German Artist Sylvia Ritter has made a name for herself and gathered a dedicated following in the open-source IT community with her funky and psychedelic animal art. Ritter is best known for her astonishing digital paintings that coincide with all of the releases of the Ubuntu Linux operating system so far. However, she also produces commissioned art as well.
Ubunu Linux is an open-source alternative to Microsoft and Apple’s proprietary operating systems. With each Ubuntu release there’s a celebratory animal artwork with a powerful aura and a great energy. So far we have seen Warty Warthog, Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger, Disco Dingo, Groovy Gorilla and Karmic Koala, Gutsy Gibbon and more. Sylvia uses the open-source Krita digital painting software to create each work. She also produces commissioned art for festivals, musicians, labels, authors, publishers, and game companies. Soon she will be completing a much anticipated set of animal Tarot cards. Here she talks about her work in her own words…
I think of my portfolio as one single continuously growing art piece
None of the current artworks would exist without the previous paintings. Therefore all of them are meaningful to me.
These artworks are very popular with fans
I get inspired by many artworks
I like Escher and Ralph McQuarrie’s Star Wars concept artworks along with the classic artwork Wanderer Above a Foggy Sea (Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer) by Caspar David Friedrich
While I was painting Groovy Gorilla, I listened to a lot of 70’s funk
However mostly silence is preferred, so that I can hear my thoughts and feelings clearly. It highly depends on which painting phase I’m in. In the middle of the process, when it’s mostly about detail work, listening to music or watching non-distracting TV series is best for me. Finishing an artwork also needs quietness for that extra bit of attention. I love to pick music that fits the theme that I’m working on.
I find a lot of things inspiring out there, especially The Demoscene
The Demoscene is an global and online computer art subculture that focuses on producing demos or audio-visual presentations that show off music production, programming and visual art together. Demos and demoscene productions are shared at festivals called demoparties.
I also like nature documentaries, video games, and movies from any decade.
Because of the COVID-19 I had to cancel and postpone two crowdfunding projects
Coming up, I have a jigsaw puzzle campaign featuring The Star and Disco Dingo, and a second Wakeful Hoodie campaign with additional Disco Dingo apparel. These will definitely come next year. When my tarot deck is finally complete one sweet day in the future, I will also do a Kickstarter for it, too. So far 41 cards have been completed. There is also my ongoing Ubuntu Animal Illustration series that’s 33 artworks big by now, and I can’t wait to get started on the next one. I also regularly post fresh speedpaintings on my Patreon first, then Twitter and Instagram. I am also available for interesting commissions.
You can find me, buy my art, donate or send me a request for a commission using the links below. Thanks for reading!
Buy art, clothing and other merch in my shop
Content Catnip 
Awesome! I’m a heavy user of Linux Ubuntu so see these often. Thanks for posting about Sylvia.
Also, thanks for posting the J.B.’s link. I love funk, but don’t listen to enough of it.
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Thanks for your comment Warwick glad you liked the interview, yes shes a very talented woman that’s for sure. The JB’s funk mix is very enjoyable I know, I’ve been returning to that one a lot too. Thank you for reading 📚
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