5 Questions to... Natalie Hughes
Nathalie Hughes is an illustrator from Bristol who's work I discovered on Etsy.
I instantly fell in love with her bright an funny images of animals and
exotic characters. She's also working on her own 'Crowd of creatures'
children's book that makes you wanna be a kid again!
Your work seems to focus on kids mostly, is that a specific choice you made,
something you always dreamed of?
It wasn't a conscious choice, it just seems to be the direction my work has taken,
I guess because I like drawing animals, using bright colours and cute characters.
I was definitely always influenced by children's books, so It makes sense I ended
up here! Ideally I'd like to illustrate for both children and adults as I've got lots
of ideas.
What is the absolute favorite project you worked on?
I really enjoyed being involved in the All I Want For Christmas Card charity
project last year, which saw my christmas card being printed alongside some
awesome illustrators from around the UK. My favourite personal project has
been working on my own children's book 'A Crowd of Creatures' which is
about collective nouns for animals.
What or who inspires you?
Travel and daydreaming about travelling is a big influence on me. I'm
constantly inspired by watching tons of films, and listening to lots of music...
I often work with a movie playing in the background. My main artistic
inspirations range from Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele to Eric Carle, Edward
Gorey and Oliver Jeffers.
What does your work process look like, any specific techniques or
combination of techniques you prefer?
I tend to look at lots of photos and draw using mechanical pencil.Then I scan
them in and use a whole collection of hand made textures in Photoshop to
colour the drawings. So pretty much hand drawn + digital collage is my
technique at the moment!
How do you promote your work and do you have a 'best tip'?
I use the web to promote my work a lot. Since graduating I lived in a pretty
rural place so had to rely on the internet to make contacts and share my work.
I would recommend to any artist or designer to use Twitter to promote
themselves.It gave me an audience for my work and getting feedback gave me
confidence. I've recently moved to the city (Bristol) so am aiming to promote
my work more actively in the community. I'd love to have a solo exhibition
and do some collaborations with some of the talent in this area.
For more of Natalie's work, have a look at her website.
Thanks Natalie answering these questions and let me know when your solo
exhibition is on (I'm sure it will happen) and when the book is ready!
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Very nice to read about her and how she works. Especially about how she colours her drawings with handmade textures.
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