Emmanuel Umukoro (slayyou2) is a talented young artist from Canada. He has been using photoshop for only a couple of years, and is already incredibly proficient at it. His works are abstract, creative, and meticulous, and we thank him greatly for this interview. Don’t forget to check out Emmanuel on his DeviantArt for more art!

Welcome to Aevion, we’re glad to have you here! Could you please introduce yourself, and tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?

Hi my name is Emmanuel Umukoro and I’m 18 years old. I was born in the Netherlands but because of circumstances ended up moving to Canada 4 years ago. I am at the moment completing the final year of my high school career and hope to move on to a multimedia design course at my local college.
I discovered photoshop about 2 years ago via a friend of mine that loves to make videos, he had the full CS3 suite and would let me just check out the different programs. Eventually I discovered that people where actually making amazing looking images on this program this is when I decided to try for myself.

How would you describe your work/style?

I would describe it as a laid back feel it and then do it kinda style, Never was any good at planing!

What is your favorite work? Could you tell us a little bit about it, like your inspiration and methods for creating it?

I would definitely have to say that Anderson Symbolique is my favorite piece of work. It was actually a school project, we where asked to create a cover for our yearbook, the only criteria was the retro theme and the words Anderson Symbolique. I first sketched out the word Anderson and Symbolique out a whole bunch of ways, just to see, i then scanned the final and started the PS work from there.

You have an effect in “Milkyway” that is super cool–it looks like purple globs of awesomeness floating above a lot of glossy/milky waves and such in the background. Could you tell us a bit about how you created this piece?

C4D all the way!! Those blobs are actually quite easy to make, you just need to use the metabal tool. You then render out the scene and pull it into Photoshop.

A lot of your art appears to be very abstract—“Fuzzy Peach Wonderland,” “Stuck,” and “Woozoo” just to name a few. Where do you get your inspiration for such pieces?

Just everyday life. I am very easily bored, I like change and abhor monotone, so that comes through in my work. Really I usually make a doodle that takes on a life of it’s own and ends up in photoshop for polishing.

What plans do you have for the future of your graphic design career? Any upcoming projects you would like to talk about?

Right now I’m studying Multimedia design at Durham College, it’s a 3 year program so that should keep me busy for a while to come. Of course I’ll continue creating personal illustrations. I am not completely sure what direction I am going to take my work, but you can expect it to be a lot more unified and typographic.

Thanks again for providing us with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

Never stop experimenting and having fun! :)

Check out Emmanuel on his DeviantArt for more art!