Tumble down the rabbit hole and find yourself in Johanna
Basford's inky black and white Wonderland. Johanna is an illustrator and ink
evangelist who prefers pens and pencils to pixels, and creates intricate, hand
drawn illustrations predominately, although not exclusively, in black and
white. Her creativity is cultivated by a curious imagination and a delight in
the fantastic. Much of her work has roots in the flora and fauna that
surrounded her growing up on her parent's fish farm in rural Scotland.
Have you always
wanted to work in Design?
Yes, always.
Where did you go to
Art School? I
studied Textile Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.
I specalised in silk screen printing.
What did you do after
Graduation? I
exhibited my work at New
Designers and did a few internships in Scotland and London. I was on route
to move to London and work in a commercial textile design studio, when I
started getting orders for the hand printed wallpapers I had shown in my degree
show. I got more orders, some national press coverage and suddenly it seemed
silly not to pursue a path there was clearly a market for.
Did you study at Post
Grad or Masters level?
No. I applied to the RCA
during my final year at Duncan of Jordanstone and didn't get in. At the time I
was gutted, but soon realised I had plenty of other opportunities and that
perhaps fate (and the admissions board!) had worked to my advantage.
How did you make the move to be self
employed / freelance? Initially I set-up a studio
creating hand printed wallpaper, fabrics and interior accessories. I applied
for Scottish Arts Council Funding (now Creative Scotland)
and took out a PSYBT
loan. I leased a studio, kitted it out for screen printing and spent my days
making very expensive patterns for interior spaces. Then the credit crunch hit
and the market for luxury interiors plummeted. I was forced into rethinking my
practise completely and making some pretty drastic changes. It was then that I
realised that drawing was my passion and that becoming an illustrator might be
a good move.
What materials and tools do you use
to create your work? Initially I draw using a rotary
pencil using a 0.5 B lead, a pink Hello Kitty one from Tokyo is my favourite.
When I come to ink the design, I use a variety of pens, but usually Staedtler
pigment liners feature heavily. I like a 0.2 or a 0.05 for the really fine
bits. I draw on bleached white A3 or A2 pads of Daler Rowney layout
paper. It's super smooth which is great for inking as there's no bleeding
or crinkling, also it's a good paper for scanning and is thin enough to trace
on if I need to work on multiple layers.
When it comes to digitizing the
drawings, I have an A3 scanner (life is too sort for A4) and scan the drawing
in sections into Photoshop on my Mac. I have a little MacBook Pro which I plug
into one of those big Apple cinema display monitors. I use a wacom instead of a
mouse.
What is your favorite pen? Staedtler Pigment Liner. 0.05 or 02 nib.
What pens or pencils do you
recommend coloring your books with? Everyone
will have their own favourite pens and pencils, but my personal pick’s are
Staedtler Triplus Fineliners.
I’d
recommend you do a sneaky test patch at the back of the book though to check
how heavy you can press without bleed through.
If you find
the ink is seeping through the paper, coloured pencils are a great alternative.
I love Staedtler’s Ergo Soft range.
Can you describe your creative
process? I tend to have a rough idea of how
the piece will look. If it is to be a specific shape, say a sphere or a
rectangle, I work with a template guideline below the paper I'm drawing on.
I draw bigger than the finished
print size of the actual piece, this allows me to sharpen details at the
computer stage.
When I begin drawing, everything is
roughed out in pencil first; sketchy graphite outlines of blossoms and foliage
begin at a central point in the design, then grow outwards. The evolution is
organic, I begin at a specified point and the pattern slowly creeps its way
over the paper.
When the pencil outlines are
complete, I place a fresh sheet of paper over the top and re-draw the design in
ink, adding detail and areas of block fill and texture.
After the entire design has been
inked, I scan the artwork into Photoshop. Often the drawn artwork is sprawled
over many sheets of paper, tacked together with masking tape so the scanning
process can be lengthy.
