Thursday 22 February 2018

A wonderful interview with new artist Jessica Rose!

Another little interview for you here with one of our amazing new artists Jessica Rose! Jessica has been kind enough to share some tips for aspiring illustrators, as well as her inspirations and some fab pictures to accompany...



Where do you live/work? 

I live in Haworth, a gorgeous Yorkshire village famous for the Bronte sisters. It’s an amazing kooky little place with bags of character and creativity running in the heart of it. So a pretty inspiring place to be.
I work on my illustrations from home. I have a studio space tucked away at the top of the house, but I can sometimes be found working in the lounge or kitchen on an evening...because that’s closer to the chocolate.




What do you love about working there? 

I can wear my Pjs which are the greatest of all clothing items!
Plus living in a village means it’s quiet. If my husband or children aren’t around, the house is silent and it’s easy to buckle down with no distractions.

What are your dislikes? 

Sometimes it can be a bit lonely up in the silence of my studio. I have other work during the week, which means I do get the hustle and bustle of a busy studio, so usually when I’m in my own creative space it’s a pleasant thing.
The room is in the attic so when it’s windy (and up near the pennines means the wind can be pretty strong) it does sound like the roof may blow off.

What do you love most about being an illustrator?

Books transport people away from their world and into someone elses. For children who’s brains are so open to possibilities, books are fuel for imagination, learning and play. I see my children fixate on characters and run to the their dress up cupboard, trying to piece together something that resembles a character they have just seen and heard about in a book. They want to be that character and continue their stories on. Because they’re children and don’t care what anyone thinks, if they want to go walking around in swimming trunks and a cape they will. Illustrating means I get to wear my trunks and cape (metaphorically speaking) and keep my inner child happy. I get to bring worlds and characters to life with drawings and telling a story the way I want others to see it. It feels magical to think something I have created may become a part of a child’s imagination.
Books are magical and I get to be a part of that magic.



How do you work – what are your techniques?  

I tend to start out with sketches. Although I’m a digital illustrator,  the happy accidents made with a  pencil and paper are something I just can’t replicate on my iPad or Mac.
I’ll then either scan or photograph the sketches and use them as a base, then start colouring up in Photoshop. Once I’ve got everything that the pencil sketch had to offer I’ll remove that layer and start to play around with maybe shadows or placement etc till I’m happy.

What is your favourite thing to draw? 

Until recently it would be animals. Doing slightly humorous or fun things. The simple joy of them wearing clothes...who doesn’t like animals in clothes!? Recently though I’ve really been enjoying drawing people and focusing on the different shapes we all have and the huge variations between us all.



Are there any tricky parts to being an illustrator? 

Juggling my time between other work and illustrating. I also have a design job, so I have to keep the balance between work, other work and me time; especially with little ones around. I try to give myself some guidelines to adhere to so I can schedule myself around that.

What or who are you inspired by?  

In my eyes every day is a school day and I think I absorb and learn from all the things around me. From other people’s creative works to something I saw on some packaging, or even the colour combination a randomer may be wearing. Inspiration is everywhere it’s just about picking out what is relevant to me.



What do you like to do in your spare time when you’re not illustrating.

Spend time with my husband and my two children. Any time I have for just me would be spent reading, gaming or being outdoors. Oh and shopping.




How did you get into illustration? 

I’ve always drawn, but the idea of it being my job crept up on me. It was like it was exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t know I’d be able to make it a job. A friend planted an idea worm in my brain. She told me I should be looking at being an illustrator and children’s books based on the work I was creating in my job at the time. Well the worm grew and I realised how much I wanted to do it, so I made it my focus to develop my own style and see if it would lead anywhere.

What are your three top tips for aspiring illustrators? 

1.     Get yourself some awesome super comfy pyjamas for your ‘no one can see me, I'm working at home’ days!
2.     Draw, draw and draw some more...you literally can’t draw too much.
Never think you can’t keep developing or learning. A rolling stone gathers no moss...Or whatever that saying is. Basically, by staying in the same place you could go stale like old bread. Keep moving forward and growing who you are as an illustrator.

3.     Work hard to achieve your goal, but look after yourself too. Listen to your body and mind and nurture them. Don’t take yourself for granted because without you, you couldn't achieve all the amazing things you want to.

Friday 16 February 2018

Interview with new artist Eva Sanchez Gomez!

A lovely interview with one of our new illustrators Eva Sanchez Gomez! We hope you enjoy a little look into Eva's world...


