Interview with:Harriet Gray [harrietgray]
ILLUSTRATION
 | What is your specialty in illustration? contemporary illustration, freehand drawing. |
| What are your regular clients like? What do they expect from you? i think they expect me to have a good understanding of the project in hand and what they want, to work professionally and complete the work on time and to an exceptional standard. i assume they liked my work and that is why they originally hired me, but that they come back again because i gave a good service. |
| Is there a web address where we can see some of your work? |
| Have you completed formal art studies, or are you self-taught? I can't remember a time where i haven't been doing art in some form! i like to think i learn from my own experiences and mistakes, but I have studied art all the way from preschool, right through to a BA Honors Degree in Illustration, which i studied at The Arts Institute in Bournemouth. |
| How did you get your first full assignment? What did it involve? through a friend whilst she was on work experience, it was quite stressful as i only had a very short time to complete it - they were let down by another illustrator so she recommended me to do it instead! hurrah! |
| What past or present day illustrators do you admire most? as part of a uni project i had to interview a professional illustrator, and i chose Karin Akesson - she is ace! i also like the work of mike perry, julia pott, clemens habicht, julie verhoeven and lots and lots of others!! |
| How similar are your current drawings to those you did as a child? funnily enough i actually found a load of my old school books from when i was in primary school recently, all of which were full of drawings! i put some of the pictures up on my blog; http://harrietgray.blogspot.com/2009/02/nostalgia.html (...)
the only similarity i can see between that and my work now are the materials used - good old pencils and crayons! |
| What was your favorite comic book as a child? i never really had comics but i used to collect 'the animals of farthing woods' magazines! |
| Do you have a particular style, or does it vary a lot? i like to think i have a style that can be seen throughout my work. |
| What is hardest to draw? sometimes nothing, sometimes EVERYTHING!! lol if i think too much about what i am drawing i get stressed and can't do it!! but if i relax, i like to think i can draw pretty much anything i like. |
| What type of music do you listen to while you work? i tend not to unless something just happens to be on in the background! my music collection is pretty limited so i end up listening to the same thing over and over which, as you can imagine, can get rather boring! i also tend to work faster when i'm somewhere quiet as i can concentrate more. |
| Do you have a favorite work of art? yes, it's not famous but very special to me! it's a portrait of me and my lukey by Karin Akesson! so so pretty! |
| What do you do when a client simply says "I don't like it"? cry. lol, no hopefully the process of sending sketches and drafts to the client during the image making process should stop getting that reply to the final piece - but if that ever happened i would try and find out what the client didn't like and attempt to 'fix' it. |
| What new techniques have you been experimenting with lately? recently i have been trying to incorporate more colour in my illustrations. and i used to use mono printing quite a lot in my work and would like to start with that again. |
| What part of your work do you do on paper and what part digitally? usually i do all my work on paper and only use the computer to slightly adjust the contrast etc of the illustration to make it look slicker on screen or ready for print. occasionally i will use the computer to arrange an image to create a composition, but that's about it. i don't like to add colour or draw digitally as i personally prefer the 'handmade' look in my own work. |
| What research do you do for your illustrations? it depends on the project, but i do like the research stage as i think it's important to have a deeper understanding of the subject and it often leads to better ideas. |
| Do you have colleagues with whom you share techniques, tricks, ideas, etc.? My boyfriend, Luke Waller, is actually an illustrator too, we both work from home so often work together and share ideas and tricks etc. It's always good to get other peoples feedback about your work, especially when there is something bugging me about a drawing that i just can't put my finger on.
if you'd like to see some of Luke's work his website is www.lukewaller.co.uk ! |
| Do you have any specific goals as an illustrator? i think i am really lucky to be able to do this as a living - however i would like to get to the point where i ONLY do illustration. it's nice when people ask you what you do and you can say - i draw! ... i wish i could stop there and not have to add on 'but i have another job to pay the bills!' |
| What illustration web sites do you frequent? i have literally loads of sites bookmarked on my computer, and i could lose days where i am meant to be working looking through them all! but i try not to look at other people's work too often as i find it can lead to me comparing my work to theirs in a bad way! - as in 'why isn't my work as good as theirs!!' ...but on the other hand i am rather nosey so it's nice to see what other people are up to so i do tend to regularly look at blogs rather than people's websites as they are usually updated more frequently. |
| What are you working on now? lots of things including some new personal work, building my website and designing some new promotional material. |
| What advice do you have for someone who likes to draw and would like to make a living from it? you do have to be very determined, self motivated and believe in yourself as it is a hard business and you can get knock backs! also, try to make your work as original as possible - Don't steal other people's ideas - it's not nice and i'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it if someone did it to you! and with regards to getting noticed, send your work everywhere, if you have a website tell everyone the address, you never know who might see it! |
BLOGGING
| What is your blog address? What subjects do you deal with? http://harrietgray.blogspot.com/
i mainly blog about my illustrations, new work i have done, exhibitions i am taking part in, things that interest me, that sort of thing! |
| What was it that made you create your blog? On what date did you start it? i think i set up my account in the summer 08, but i didn't post anything till december 08 -rather lazy of me! i set it up because i had seen and liked other peoples and since it has taken me forever to set up my website i thought it would be a good way to show my work. |
| What blogging system have you adopted and why? i use blogspot because it's free and easy! |
| How many visits a day do you get? What type of comments do you receive? my blog gets an average of 10 visits a day, and i'd like to think it's not just my mum and dad! but i don't ever get many comments (boo!), don't know why -i'd like more! |
| How has 'having a blog' contributed to your life? i have always been a bit rubbish at showing my work off to people, blogging has been good for that. |
| How often do you post? Does regular posting of your blog require a lot of effort on your part? it doesn't really take any effort to post, so i try to do it regularly, but sometimes i am just a bit too lazy! |
| How do you promote your blog? i spam everyone! lol! i use twitter, facebook, myspace, and put the address on my email signature. |
| How would you define your readers? Have you got a faithful audience? i have no idea, but i am sure they are all wonderful! :) i have a few people who 'follow' me using that feature on blogspot but i don't know if they use it or look at my blog regularly. |
| Are there any blogs you follow daily or regularly? |
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