Interview
Ashley Gray
Ashley Gray, known in the digital art world as Human, is a London-based artist whose work bridges technical mastery with raw personal reflection. His creations explore profound themes of duality, ego, grief, and loss, blending structured precision with expressive chaos to evoke deep emotional responses. From an early age, Ashley's inner world was shaped by introspection and existential curiosity. While many embraced the simplicity of youth, he found himself drawn into the complexities of thought - a quiet observer of both human emotion and the indifferent universe. This introspective nature fueled his artistic journey, challenging him to articulate the intangible through digital form. Encouraged by his family, Ashley pursued a path that merged his scientific interests with creativity. Initially drawn to science then later programming and graphic design, he soon discovered 3D modelling, a medium that transformed his early struggles with traditional drawing into an exciting exploration of space and form. Introduced to Maya in college - and later 3DStudio Max and ZBrush - he found a discipline that allowed him to construct precise digital worlds.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“My start in the art world, I would say was just after university in 2011, but my actual start was in college, where I got to use many programs on a multimedia course. I did well and went to university where I again seemingly did well enough to achieve a masters in computer games art. I even got a editors choice award for one of my images though on the other hand some of my work was being stolen. Slowly over 2 years, struggling to find any work, I focused more on creative images. Still finding my style and being on a few websites, I made many more images until 2014, where I made an image of a crying skull representing grief after death. It did well and was again stolen but my style was refining. Of the 4 main websites I was on, one stood out and I focused my attention there. My work was featured a few times as my skills grew, after a few more credits I got an email informing me that I had won but this time it was a traditional artist-like award rather than digital. After this, I focused a bit more on the art industry than the digital art and I'm still doing that now.”
What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?
“My art at times comments but that is not the focus, I would be hard to say my work says one thing or has one aim, but I would say it's aim is to remind you of how significant you are, that humans and by extension you matter. I hope to connect people there is a lot of personal themes that are also universal, in times of pain many seek to recover alone, they need time and while no one will ever understand what they are going through many people have a understanding of, for example a the loss of a relative or a dear pet. But there are also works that are more focused around my experience or perception of the world, things that I notice and I guess express in my own way, 'seat of the Crown' is about the chaos of the world, 'pins' is about the pressures of reality that each person deals with, where as images like 'Mercy' and 'The Swarm' are more about my own personal reflections on myself.”
Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?
“My work is mostly planned, there are rare instances where something comes to me and I drop everything, I then immediately have to make it; usually these take less time to construct on the 3D phase, but again this instant work is rare for me. My work comes because there are themes and ideas in my mind that I want to do, things I want to say but they have no form or the form doesn't yet have a theme to work with. I will think how I can refine the idea into a 3D scene that will become a 2D image, because I not only have to be able to build it in 3D but the shot also has to work in 2D. I will spend a lot of time building in 3D and refining the final shot so that everything works and fits as I expect. Then, I take the 2D shot and start working on digital painting etc. For this reason, if my work is not planned in advance and say, I have something in the image that I don't like or doesn't work which sometimes happens, I must go back to 3D and re-take all my base shots to build the image. This is why even in the flash where something just comes and I'm lucky enough to jump out of bed on the weekend and make it, I have to consider the shot and I will have plenty of time to do this when building the 3D space.”
“I hope to connect people. There is a lot of personal themes that are also universal, in times of pain many seek to recover alone, they need time and while no one will ever understand what they are going through. Many people have an understanding, for example a person’s parents passing is very personal - they are the person’s parents, but we all have an understanding of the pain of losing our parents. I can imagine the pain felt from the loss of a pet, even though I don’t have one.”
Are there any art world trends you are following?
“In the art world everything is new to me so I would say no but I'm sure I am I just don't know it. Being more of an artist you get to see so many other things, before I was mostly online in digital art spaces, everything for the most part is digital paint or digital something in some form. Now, I get to see many more things in many mediums but as for trends, as a digital artist I would say digital although I more of a work and do art kind of guy I don't do much else like look at art or go to shows, because creating the 3D part of the image can at times take weeks, I always have more ideas to make. I would say virtual art and street art can at times look good, but I'm more focused on the work, I could easily say for now that I also don't much look at sustainable art or like dance, I don't have anything against them they are just not my thing. I like a fair few classical artists, but again I can’t say I follow paintings.”
What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?
“So, my process starts in a 3D program called ‘zbrush’ where I manipulate and sculpt object in a 3D environment. In this stage, I will refine the theme and ideas as the 3D build up can take a long time. Once the scene is created, I will base colour it in the 3D space and position my camera to take the final 2D shot. After taking many single shots with different settings and material shaders I will bring them all into my 2D phase. I use Photoshop to place all the shots on top of each other and blend them together with digital paint layers, I will digital paint a few things and equalize the image where I add some final digital paint layers. it is a long process and where as I can step away from the 3D building phase that takes weeks, I can rarely step away from the paint up process. I like to use intense colours light and glows in my work, it is set up to draw you to one particular thing a lot of the background are purposely black, I focus a lot on tone and composition. The 3D element is very technical, I need the right amount of polygons to build the things in the 3d space, need to consider positioning and perspective for the final shot, I'm moving and drawing in the 3d space where as the 2D aspect is much more set I have more freedom, if layers don't work, I just cut them, colours are a lot less set in this stage.”
What does your art mean to you?
“It’s hard to say, I see it like a voice or something similar to this I don't have a particular thing like I paint flowers. I'm just expressing myself or like saying things I don't have a particular message or anything. I would say it means freedom to me, but I guess, it would mean: the human experience is difficult there are many difficulty's in reality both day to day and existential but we are not alone in our suffering or our wondering. the mind is a difficult but beautiful thing much again like life.”
What’s your favourite artwork and why?
“Ethereal Blue 2015, it is my most successful art image being in two separate books already, it is also my most personal or important to me and then also it to me is the most successful attempt to capture a type of essence. In a lot of my work, I aim to use my techniques and style to try and show a type of essence of something, I don't aim to shock people, I want them to think to see a little of what I see and I feel again that ethereal blue does this well. You would have to see it like most art and I don’t want to ruin anyone's view by telling anyone mine as I made it, but I will say I don't think people like it because its beautiful I think they can also see a type of essence. There is so much depth for example the background is space or the pose or the tint on the hair. I have made a few nice works that I like very much but this image is like a tribute to an aspect of someone I knew, it is extremally unlikely I would be an artist without them, so to then know that I have something that shows an aspect so well that is so successful, I am very happy.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“As I am new to shows and this side of art, I don't have any, but I do have some coming this year that I am very pleased about. In July, my work will be shown internationally in Tokyo at Shibuya Station hosted by Contemporary Art Station. This is noteworthy to be because early when I was finding my feet, I was on a website called Graphicker.me. I was invited, I managed to make it to top 25 for 5 years before it closed. I found out this year after signing up for the event that this website was founded in this area also so again I'm also very happy with that.”
Website: artofagray.squarespace.com
Instagram: @human3d
