Meet Becca, an illustrator from Nashville. You may saw her illustrations before, maybe in books, Instagram, galleries, magazines, or other places (do show us if you find them. We LOVE her illustrations!).
We had a little talk with her. If becoming an illustrator is your #goal, you would love this. Ok, here’s how it goes:
How’s life right now? Can you share us your daily routine?
Life right now is actually a little slow, thank goodness! I had a pretty hectic fall with the release of my first book, so a break is welcomed.
A typical day for me is spent in my studio, which I share with 9 other artists. I arrive early as I do my best work in the morning. At lunch, I walk my dog Mori, who is my best companion, and I end the work day around 5 pm or so. I've found in doing freelance work, that a consistent schedule is key. At any given time during my work day, I could be sketching for a new project, creating final paintings, or doing email and business work.
What’s your favorite thing to draw?
I love keeping daily records of things I eat, interesting people I see, or objects I find fascinating. Because most of my work is based on imagination where I have to create worlds, I find it refreshing and calming to just draw from life sometimes.
What’s your favorite thing in life?
Laughing until I can't breathe.
If you are given a chance to illustrate an emoji, what would it be?
Good question! Probably an old carriage or stagecoach.
You’ve done lots of wonderful projects, which one is your favorite? Can you share a little story behind the illustration?
One of my favorite illustrations I've created is Henri. The character is from a longer story I've been trying to write for a long time. It was inspired by true, weird events in my family's history, and it takes places in the deep south in the late 1800's. The illustration itself felt like a breakthrough, as the technique I used was a little messier than usual, and I'm always trying to loosen up instead of maintaining such tight work.
If you have all the resources in the world (and can collaborate with anyone you want to), what kind of dream project would you make?
My dream would be to work on a stop-motion film, creating the props and doing all of the detail work. In a dream scenario, I would have complete control of the aesthetic look of the film, but someone else would carry out the larger aspects, such as directing, filming, animating, and set building. I'm a detail person so I'd love to swoop in and meticulously build the world for the film.
What’s the best thing about being an illustrator?
Every job I have is varied, so I'm constantly learning and putting what I know to the test. It's a stressful process at times because it requires problem-solving, but it's rewarding.
When did you realize that you want to be an illustrator?
I've always drawn and knew I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be an illustrator in high school but ended up going into the graphic design program in college because it felt more lucrative. Midway through, I switched to the illustration program and haven't looked back.
In your opinion, what shouldn’t aspiring illustrators miss doing in the first years of their career?
I think you should be prolific in your making - it requires a ton of hours to hone your skill, and in this job, that skill is always challenged with new projects. In the beginning, you can wait for projects to come along, but you should actually create projects for yourself so that you get hired for your dream jobs. You have to make a lot of work, and it should be the work you aim at getting hired for.
Take a look at our collection on our web, which outfits would you pick for daily wears and vacay-wears?
All of the outfits are beautiful. I'm a simple person and my outfits reflect that, so I would definitely wear these on the daily.
For a vacation, definitely a jumpsuit.
Written by Helena Natasha.
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