Katie chapel
( https://www.katiechappell.com/ )
More work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiedraws/
1. Have you always been interested in Illustration or did you start somewhere else ? i know you said you did animation is that what you originally wanted to do?
Yes I have always been interested in illustration. As a child I would sit and draw for hours on end. I studied animation by accident! After i'd signed up to do the course they renamed from 'illustration and animation' to just 'animation'. By that point it was too late to switch courses but I learned a lot and would not change a thing.
2. how do yo find the balance of tutoring, running workshops and making work? apart from Black coffee, power naps and a hate of offices where do you find the balance and how does being a tutor effect your work? does being around students inspire you or do you prefer to work alone?
Balancing everything is tricky and something that I am forever working on! Things like meeting up with other illustrators regularly helps, as well as meditation and jogging. I love working alone and I that's good because on a normal day I am alone from 9am until 6pm working in my home studio. I find working with people quite tiring but I get a lot out of lecturing and love students' enthusiasm for studying and being creative! It's nice to leave the studio one day a week and teach.
3. What was your experience like in higher education and how has it helped you get to where you are now?
My higher education journey felt a bit lost - I was just doing what I naturally enjoyed and didn't know whether I could make a living from it. I heard over and over again that illustrators are poor, hardly anyone 'makes it', and that we'd have to be prepared to work as an in-house graphic designer if we wanted a full time wage. I'm so glad I stuck at it and I'm very grateful for the career I have today. I get to do what I love, and a lot of the time I am making things up and being paid for it.
4. What is your creative process when it comes to coming up with your ideas? once you have found your inspiration what is the next step?
I always start out with a drawing. Whether that's on paper, or more recently my iPad, I like to get my ideas out of my head first. It's important for me to get rid of all distractions so often that means turning off the internet, listening to white noise and forcing myself to stay at my desk with a timer. Once you're over the first hurdle of getting focussed, it's a pleasure to sit and work, however, getting into it can be a challenge! If i'm working with a client i'll send them roughs to make sure the work is going in the right direction, or if i'm working for myself I'll carry on until my timer goes off.
5. Someone who has made a career out of her art work, what are some of the struggles you had when starting your career?
Money was a big stumbling block at first. When graduated in 2012 I immediately went to work as a graphic designer for a marketing agency. It was a placement and I was barely earning enough to cover my car's running costs/pay my rent. I had about £50 spare per month. As soon as I let go of this idea that success was working in a building with other people, and allowed myself to travel, I found it much easier to create work. I went to be an au pair in Italy so had no living expenses (all paid by the family) and I would sit up late at night in my attic bedroom creating drawings. I got some of my first 'big' commissions then, moved to Berlin to be a part-time nanny, and from there I was able to continue illustrating and save up to go travelling around South East Asia. When I moved home I studied my MA at Edinburgh College of Art and since graduating from there I have been illustrating children's books and lecturing part time.
6. Where are you now in your creative journey? do you have any upcoming projects?
Right now it's January so I have been looking at how 2018 went and what my goals are for 2019. I turn 30 this year and I wrote a bucket list when I was 25. The only thing left on my list was a trip to India, so that's where I'm off to for all of April! I am planning to draw and paint my way around the south for 4 weeks, and will be driving a motorbike around. I'm lecturing, have a few live-illustration gigs coming up in March, and workshops as well as private commissions such as logos and wedding invitations.
Natalie Wood
( http://www.nataliejwood.com/ )
1.Have you always been interested in ceramic making or did you start somewhere else ?
I didn’t get into ceramics until the 2nd year of university. I did a general first year course and decided to go into 3 dimensional design for Jewellery but I found ceramics really interesting and kept going back to it for several projects.
1. I know you work in Edinburgh but did you go to school there? if not where did you go?
I graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2015 with a degree in Three Dimensional Design - Ceramics
2. What was your experience like in higher education, if you did go, and how has it helped you get to where you are now?
. I loved my experience in higher education. Looking back I can see where I should have done things differently but I put in a lot of work. I was there everyday 9-5 in the workshops and that paid off. I demanded a lot from my education and I think thats what a lot of people miss out on. In Scotland where education is free its easy to think you should take whatever is given but you don’t have to. Find out what you need to make it in the business you want then tell your tutors you want to know how to get there. University helped me a lot in what I know and how I think but you have to have a lot of self drive and motivation which can’t really be taught.