Where do you live/work?

I am currently living in Barcelona. I have been living and working in Lisbon for one year and in Manchester for two years and I came back just a few months ago.
I work at home and my office is a big desk in front of the window in the living room.




What do you love about working there?

I love being surrounded by my colour pencils and working materials creating the perfect shell to focus on the new story that I am working on at that moment. The quietness of the soundtrack that I am free to choose for each project. And the intimacy and the freedom of a place that is in the end my home.

I also like the multiple environments I can find in the city: homely neighbourhoods, ancient markets, hidden cathedrals, big parks or lots of different architectures coexisting (Gothic quarter, modernism of Gaudí, functionalism and Bauhaus of the Mies Van der Rohe pavilion and so on). Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city fulfilled with cultural inputs, from the museums and theatres to the wide diversity of cultures and people living here.   





What are your dislikes?

Too much cars and bright nights without stars.
I am from a town in the Pyrenees and I would love living surrounded by nature.
But one can always travel to take the best of each place.

What do you love most about being an illustrator?

I love the feeling of freedom. You can make anything possible trough drawing, and being an illustrator let me spend quite a lot of time with a pencil on my hands.

Illustrating is telling a story and I do believe that books and stories are powerful instruments capable to change our world. They give us new horizons, expectations or the opportunity to live other’s life, even an impossible or surreal life. Spending mine trying to be involved on this feels really challenging and exciting.

How do you work- what are your techniques?

I do enjoy the stroke of the pencil, is the technique that feels more natural to me. 
I usually work with watercolour and pencils. Using both stain and stroke I keep playing trying to find the right balance. I also keep trying and experiment a little with new techniques or different ways to use the same materials.



What is your favourite thing to draw?

All kind of animals!

Are there any tricky parts to being an illustrator?

Being an illustrator also means for me accept an economy which won’t let me have luxuries or the calm from knowing that I will be paid a fix quantity at the end of each month.

This pressure can be an extra injection of energy to keep working and seeking for projects, but also could be tricky when I must decide on which projects I should invest my time.  When the kind of personal projects I’d love to do and I have in mind are not commercial I must learn to find the right balance between the time I invest on those ones and the time I spend on commissions I know for sure that will be paid for and I also like to do. It is tricky because it’s very easy keep postponing the personal projects.

In any case, I think that what really matters is keep working and trying to find my own voice and world whatever the project is, so I could learn from each one. And reject working in a project that I can’t believe on.

What or who are you inspired by?

I get inspiration from films, dance, books and other illustrators that I love like Arthur Rackham, Lisbeth Zwerguer Lorenzo Mattotti, Andrea Serio, Willimam Grill, Emily Hughes, Juanjo Guarnido, … to name a few.
But foremost, from daily life and own experience. I think that inspiration can come from everywhere. The place I have grown in, my family and friends, the people I’ve known, … Every experience makes me who I am and influence the way I look at the world and so on how I illustrated it.



What do you like to do in your spare time when you are not illustrating?

Baking cakes, watching films, go trekking, learning how to dance, scubadiving, …

How did you get into illustration?

I like drawing since I can remember, that was the main reason to study Fine Arts. I already was interested in animal and naturalistic drawing and while I was studying at the university I signed up for a short course about “Drawing applied on ornithology”. It was a short test of scientific and naturalistic illustration and I loved it. I met there a friend who was also studying children’s illustration in “Francesca Bonnemaison” School and I realized that it could be an amazing career to explore.  Once I finished Fine Arts I studied Illustration in the same school and it was there where I really discovered this amazing world.  I am very grateful to these years on the school, to my colleagues and the coordinator of the course and illustrator Ignasi Blanch, who get us involved in many activities such exhibitions or contests and pass on his passion for illustrating and the importance of discover our own voice and personal universe. Thanks to one of those contests I published my first picture book “Onades i flors” by Noemí Pes. It was amazing go ahead through the whole project and I just wanted to keep doing that for a living.  



What are your three top tips for aspiring illustrators?

Never give up
Punctuality
Don’t forget the passion on what you do no matter what is the project or commission you are working on.

What’s your ultimate dream?

Me on my 90’s drawing on a beautiful studio full of natural light coming through big windows through where I could see the mountains, surrounded by my colour pencils, watercolours, perhaps new materials that I don’t know yet, the people I love, all the characters that will have accompanied me through all the illustrated stories and hundreds and hundreds of good life memories.