In Photoshop I use the Mac to
sharpen details, resize areas and do any symmetry flipping required. The
computer is a tool which I use to polish the hand drawn artwork and transfer it
to digital format for onwards use - I see it as a commercial tool, not a means
to create.
What happens if you make a
mistake?! One of 2 things:
1. I kind of morph the mistake into
some other shape or object within the drawing and just draw over the top /
around it till the original error disappears. Many a flower, leaf or bumble bee
began life as a smudge or slightly wonky looking leaf.
2. I ignore it, then when it comes
to scanning the image to Photoshop, I just cut and paste something over the top
of it. Bit like a patch repair.
Where are you based, and what kind
of studio you work from? I'm based up
in Aberdeen in the north east corner of Scotland. I work from a studio at home.
My studio has a distinctly analogue
feel to it. There's a big plan chest, stuffed to the brim with every drawing
I've created over the last 3 years, a book case with my archive of pens
arranged into various jam jars and shoe boxes and of course a big empty desk
for drawing on. I also have lots of books and design magazines. My Grandparents
were both gardeners and I inherited their library of botanical reference books,
these are a great source of inspiration.
I know some people struggle working
from home, but it suits me. I work long hours, so having the studio in the room
next door is handy. I'm out the studio at some point every day, whether for
client meetings, post office runs, catching up with other friends who work in
design or visiting suppliers and printers - it's not as isolated as you might
imagine.
How long does it take you to
complete a drawing? The length of time from initial
sketch to finished piece varies greatly from job to job. It all depends on
factors such as the complexity of the brief, scale, number of rounds of client
amends required etc. Basically, there's no super equation to calculate the time
required.
What inspires you? LOTS of stuff. I think creative people just soak up all
those little things that surround us everyday and feed into our imaginations
and work. Whether it's a book cover, a bubble gum wrapper, a leaf in the park,
a spider's web, a scary biker guy's tattoo or a chintzy vintage wallpaper, it
all gets stored away somewhere and seems to pop back into my mind when the
time's right.
Do you ever run out of ideas or
suffer from Creative Block? Yes. Like most
of us I do have times where I sit at my desk and stare blankly at an empty
sketch book page, whilst an overwhelming sense of fear and inadequacy washes
over me. I think that's normal. Best thing is to be pro-active and not let the
situation engulf you.
Get out, move, flick through some
magazines, visit a gallery, meet a friend, read a book, walk in the park. Just
do something. I find that once you step away from that empty page, you
soon start to image ways of filling it.
Nearly all of your work is black and
white - how come? My drawings are very intricate and
complex. I like to hide little curiosities within each illustration, be it a
rogue butterfly, a tiny beetle or an elusive white rabbit - things which appear
over time and add a little mystery and whimsy to the piece. I feel colour can
complicate matters. I think the basic black and white designs are bold, graphic
and allow the lines and marks of the pen to speak for themselves. In a way, I
think adding colour can sometimes confuse and clutter when the artwork already
has so much to draw your attention.
Also, pens are black.
Paper is white.
It just seemed to make sense.
Why does nature feature so heavily
in your work? 3 reasons: love, genetics and nostalgia.
I love natural form and all its
weird curiosities; bumble bees, seed pods, dung beetles, blossoms, thorns,
gnarly apple trees, fox gloves, spiders webs - they all get my attention.
My parents own a fish farm and I
grew up there with my little sister. In addition to fish farming, my Dad is
also a Gamekeeper and my Grandparents were Gardeners. We had a pretty organic
childhood; out of doors, building dens, swimming in the loch, climbing trees,
tracking foxes etc. I think that kind of play as a child helps cultivate a
pretty lively imagination as well as a love for nature, which in turn feeds my
inspiration as an Illustrator.
You're a big fan of putting pen to
paper (rather than mouse to pad) - why is this? (what do you think is gained
from hand-drawing?) For me, hand drawing just seems
more authentic, passionate and personal. There's something cold and analytical
about vectors, whereas a hand drawn line has character; it captures emotion. I
tell people that I create Analogue Art for a Digital World.