3. What is your creative process when it comes to coming up with your ideas? for example your series Detsu, which i find really interesting with the simple colour and form.
Detsu was my 4th year university project so I got to have a whole year to develop the research and it went through a lot of iterations before what you see today. The main inspiration for Detsu was ‘primitive shapes’ this is a term used in cad/cam modelling for basic shapes and I liked that basic shapes are the building blocks of all pattern. The original colours were inspired by CKMY printing. I had a lot of digital influences at the time and I was looking into the gap between the digital and the physical.
4. Someone who has made a career out of her art work, what are some of the struggles you had when starting your career?
I still have struggles, its not easy to make a stable career from art/design without giving something up. It takes a lot of time there is tones of learning curves. My first year I came to the conclusion ‘you always pay to learn’ no matter if its school of life you pay in money and time. Going to fairs where no one buys things or wasting time email a client and making something for it to break in the post. I have a long list of struggles and it just takes time to learn things. Once you graduate things go a lot slower. They say averagely it takes around 3-5 years to start to see a profit in your business and I’m in my 3rd year and I can say that this is true. Money is the biggest struggle, trying to stay positive when you don’t know if you are gonna be able to pay rent or have to get a job you don’t like to get by. In these times I find it nice to email someone I admire and ask them what they did and how they got through it. People have always been really generous and helpful.
6. Where are you now in your creative journey? do you have any upcoming projects?
I am in a good place now. I have 3 upcoming projects. I recently won the Scottish potters bursary award and that gives me time to research. I also have two collaborative shows coming up that I cant say much about now but hopefully if you follow me online you will see soon. Collaboration is really great. I think getting into collaborations has been the biggest help to my business. It gets me talking to like minded creatives and gives me deadlines to work to.
( https://www.katiechappell.com/ )
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| … Here’s Bristol. |
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| Women in Science - Newcastle University |
More work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiedraws/
1. Have you always been interested in Illustration or did you start somewhere else ? i know you said you did animation is that what you originally wanted to do?
Yes I have always been interested in illustration. As a child I would sit and draw for hours on end. I studied animation by accident! After i'd signed up to do the course they renamed from 'illustration and animation' to just 'animation'. By that point it was too late to switch courses but I learned a lot and would not change a thing.
2. how do yo find the balance of tutoring, running workshops and making work? apart from Black coffee, power naps and a hate of offices where do you find the balance and how does being a tutor effect your work? does being around students inspire you or do you prefer to work alone?
Balancing everything is tricky and something that I am forever working on! Things like meeting up with other illustrators regularly helps, as well as meditation and jogging. I love working alone and I that's good because on a normal day I am alone from 9am until 6pm working in my home studio. I find working with people quite tiring but I get a lot out of lecturing and love students' enthusiasm for studying and being creative! It's nice to leave the studio one day a week and teach.
3. What was your experience like in higher education and how has it helped you get to where you are now?
My higher education journey felt a bit lost - I was just doing what I naturally enjoyed and didn't know whether I could make a living from it. I heard over and over again that illustrators are poor, hardly anyone 'makes it', and that we'd have to be prepared to work as an in-house graphic designer if we wanted a full time wage. I'm so glad I stuck at it and I'm very grateful for the career I have today. I get to do what I love, and a lot of the time I am making things up and being paid for it.
4. What is your creative process when it comes to coming up with your ideas? once you have found your inspiration what is the next step?
I always start out with a drawing. Whether that's on paper, or more recently my iPad, I like to get my ideas out of my head first. It's important for me to get rid of all distractions so often that means turning off the internet, listening to white noise and forcing myself to stay at my desk with a timer. Once you're over the first hurdle of getting focussed, it's a pleasure to sit and work, however, getting into it can be a challenge! If i'm working with a client i'll send them roughs to make sure the work is going in the right direction, or if i'm working for myself I'll carry on until my timer goes off.
