Naneel Studio - My Story
A long time ago, in my teenage years, I watched a series that fascinated me. It was called Record of Lodoss War, a fantasy anime in the style of Dungeons and Dragons. In this series, there was a character with a unique name: Naniru. But in the translation I saw back then, the name appeared as Naneel. I liked it so much that I decided to use it as my internet nickname, which was just starting to grow in forums, Latin chat, and MSN Messenger at the time.
That was more than 20 years ago. Naneel now represents an entire identity for me that grew with me over the years and followed me relentlessly until I decided to reclaim it as my own. Naneel Studio is the culmination of a journey full of joys, hardships, ups, and downs, but above all, it’s the name that best represents me as a person. Naneel is me, and Stephanie is Naneel.
Now a little about me.
I was always a bit of an odd kid. I loved video games, books, series, everything related to fantasy and dreams. Nowadays, that seems normal, but in the '90s, it wasn’t common for a girl to not be into dolls, clothes, or looking pretty. Instead, I preferred playing outside with other kids or spending hours reading or drawing. I grew up surrounded by all kinds of visual stimuli because of this, and since I showed a strong inclination towards art from a young age, my parents enrolled me in oil painting classes when I was 7. (Thanks to that, I can say I have over 30 years of experience with oil painting, and I wouldn’t be lying!)
After that, life honed my artistic skills in many different ways.
At the Castella Conservatory Highschool, I specialized in painting, and later I studied 3D Digital Animation at Veritas University, graduating in 2011. After that, I worked as a freelance contractor for several U.S. companies, but always in graphic design—I never really adapted to working in 3D. The truth is, during this time, I wasn’t making any art, and my body and soul felt the effects of it.
In 2016, I decided to seek more academic training and began studying under Emilia Cantor at her Atelier del Sol. She taught me the Charles Bargue method and sight-size technique, which honestly transformed my drawing and gave it an exponential boost. I gave my all in that program and graduated as a classical realist painter in January 2019. My final project was an oil portrait with a live model done over eight sessions.
From that point on, I dedicated a few more years to continuing painting and exhibiting, refining my technique, and evolving. When you receive academic training, you earn permission to bend or even break the rules.
Now that I think about it, the older I get, the more I gravitate back to what I loved as a child. Now, I specialize in creating fantasy-themed art and try to bring all those childhood memories into the present—a path very different from the academic training I received.
Painting fantasy makes me happy, and I hope I can continue doing it forever.