I think the best things are both – is that cheating?

William Morris said ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.’ I think the best things are both, but I would probably start with ‘useful’ then try to decorate it to make it ‘beautiful’ also – is that cheating?

How do you know when you’ve found your style?

I don’t think there’s a point where one day you wake up and you have your style al sorted, it kinda happens without you noticing. Personally I struggled big time finding my style and possibly not in the usual way. Having spent nearly a decade working in animation I was conditioned to believe that having a ’style’ was a bad thing. I would be expected to switch drawing styles depending of the show I was working on – being able to do this was seen as a asset. When I started working in illustration I continued to do this – it was the early 90s and with little or no info on the web in those early days, I knew no better. A few years later when I realised I needed to settle on a single style I didn’t know if I should pick one of the styles I was already working in (non of which felt like mine) or create a new one. In the end I chose to find my own style, based on the things that personally resonated with me. It still took a few years to hone and I still feel it’s developing ( I hope it is!) – but at a very slow pace these days:)

Should you just please yourself?

In an ideal world that’s what we would all do – I try to please myself firstly and hopefully please the client at the same time – after all it’s much easier to do something for yourself than it is to second guess what a client wants 🙂