UK-based artist Danielle English makes the world better by filling it with fantastic animals. Calling herself Kanizo, she worships all things magical and gives a special place in her art to nature.
We caught up with her to ask about dragons, hobbies, and pet rats, so keep scrolling and discover the artist behind the work.
How did you become an artist?
It’s something I’ve always been interested in ever since I was a kid; I loved creating fantasy worlds and creatures, especially loved drawing dragons as well. When I found out that people could actually draw those things as career, I knew that’s what I wanted to work towards!
Does Kanizo have any specific meaning?
Kanizo is the name of my dragon muse, a character I often draw when I need to draw -something- but not sure what. I picked out a few letters I liked and put them together!
Where do you live? Does this place inspire you?
I’m really lucky to live on the south coast of the UK, surrounded by national parks, rivers, and forests. These areas often help inspire some of my pieces, or sometimes I just enjoy going there to feel inspired again.
What are your biggest inspirations?
Probably video games, again it’s something I’ve been really into since I was a kid. I was always inspired by the worlds, characters, and creature designs, so in turn, wanted to hopefully inspire others through my work as well. Nature is also one of my biggest inspirations as well since most of my work is inspired by real animals, plus mythical beasts and folklore.
If you could see one fantasy place live, what would it be?
There are so many places I’d love to see! But the main ones that come to mind would probably be one of the worlds from the Final Fantasy games. I’d love to see some of the unique environments and meet the characters, plus it would be pretty awesome to see a Chocobo! Either that or the Pokemon universe 🙂
You create a lot of animals. What is your spirit animal?
Probably a dragon! They’re something I’ve always loved and been interested in, I have so many favourite animals so it’s hard to pick one of them, but the dragon comes to mind first 🙂
Apart from drawing, what are your hobbies?
I also love photography and going for long walks or cycling through scenic areas! Plus looking after my pet rats, and sewing hammocks for them in my spare time.
If you could pick another career path – what would it be?
Hard to say for sure as I’ve always been pretty determined to work towards art as a career, but I’ve always liked the idea of working with animals. Something like a wildlife rehabilitation centre would be interesting to do! I’m also interested in other creative areas linked to art, so things like creating 3D models and assets for games would be cool!
What are your plans for the future?
I would love to try and push my freelance career further, and eventually, work for a games company one day, or create illustrations for trading cards! Asides from art, I would also love to travel more, and see more of the world (especially places with mountains, since it’s pretty flat where I live!)
If you could give one piece of advice to beginner artists, what would you say?
Draw what you love and the rest will follow! I spent too much time drawing things I wasn’t really interested in as I thought that was what I had to do in order to do art as a career. As soon as I started drawing what I loved instead, my style developed and I started to gain more people interested in the type of pieces I created!
Instagram: @kanizoart
Rahul Das has launched his own Limited Edition Displate with us this week, and it looks incredible:
