Today we’d like to introduce you to Lian Cabrera and Trace Sandy.
Lian and Trace, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We met each other in High School and started dating senior year. By the time we graduated, we decided to do our very first Comic convention together. Since then, we’ve worked together in creating art pieces, apparel and so much more. Trace loves to ink, while I (Lian) love to color. But we still have pieces we make on our own. We’re working hard to expand our brand and create our comic. It’s all space themed. Nella is a representation of me. She’s a shapeshifting freedom fighting alien gal. While Pendragon, parallel to trace, is a half-human space explorer. You can follow the story along on our website: NellaAndPendragon.Com.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There’s a lot of trial and error when it comes to creating artwork. Our stickers have absolutely improved as we’ve quality tested and tried out different materials.
Screen printing apparel has been our biggest challenge yet. We’ve gone through so many screens trying to get small details in our designs to look great. Each one of our shirts is hand-dyed/ bleached and screen printed. We’ll be in our garage for hours on end prepping, dying and screen printing shirts but it’s worth it. Apparel is something we are so excited for, we won’t let any setback stop us.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Trace and I (Lian) create digital illustrations together. We typically livestream our creative process over on Twitch and allow the audience to have a say in what they like and don’t like. We absolutely love working with other small creators and inspiring others to get into art. I personally didn’t start drawing seriously until my senior year of high school. While most people see our art and think we’ve just got talent, it’s hours and hours of hard work and dedication. A single character can take up to 6 or 7 hours to finish based on the complexity.
We do have a Patreon. It’s like a subscription service but for art. Something fun we do with our patrons is share more of our personal lives and the process of our comic through our patreon – exclusive discord. We’ll host movie nights, game nights and monthly art challenges there. It’s a fantastic way to make creative friends and join a more personal art network. Another cool perk is that for some of our Patrons, we’ll draw them in the NAPA (Nella and Pendragon Art) universe. They can see themselves as an alien, Android, astronaut or whatever else we come up with. It’s a fun way of getting invested into the creation of our comic, as we hope we can include some of our friends in the background as Easter eggs.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I (Lian) grew up in Puerto Rico. I moved to Florida when I was nine. Trace has lived in so many places throughout the US, but thankfully we managed to meet each other in Clermont! Growing up, we were both somewhat extroverted, but doing so many comic conventions and art shows has made us fearless. We love talking to other artists, con goers and cosplayers. We’ve made lifelong friends at conventions. We’re both also super into video games. Trace loves collecting old consoles. We have three GameCubes now, he’s just missing the orange one. I started drawing in high school using Flipnote on my DSi.
Pricing:
- Prints – $15
- Posters – $25
- Sticker Packs – $15
- Screen Printed Tees – $30
Contact Info:
- Email: NellaAndPendragon@Gmail.Com
- Website: NellaAndPendragon.Com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nellaandpendragon/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nellapendragon
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCoZD8LSRJG4ySOv40UNNlkA
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/Nellaandpendragon
Image Credits
Lian Cabrera, Trace Sandy
