CassAsks - Trixia Quinzon

This month's CassAsks features someone that we are all super impressed with - Trixia Quinzon AKA TrixDraws AKA the extremely talented artist responsible for the Sutton/Charlotte and Riley/Gianna artwork.

I'm constantly amazed by how her illustrations just... capture the characters, and asked very early on if she would be interested in giving us a glimpse into her process!

Find her here on IG to see her other artwork.

1. First and foremost, you’re very well-known around these parts as being the incredible artist behind illustrating a variety of moments between Sutton and Charlotte. I think I speak for not only myself but everyone else that enjoyed your work: you captured the spirit of the characters so perfectly. What about character work like that appeals to you? 

I’m honestly still reeling from the warm welcome and nice compliments you and the community have been giving me ever since I shared fanart of Charlotte and Sutton. And It’s a great honor to be featured here in Cass Asks!

So drawing characters is an absolute favorite of mine, especially visualizing fictional characters from books. I don’t immediately form a clear image of the character’s appearance when I “meet” them. I can only imagine bits and pieces – eyes, hair, what they wear, etc. So it’s like piecing puzzle pieces together every time I draw these characters and end up with an image that I can look at and say,  “Yeah, that’s pretty close to how I imagined that character.”

The end result is so satisfying because I finally have a clearer picture in my head. And when I get to share my art and I get feedback from the community that it’s exactly how they also pictured the character in their head? It’s a nice feeling.

2. I knew from a young age that I loved to read and write – was it the same for you, regarding your art? When/how did you discover your passion for creating art?

Yeah, it was pretty much the same for me. I grew up in a family of artists – literally everyone in my family can draw. So I grew up thinking it was normal and that it was important to be able to do it, just like how it was basically essential to learn how to read and write. I just naturally picked it up, doodling as soon as I could hold a crayon,  enjoyed it very much and wanted to be really good at it. It was only later when I started school did I find out that it was not a thing everyone wanted to do nor enjoyed doing (which was a really baffling concept to 6-year-old me). But I did and I kept at it and now we’re here.

3. What was your first fandom you ever joined (if you were into a fandom)? Did you read fic for it?

I think I was 12-13 when I obsessed over Harry Potter. Like… I read-all-the-books-at-least-ten-times and competed-in-Harry-Potter-Quiz-competitions level of obsessed. Lol I shipped Harry/Hermione and read a TON of Harmony (yeah, they already had a ship name back then!) fanfiction, made fanart, and I even wrote fanfiction myself which was WILD because I’m not much of a writer? But I guess that opened the door for me because I ended up writing fics and made mini-comics for fandoms I joined later on.

My first sapphic ship was from a video game fandom. The game was called Dragon Age, and that was the first time I encountered a game where I could play as a female character and still be able to romance a female NPC. I think it contributed majorly to my gay awakening cause back then, I was in complete DENIAL. Though in retrospect, it was so obvious that I was queer even then because before that, I played male characters just to be able to romance the ladies.

4. What have you learned about yourself through your work?

That I am can be very fluid and ever changing. This is probably just a fancier way of saying that I’m just fickle and very indecisive and I never truly know what I want. Lol But I learned that as long as I’m comfortable and I’m enjoying the ride, it’s fine.

My art is pretty much the same? My art style kept changing and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do realism, do something more stylized, more simple, etc etc. I get influenced by other artists and I try to make studies of their art and end up with something completely different.

5.  What is the most difficult part about working on a new project?

I’m always super excited when I get to work on something new. I am most passionate and go full steam ahead in the beginning, having the freedom to go wild and explore. This applies to both my professional work as a Concept Artist and with my personal fandom work.

The hard part is deciding on the best direction for the project. I could continue to explore forever and end up having so many good directions for a single project. But deciding on one is always difficult for me, personally.

6. Where do you tend to get the most inspiration?

My current main source of content is social media, of course. People I follow and admire would post content and recommendations online. I'd get curious and check it out myself, then would obsess and get the strong urge to make my own content. I’d end up sharing it online, get both good and bad responses, also more recommendations, etc, etc.

It’s like a whole ecosystem of creators inspiring creators, content spawning new content. I love it.

7. What is your favorite food/meal of the day?

Gosh, so many tough questions. But I’d say my favorite meal of the day would be  whatever time my girlfriend cooks for us. lol I call her my cooking goddess and she feeds useless-in-the-kitchen-me very well.

8. If you could have dinner with one artist, dead or alive, who would it be?

I honestly don’t know. I get super awkward at the prospect of meeting new people, let alone meeting someone I admire. Lol I’d probably go off and babble. I tend to babble a lot and over share.

Though I had the opportunity to meet one of my art heroes when I was a teen: Stanley “Artgerm” Lau. It was in 2016 in Dubai, we were in the same convention and had an artist group hangout to celebrate the end of the con. He was really nice and funny, and after we decided to hang out in a smaller group later that same evening, we had some really nice conversations. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with him again.

9. What mediums do you work with? Do you have a favorite?

I’ve pretty much transitioned completely to digital art now. Though I still sketch on paper when the urge strikes, which is pretty rare these days.

I drew a lot with pencils and soft pastels tho. I also tried using brush pens and markers a couple times, and the results were…not always how I wanted them to be. Lol But when I do manage to make the least mistakes or somehow find a way to cover them up nicely, then the results look nice.

