do all kinds of art things. For a long while, I thought that I wanted to draw comics. I was creating my own comics and strengthening my knowledge with hopes that I could someday approach a big name publisher and become one of their page artists. I dreamt of attending a certain comic-oriented college, but settled for a cheaper college in the area with hopes I would leave with something I could use towards my comic book industry portfolio. To my younger self, this felt like it would have been the ultimate goal, to become a comic book artist. Knowing what I know now about the comic book industry, I think I avoided a lot of pain and heartbreak ending up down the path I did.

There was a point where I was just so sick of trying to make commissions and draw everyone else’s stuff. People were constantly asking me to draw these fan arts of various IPs and I was drawing them all the time, but I didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of it. I didn’t feel connected to these projects, and instead wound up feeling like I was just chasing after the next thing to get people to like my work. At some point while I was juggling going to school full time and working, I started realizing that I felt the best when I was making works that I was invested in, and because I had such limited time to create in this manner, I should cherish it.

Over the years I’ve honed this into a simple “I like making art for me.”

This is, of course, not to say that I don’t still do paid work or make fan arts, but it allows me to be more selective.

Over the years I’ve honed this into a simple “I like making art for me.”

Keeping a balance with social media can be challenging for artists. What is your approach to social media, online community, and promoting your work?

My full-time job a few years ago was “social media manager” (and I still do some social media management work for some clients), so this is a difficult question to answer. There’s two ways to approach social media:

One: You play the game, you make the content, you gain the followers and the likes, and you make the sales.

Two: You exist.

I tend to embrace the latter of the two. I have been outspoken in the past about how I am not a content-making machine and I do not exist to satisfy the algorithm of some social media platform. My art took me hours and days and weeks and months and sometimes years to make; I am not going to work for hours more so someone can watch it for ten seconds and never think about it again. If I have something to post, I’ll post it. This, of course, flies in the face of every “good” and advisable social media strategy, but I’m an artist, not a content creator.

Tell us about your artistic process.

I’m kind of all over the place with my process. It depends on what scratches the itch, you know? Sometimes that’s thumbnailing and doing gestural sketches for a while, especially if I’m not sure what kind of composition or angle I want to convey. Sometimes I know exactly what I want to draw and go right into working on the final work. Sometimes it’s more exploratory, and I’m just seeing what comes out with no expectations for myself.

Regardless of how it starts, one thing is for sure: I’ve learned to embrace a “decanting” process. That is, leaving your work for a while and coming back to it later with fresh eyes. When I’m done with something that I’m not feeling wholly solid about (maybe I’m not sure the colors are right, or I think it needs something) I’ll leave that piece for a few days, weeks, or even months to come back and look at it anew. It shocks me when I come back to a piece and go, “what was I thinking? This piece doesn’t need anything else. It’s not at all how I remember it to be.”

“Regardless of how it starts, one thing is for sure: I’ve learned to embrace a “decanting” process. That is, leaving your work for a while and coming back to it later with fresh eyes.”

What are your hobbies and interests outside of creating art? How do these affect you creatively?

Back in 2017, I made the switch from working a retail space, to being a web dev full time. Shifting into a work-from-home model was vastly different from what I was used to. When I worked retail, I was creating a lot of digital artwork because I simply didn’t have the room for paintings and other traditional media. I still don’t have the room for that sort of thing. However, since going to a work-from-home model, I had to use my creative space (the desk and computer) then as also my work space. Everything I was doing by then was on a computer. I found myself dreading having to go hop on the computer to make something. I was already spending eight hours every day hunched over a computer, and then to spend four or five more just to do a drawing felt like agony.

At one point I was so frustrated with myself for not creating anything because digital had always been my go-to space. I started to pick up a sketchbook and created some detailed, near-finished works inside. As I was drawing and sketching I started to really embrace the way that imperfections and smudges could be applied and give this certain type of feeling to a piece, along with the tell-tale texture of pencil. “The Swan Prince” was the first completely finished work that was drawn traditionally with pencil and then finalized with color digitally. I enjoyed it so much that a majority of my works became this hybrid of traditional technique married with digital additions.

When the pandemic hit, it felt all the more important for me to create in this manner. I think this really changed my workflow a lot.

How do you find inspiration and what are those inspirations?

A lot of my inspiration comes from my writing. When I write, the scenes I’m portraying I think of in a cinematic sense. I can imagine the angle I want to see this at, the movement, the colors, the lighting. Sometimes I’m so stuck on a scene I’ve got to try to convey it illustratively so others can see it as I do too.

I’m also inspired by nature, music, and other artists. I am sure I am not unlike lots of artists out there who feel influenced by everything around them.

How do you get motivated or inspired to push past creative blocks?

Since I have a lot of hobbies, I tend to just move along to the next hobby and piddle away on that for a while until I’m feeling ready to come back to illustration. One hobby inspires the next, so it’s very cyclical.

Who are artists or people who have influenced you?

There are so many! My co-author Tory Keith is a fantastic and amazing artistic influence. I am constantly inspired by the talented artists I see around me: Laura Siadak, Emily Hare, Stormslegacy/Michelle Vigeant, Julie Dillon, Kristina Gerhmann, Rowena Cai, Valentina Remenar, Yuri Shwedoff, Craig Mullins, Joseph Haxan, just to name a few. Shoutout to my roots too with Greg Capullo, Adam Kubert, Frank Miller, Joe Quesada, and Adi Granov.

Do you have any advice for students or other artists who are looking to start sell their work?

Look for personal connections. I find I make my best sales at shows and other venues where people are more forced to hold their interest. Social media can be good, but you should diversify and try a little bit of everything to find where your market is and hone in on it.

What’s next for you?

I’m hopefully finishing up coordinating a fan tarot project within the next few months. I’m also working on a new pin design, and sending out artwork for a skateboard deck show in Minneapolis called “Drop In.” After that, I was rumbling around an idea for another tarot card project. I will also be looking for a literary agent for my book – so fingers crossed for me on that!

Follow Aimee’s Journey:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Link
• Behance