feel real now. East London is filled with interesting people and opportunities. It really feels like a down to earth, live little village away from the hussle and bussle of London as a whole. My past and my present have finally connected and I’m enjoying every minute even if I know that nothing really matters. You must make it matter. Find that spot to grow with support. Does living in an urban environment help perpetuate your theme of nature and animals? Yes I think the city enhances my longing for space and nature extremely. I dream and crave green and space and quiet moments and the beautiful creatures that live in the world. I’m not someone that is in love with London. I love what I have here and I’m drawn back to it whenever I try and escape. How did your background in fashion influence and direct your style? I have never really thought about this. Fashion was something that I didn’t grow into. I started focusing on fine art and drawing even while I was doing my baccalaureate back in Germany. I moved into a fine art foundation and then specialized in textiles and fashion here in London. At the time, I had a brilliant old Scottish teacher who was really experimental and hands on. Studying fashion at University I soon realized that it wasn’t for me. It was a completely different experience and the agenda there disturbed me a little. I wanted to use imagery and not spend a night sketching 100 pairs of jeans that meant nothing to me. Every mistake is a good one though in the end because it cleared my head and focused me on what I do today. Now it feels right! If you consider my illustration as stylish then that is just my own aesthetic that comes through. I enjoy dressing up, collecting odd pieces of clothing and being extravagant in the cheapest way possibly. What is in fashion will come and go, just be happy and like what you create. That would be my advice.
We love construing conversations from the images you portray. Can you tell us a bit about your development process? Perhaps walk us through a specific project: the assignment, the procedure, your end result? That’s nice to hear. I love the fact that my imagery is letting you do that. Story telling is something I love. When I start a project, most of the time I have a brief. I hardly ever just doodle. A brief from a client or a personal goal. I try and imagine the image before I start, but often that doesn’t work completely. I talk about my idea and see how the conversation feeds the imagery then I start. Most of the time, an animal or animals are the central part of it. Depending on the situation and story of the image, a particular animal or animals will come to mind if I haven’t been asked to draw a specific one anyway. I then go through my books, the Internet and my archives and fish out poses and expressions I like. Sometimes I find the perfect one, but often I puzzle them together. I create the creature first, and while I’m drawing with pens and pencils and sometimes inks, the landscape or setting will slowly begin to form in my head. Once the animal is finished, scanned, edited and colored I then place it roughly on a page and set out to compose the background. It can all take a long time. I’m a perfectionist and sometimes terribly busy in my imagery. I enjoy this part of play immensely. I use collected papers, painted texture and all sorts of things I photograph and find to collage a piece.
HALF FOX • pencil / digital coloring