10. Do you have a favorite piece of your own? Do you hang your own work in your home?

I suppose I have a favorite piece for each fandom. The first fanart I made for TWW is my favorite out of all the art I made so far for HCLU, which is honestly not a lot JUST YET. But I just really love how simple the piece is but also how it mirrors the colors of the book cover with the clothes Sutton and Charlotte were wearing.

And this actually baffles a lot of people but I actually do not have any of my own art hanging in my home, not even by my work desk. (Here’s a photo of my desk as I’m adding last minute images into this questionnaire)

Look at that boring empty, white wall. Lol I dunno, I just… didn‘t feel like hanging my art up for some reason? I mean, I guess I could but I know I am also too critical of my own work, I would probably find mistakes or wish I could have done things differently with my pieces. That could get frustrating.

(It also has something to do with me and my girlfriend being too scared to drill holes on our rented apartment’s walls. lol)

11. What book got you into reading?

I used to buy R.L. Stine’s Fear Street pocket books as a young teen. I really enjoyed the suspense and horror a lot back then, it gave me such an adrenaline rush. 

12. What book got you into reading sapphic romance?

I actually am a newbie with sapphic romance! TWW was one of my first purely romance books that I truly enjoyed reading so yeah, I’d say it’s Those Who Wait by Haley Cass. :) So happy to get a signed copy of it as well along with all of her books!

(I read a lot of sapphic fanfiction before though. And then got into reading sapphic fantasy as well.)

13. What is your process when you’re preparing for a day of work? What does that look like?

I always start my day with coffee and breakfast. I get grumpy and restless if I don't get both. My routine also really depends if it's a remote work day, on-site work day, or just a draw-whatever-I-want-which-is-usually-a-weekend day. 

14. What is your favorite Taylor Swift song and/or lyric?

I am not a Swiftie and didn’t really actively choose to listen to her songs, mostly stumbled upon them through friends’ playlists. But I do remember being intrigued by the 10-minute monster of a version of All Too Well. It had a lot of really good lines in there, but I’ll go with this one:

And there we are again when nobody had to know
You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath
Sacred prayer and we'd swear
To remember it all too well

15. Have you ever read a book and/or loved a work of art that is criminally underrated? Now is your chance to advertise it:

Games count, right? As a game developer, I figured I should make it my mission to make you all play video games. LOL

So. There was this old indie game I played a loooong while back called Gone Home. It’s an interactive first-person exploration simulator – nothing complicated. You literally just look around the house and try to uncover more of the narrative as you go. I won’t say anymore cause I had literally no idea what the game was about and had no expectations for it whatsoever. And I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It’s probably one of my favorite narrative indie titles. Do check it out!

16. Do you ever work on more than one piece at a time? How hard is it to switch between works when you’re done with one?

I literally have a WIP folder full of sketches! But these are usually super rough and most comprehensible only to me. It’s like the equivalent of writing an idea on a piece of scrap paper – just to have something to remind myself of the idea and its details for later. But I would then tackle one sketch after the other.

I’ve had experience juggling multiple illustration pieces at once when I used to freelance. I didn’t find it that hard to switch between pieces, though I would always have a piece I prefer working on for different reasons (I just like how the piece is coming along better than the others, or the theme and mood of the entire piece is just nicer, the client is fun to work with, etc etc).

Fandom-wise, I do have a tendency to “cling” to my fixations for as long as possible. This is the main reason why I haven’t consumed all of Haley’s other works just yet. I’m still hung up on Charlotte and Sutton and I still have sooo much I wanna draw for these two!

17. What would you title your auto-biography?

Tips & Trix.

18. Finally – where would you put these characters on this seating chart: (what a mixed bag this is)

Charlotte Thompson from Those Who Wait
Sutton Spencer from Those Who Wait
Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Sabran from The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Malini from The Burning Kingdoms by Tasha Suri
Gideon from The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

Explain your reasoning :)

Ok so. We have three women who are basically leaders/rulers of their own countries/kingdoms (Malini, Charlotte and Sabran) in one room. I feel like these three would try to be polite and offer each other the seat at the head of the table. 

Evelyn – who’d probably enter the scene a tad bit late – would have none of those pleasantries however and would simply take the most prominent seat for herself as soon as she arrived. The three leaders would end up sitting on either side of the table then – Charlotte taking the seat next to Sutton, and Sabran and Malini on the other side.

Gideon, who was told by Harrow to keep her vow of silence, would simply stand next to the wall like a perfectly well-behaved Cavalier, up until Sutton fetches her and kindly urges her to take the seat at the other end of the table.

Malini, Charlotte and Sabran would almost immediately launch into a conversation about politics, Sutton and Evelyn listening in and expressing their opinions every so often. Gideon would have given up following the conversation early on, wondering why in the Nine Houses did she have to be there instead of Harrow. At least she was surrounded by amazingly beautiful women (she’d probably look more often towards Evelyn’s direction).

On the other hand, Evelyn would find herself looking at Sutton. A lot. She couldn’t help herself, the woman reminded her so much of her Celia. Charlotte, most likely noticing this, wouldn’t be happy about this though. She’d end up excusing herself and Sutton and then disappear for a couple of minutes, only to return all flushed and slightly disheveled (Evelyn would raise an eyebrow and quirk a knowing smile at this). At this point, they’d probably want to go home to do some…unfinished business. And…

Yeah, I’ll stop here. I’m writing waaay too much. HAHA

Some image credits:
Queen Sabran art by PapurrCat;
Gideon art by Merwild;
Evelyn Hugo photo manip by Unknown artist;
Charlotte, Sutton, and Malini art by me.