The industry is saturated with Adobe
whiz kids and Pixel Perfectionists. For me, I like the romantic charm of an
illustrator sitting down to a blank sheet of paper, getting their hands dirty
and crafting a beautiful image from graphite and ink. It almost seems more
honest than the computer generated alternative.
I do use the computer, but only at
the very final stages of the creative process. My Photoshop skills extend to:
scan, cut, copy, paste, rotate, scale, save. Seriously.
How have you managed to carve a
career in what's a notoriously difficult industry to break into. Did you start
out with any form of game-plan? I've
always thought it was better to do something different, something a little
unusual which would help me stand alone from the crowd and be different. By
concentrating on creating very intricate, hand crafted designs in monochrome, I
aimed to make myself stand out in just one area of the illustration hot pot. I
can't compete with everyone on every level, so I concentrate on creating the very
best work I can for a very specific niche of the market. I'm flexible in my
working practise and would never limit myself on a brief, but for the main
part, I want to be known as ‘the girl who does the super detailed black and
white drawings'- it's a way of getting your name heard and remembered.
What's the best piece of advice you
have been given? Bad things happen to everyone at
some point in their career. The people that succeed aren't more talented, well
connected or even more lucky than you. They just pick themselves up faster.
When something happens that makes you fall, don't lie there wallowing in your
misfortune and misery, pick yourself up, work out what you've learnt and fire
back in. The quicker you can do this, the better.
And worst? After graduation I was advised by an older designer who had
been in the industry for many years not to apply for an Arts Council Grant. She
told me it was a premature move and that the Arts Council only backed
experienced designers who had ‘proven their worth over time'. I ignored her
words of caution, applied and got the maximum level of funding. I later discovered
that she had applied unsuccessfully for the same grant after graduation. I
guess the moral of the story is, don't let other people's failures curb your
ambition. Aim high, there's nothing to lose.
How has social media affected the
way you work? Social Media is the single most
powerful tool I have to market my work - and it's free! Twitter in
particular is incredibly useful. The Internet has made the world a small place
and social media has given everyone a voice. TwitterPicture
has been my most effect piece of self promotion to date; it introduced my
work to thousands of potential news clients and helped me grow my online
profile considerably. .
How many hours a day do you work? Hand drawing is by no means a fast process. When I'm busy, I
can be at my desk from 6am till midnight. When you work this way there's not
really any quick tricks to speeding-up the process, it just takes as long as it
takes.
In addition to creative work, I also
have to factor in time for all the admin tasks involved in being self employed;
answering emails, communicating with clients, preparing quotes, invoicing,
updating the website, online shop orders - it all stacks up.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I work
a lot. My friends and family will testify to this. It can be incredibly hard
and you have to be very focused and disciplined, but at the end of the day I
love what I do and that makes it incredibly rewarding.
What are your future plans? My primary aim is to keep things scary. The sense of fear
when working on a project in which I may be a little out of my depth always
inspires my best work. Looking forward, I'd like to work with more big name
clients on campaigns and long term projects. I'd like to see my drawings
come to life through animation, I'd like to work on some multimedia projects,
to get my hands on a Selfridges shop window, a Boutique Hotel and the Starbucks
cup. I'd like to tackle more installation projects, super size my artwork,
publish a book and put on an inky one girl exhibition. I have a lot of plans, I
just need more hours in the day.
What would you be if you weren't an
illustrator? A Florist.
What's your favorite book? Fact: Purple Cow by Seth Godin
You get to experience life as an
animal... what would you be? A
bumble bee.
You can find Johanna Basford on Facebook, her books on Amazon, or visit Johanna at http://www.johannabasford.com/
And a Giveaway/Contest - two winners! One of Johanna's Secret Gardens and one of Johanna's Enchanted Forest. Contest Question - Who is your favorite artist? We want to know! Post here! Drawing is extended to Friday, May 1, 2015.
If you win, I will privately contact you to get your shipping address. And let us know which of Johanna's books you'd prefer. Good luck!