5. Someone who has made a career out of her art work, what are some of the struggles you had when starting your career?
Money was a big stumbling block at first. When graduated in 2012 I immediately went to work as a graphic designer for a marketing agency. It was a placement and I was barely earning enough to cover my car's running costs/pay my rent. I had about £50 spare per month. As soon as I let go of this idea that success was working in a building with other people, and allowed myself to travel, I found it much easier to create work. I went to be an au pair in Italy so had no living expenses (all paid by the family) and I would sit up late at night in my attic bedroom creating drawings. I got some of my first 'big' commissions then, moved to Berlin to be a part-time nanny, and from there I was able to continue illustrating and save up to go travelling around South East Asia. When I moved home I studied my MA at Edinburgh College of Art and since graduating from there I have been illustrating children's books and lecturing part time.
6. Where are you now in your creative journey? do you have any upcoming projects?
Right now it's January so I have been looking at how 2018 went and what my goals are for 2019. I turn 30 this year and I wrote a bucket list when I was 25. The only thing left on my list was a trip to India, so that's where I'm off to for all of April! I am planning to draw and paint my way around the south for 4 weeks, and will be driving a motorbike around. I'm lecturing, have a few live-illustration gigs coming up in March, and workshops as well as private commissions such as logos and wedding invitations.
Natalie Wood
( http://www.nataliejwood.com/ )
 |
1.Have you always been interested in ceramic making or did you start somewhere else ?
I didn’t get into ceramics until the 2nd year of university. I did a general first year course and decided to go into 3 dimensional design for Jewellery but I found ceramics really interesting and kept going back to it for several projects.
1. I know you work in Edinburgh but did you go to school there? if not where did you go?
I graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 2015 with a degree in Three Dimensional Design - Ceramics
2. What was your experience like in higher education, if you did go, and how has it helped you get to where you are now?
. I loved my experience in higher education. Looking back I can see where I should have done things differently but I put in a lot of work. I was there everyday 9-5 in the workshops and that paid off. I demanded a lot from my education and I think thats what a lot of people miss out on. In Scotland where education is free its easy to think you should take whatever is given but you don’t have to. Find out what you need to make it in the business you want then tell your tutors you want to know how to get there. University helped me a lot in what I know and how I think but you have to have a lot of self drive and motivation which can’t really be taught.
3. What is your creative process when it comes to coming up with your ideas? for example your series Detsu, which i find really interesting with the simple colour and form.
Detsu was my 4th year university project so I got to have a whole year to develop the research and it went through a lot of iterations before what you see today. The main inspiration for Detsu was ‘primitive shapes’ this is a term used in cad/cam modelling for basic shapes and I liked that basic shapes are the building blocks of all pattern. The original colours were inspired by CKMY printing. I had a lot of digital influences at the time and I was looking into the gap between the digital and the physical.
4. Someone who has made a career out of her art work, what are some of the struggles you had when starting your career?
I still have struggles, its not easy to make a stable career from art/design without giving something up. It takes a lot of time there is tones of learning curves. My first year I came to the conclusion ‘you always pay to learn’ no matter if its school of life you pay in money and time. Going to fairs where no one buys things or wasting time email a client and making something for it to break in the post. I have a long list of struggles and it just takes time to learn things. Once you graduate things go a lot slower. They say averagely it takes around 3-5 years to start to see a profit in your business and I’m in my 3rd year and I can say that this is true. Money is the biggest struggle, trying to stay positive when you don’t know if you are gonna be able to pay rent or have to get a job you don’t like to get by. In these times I find it nice to email someone I admire and ask them what they did and how they got through it. People have always been really generous and helpful.
6. Where are you now in your creative journey? do you have any upcoming projects?
I am in a good place now. I have 3 upcoming projects. I recently won the Scottish potters bursary award and that gives me time to research. I also have two collaborative shows coming up that I cant say much about now but hopefully if you follow me online you will see soon. Collaboration is really great. I think getting into collaborations has been the biggest help to my business. It gets me talking to like minded creatives and gives me deadlines to work to.
Hi Cat, Please can you include some images of both the artists work in the blog?
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