An Interview with Katatonik
I think it’s important to draw even the smallest shadows wherever possible. It might not seem significant at first, but when you have lots of little details all on one piece of clothing, it stands out and makes a difference.
By Kyra Nemeth
With all the walks of life and style here in SL it’s easy to get a little lost in the assorted fashions and fads that accompany each individual path. From the neko, the furry, the goth, the tech-inspired right down to the closer to real life fashionistas and their houses of style… there truly is a little bit of something for everyone. So why is it that we miss out on some of the more independently-minded?
Well thankfully after wandering the vast reaches of our lovely grid, I managed to stumble across a charming little shop that I only can think to call “spooky cute”. In an overtone of Gothic black, the store itself was accented in the neon Windlight glow of pink and green that only Torley can truly appreciate. The details of the exterior were made up of skulls, cheerful flowers and other sinister-sweet contradictions. I was here chasing a rumor of freebies… What I found was a generous collection of high quality freebies and dollarbies as well as a shop and a designer to watch.
Katatonik (main shop located at Axis Mundi) is a growing line of clothes design by Miss Katat0nik Pidgeon that is accompanied by mix and match works of shoes, hair and skins. The overall flavor of the line might be categorized as EGL (Gothic Victorian/Lolita) similar to some of the things we see out of the Asian sims…but oh so different and standing on its own. With vivid colors, sharp details and an overall fun-loving feel to her designs, I simply had to meet Miss Katat0nik.
Here’s the dish…
KYRA First of all, can you tell a little bit of your history here in SL? How long you’ve been here and how you started out with the new experience of community such as this…do you belong to any other 3d communities?
KATAT0NIK My good friend 713 Ayres introduced me to SL in Jan. 2007, she thought it would be a cool place for us to set up a virtual art gallery. 713 and I are both painters IRL and we were interested in new ways of showing our work, and SL was unlike anything we’d ever seen before. I’d never been a part of a 3D community before, so it was all new and exciting to me.
KYRA How long was it before you started building and designing here? How did you start out or get inspired to start making a business of it?
KATAT0NIK I learned very quickly from 713 how to make a prim painting with my artwork on it, and that was my first build 
It took me a long time to build anything more complex than that, and it wasn’t until earlier this year that I was able to make decent clothes. The idea of being able to explore a whole new world of and creating things in a new & different way was very appealing to me as an artist, and the fact that I could get paid to do so helped me come to the decision to dedicate more time to making things for SL. And here I am!
KYRA Now the Katat0nik label only really covers your excellent clothing designs, but isn’t true that you design and work on a great deal more than that? What are some of these other projects and how do they relate (or not) to Katatonik?
KATAT0NIK Oh yes, I am an SL workaholic! In addition to my clothing shop, I have a few other shops I share with 713 Ayres. Our shoe shop, Stomp Lightly, showcases all my boots & mary janes – most of which match my clothing. We also have a tattoo shop called Numen Tattoos, where we sell tats made from our original artwork. My skin shop, Skins of Delphi, is where I sell hand drawn skins with various makeups that go well with my clothing. I have also recently started making hair with color change features that go with my clothes as well.
KYRA I personally came across your shop in one of my exploring adventures one night while looking over different Victorian and steam punk inspired sims - and ended up in Axis Mundi. Notably, your style is very Gothic Lolita inspired. Could you tell our readers what EGL means to you and what inspires your designs?
KATAT0NIK My designs are pretty much a reflection of my personality - sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, detail oriented with a love of Lolita fashion and a little punk & goth influence mixed in. When I draw my clothes I don’t go into it with a mindset of having to make EGL or any other specific style of clothing. I just draw what feels right to me because that is the only way I can enjoy doing what I do. A lot of my clothes do end up being Lolita dresses, because that’s a style I have truly been in love with forever.
KYRA Going with that inspiration, for someone that might just be starting out as a designer or just curious how you do the voodoo that you do… what is your design process? Some very clear markers to your items are the vivid colors and extremely fine detail of your designs.. I myself have seen very few shops that do the same consistency in focus and lighting from the primitive layers right down to the last prim and sculpty attachments. Do you use any special software for this?
