BIOGRAPHY
Karina Delicia Simon (born 1990) is an Indonesian contemporary artist who specializes in photorealistic pencil drawing. She was born and raised in Indonesia, in a family of entrepreneurs. She began drawing and painting in primary school, exploring various media such as oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and pencil. From early on, she has had a leaning toward art and craft; especially drawing, painting, and origami. She hoped to work in creative industry; whether as a designer or an artist.
Karina does not have any formal training in art. She pursued her bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Retailing for four years and graduated in 2012; on the basis of the thought that being a fashion designer would enable her to run a profitable garment business while at the same time gave her a room to practice art. During her years in university, she was required ton use colored pencils in multiple projects and assignments, whereby she discovered enjoyment in using pencil medium compared to other media.
Following her graduation, she worked as fashion designer in Indonesia, before moving to Singapore in 2017. Despite her growing fashion business, she never stopped drawing and developed her colored pencil technique on her free times, and sometimes digitally printed her artworks on fabric and incorporated it in her garments.
As she grew fondness in pencil drawing and found that making art gave her much more personal satisfaction, she longed for more time to create drawings; and decided to pursue art career in 2019. Her love for photorealism style is an echo to her detailed-oriented character. Origami and thick paint blob are often the models for her drawing, reflecting her fascination toward the aesthetic look of these objects.