Contacting Practitioners: Charlotte Farmer

After contacting the artist Charlotte Farmer she kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her work. Here are her answers:

Q- What is your process when making an image? Do you adapt your prints digitally?

 I'm an illustrator but also I show my screen prints in galleries. My illustration work starts off with drawings which I scan in and add colour using Photoshop (I usually make coloured-in shapes which are scanned rather than using the paint bucket)  - so I work in the same way as when I'm making stencils for printing. I always draw from reference once I've had the initial idea.

Q- I really love the handwritten type you make and it seems to be a very important element in many of your pieces that I've seen. Have you always used type in your work?

 I've always tried to  have nice handwriting (still gutted to not to have won the handwriting prize at junior school). It's something that's always been in my work, especially as I'm interested in the interaction between objects and/or animals.

Q- How did you go about getting your first jobs after graduation? Did you find you had to adapt your style in some way after graduation in order to attract more clients?

 

I actually got a bit lucky - I was working in a coffee shop and made some drawings for their window which were spotted by some people who I ended up making illustrations for quite a few years. I wouldn't say it's been easy though, I've had a lot of slightly dull part time jobs and it's only in the last few years that I've been doing illustration full time. I think it helps that I sell work in galleries as well as waiting for commissions.

Q- What general advice could you give to a newly graduated illustrator?

 

ERM, Get a dull part time job and make time for drawing too, so you can be safe in the knowledge that you're more than your rubbish job(!)…..if you've been printing try and find a place where you can carry on doing it/share a studio/do short courses/find people who are doing similar things to you/make a website and show it to people... The most impressive recent graduates I've met seem to be really putting themselves out there, working in galleries and pop up shops, running workshops (much more impressive than I ever was)

Images from Charlotte Farmer