KATAT0NIK I use a variety of programs for my SL work, including Photoshop, AvPainter, Blender, & Zbrush. I also have a Wacom Intuos 2 Tablet that I use to paint with, that is a big help. I try to approach my SL clothing as if I am about to create an RL painting because it helps me relax and feel free to be as creative as I want to be. Sometimes I’ll visualize a whole outfit I want to make and get started on it, and sometimes I just play around and make a fabric texture or draw some lace & try to make an outfit based on those details. For shading & lighting, I add very basic highlights & shadows early on, then work on the outfit until it looks like it is almost finished. Then I go and add fine shading & highlights, wrinkles, etc. I think it’s important to draw even the smallest shadows wherever possible. It might not seem significant at first, but when you have lots of little details all on one piece of clothing, it stands out and makes a difference.
KYRA Now that we’re all a little more familiar to your to methods and products, could you tell us: do you as the designer have any personal favorites in your shop? And what makes that item(s) so?
KATAT0NIK Alice, Malice, & Very Cherry are my favorites so far. I spent a great deal of time on those dresses and I really wanted to push myself to do something significantly better than my previous outfits. I painted, erased, & repainted a lot of details on those pieces and the response to the finished dresses showed me I was doing something right. It was very encouraging and felt like I had made a great accomplishment as an artist & designer.
KYRA Right now I know that you have your mainstores here at Axis Mundi and a few satellite shops, most recently one opened at the new Alice in Wonderland-inspired sim Jabberwocky. How does it feel to see your creativity blossom and spread? What are some of your future plans for Katat0nik?
KATAT0NIK It is awesome being part of Jabberwocky, when it was first coming to life I couldn’t believe I was gonna have a shop on the same sim as all the Lolita bigwigs! I will soon be expanding a little more – I have a small Katat0nik shop coming soon on the new Zombie Love sim and All Dolled Up, and I will be fixing up my old Caledon SteamSkyCity shop in the near future.
KYRA If you could give any advice to some of those out there that are starting out in building or clothing design, what would it be? Do you have any personal tips or tricks you care to offer them?
KATAT0NIK Ooh I have a lot of random advice that may or may not be useful:
• Be original. Try to make things that you haven’t already seen in SL.
• If you can hand draw your textures, do it! And if you are going to photosource, do not use copyrighted images, and make sure you add hand-painted details/wrinkles/whatever that will make the photosourced image work well for SL and show a bit of your style. Your customers will appreciate it.
• Do your best, and when you’ve finished an item you’re happy with, look it over and find 5 (or more!) things to improve, then work on it some more before uploading.
• As long as you’re not stealing/copying/breaking the law, there is no right or wrong way to create clothing/prim items in SL. There’s just your way, my way, and everyone else’s individual way. Do what works for you, and don’t worry about others judging your work process. Some things that work for you might not work for others, & vice versa. Also, don’t feel lame if it takes you 5 hours to draw a stitch or bow. Some people work fast - some people don’t – and that’s ok. All that matters is that you are happy with the way it looks when you are done.
• Don’t get discouraged if you go through a lot of wasted uploads before you end up with something you like. I have yet to get something perfect on the first try and I’m sure many other designers are the same. (BTW, use the beta grid to upload test textures if you can! It will save you a lot of $L.)
• When painting your clothing, put all your separate details on different layers. Especially highlights, shadows, & seams. My .psd files usually have over 100 layers. Having details on separate layers is the best way to be able to fix specific details without having to redo others and it is worth it, I promise.
• If you have a hard time drawing small things on the SL clothing templates, draw them big first & resize to fit the templates. Sometimes this is the best way to get fine details in your work.
Visit Katat0nik at Axis Mundi 111, 96, 23
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Tags: designers, egl, Gothic, handdrawn, katatonik, lolita, Victorian, Wonderland