The Illustration Interview is (hopefully!) a series of interviews with deviants who work professionally as illustrators, hoping to eke out tips to help us aspiring illustrators out a little!

Previous Interviews: Betteo, Trenchmaker

Hi there ~ChocoChants!

Hey, name's Chantal, also known as Chants and Captain... (and on dA ChocoChants!)

What do you currently work as?

Currently working as a freelance illustrator - Which can be cool due to being able to work in P.J.'s But on the other hand it is a little bit difficult finding clients. Funnily enough, people seem to think that you actually work for free! Not cool...

Did you do an art related course at university?

I sure did. I studied digital art and animation for three years, which was really great. I got to work with so many different types of software as well as traditional medium. Prior to that I had studied art and design and photography for two years at college.

Do you think a degree in art helps you become an art professional?

That's a tough one. While it is great to have an art degree I don't think it is a must in order to become a professional. A lot of the people we look up to in the creative world never had the degrees we do and look where they are now! I do think some studying is needed, but you can reach wherever you want to without having a degree.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to become a professional illustrator?

Keep at it! It's not going to happen over night, and you have to be quite thick skinned and determined. Always work to improve your art!

What are your tools of the trade? Why do you use these?

I always start off with a pencil sketch - I'm one of those people who use red and blue pencil to rough out an idea, then go over in normal lead. Depending on how I want the image to look, I'll either take it in to Illustrator and ink the lines using one of my own brushes, or clean it up in Photoshop and colour away. I almost always use Photoshop to colour my images in and add textures that I have scanned in, or ones which nice people have uploaded for free use.

I also enjoy using watercolours... Just because they're loads of fun : ]

Oh! And I ALWAYS use my graphics tablet. I have upgraded from my Wacom graphire 3 to a Bamboo Fun which actually is lots of fun!

What tools would you advise someone starting out to buy?

I would definitely say invest in a graphics tablet. I don't know what the other makes are like since I have only ever used Wacom, but I can honestly say that they really are the way forwards in terms of illustrating and colouring on your computer.

As for traditional mediums, it's really a case of try and see what you like and are comfortable with. Same with painting programs!

Who or what inspires you?

Ahh, another tough one! A lot of people and things inspire me. I guess my main inspirations would have to be animation from the 20's up to about the early 60's, and certain things from now. As for artists, I love Fred Moore and Mary Blair's work. Don Bluth and Al Hirschfeld - who was amazing with his inks, to name a few.

Show me your favourite works from your gallery.

Mainly newer stuff. I hate looking at older work because I can see all the faults!

Show me some of your favourite art on DA (preferably illustration!)

Wowza! Here goes!!

....

This is actually very difficult! There are so many amazing artists here on dA I'm finding it hard to chose just a few images to show. Even the ones I had chosen, are just snippets from artists whose work continuously amaze me. I'm not doing anyone any justice sooo I will just link you over to my favs gallery!! [link]
_{(Here are a few from Chantal's recent favourites}




Thankyou so much for your time ~ChocoChants