And that’s it, that’s our collection of inspiring artwork to raise a smile at the end of 2018. Thanks for reading TC this year! If you liked this feature, please consider sharing it on your social networks – it’s pretty much the only way we grow the site. High-five!

Hello Marloes, welcome to Thunder Chunky! How are you today?

Hi Jon! I’m good, thanks. I came home yesterday from a few days in Belgium, where I attended a workshop about picture book illustration (my 5th) and this morning I had a mini-surgery to my jaw.

It’s been an eventful week!

Inside Marloe’s studio

What does a normal day look like for you?

I have my day divided in two parts: the morning is for using my brain and the afternoon is for production.

I get up around 8 AM and right away I check my to-do list and start reading briefings from clients. I hop in the shower where I get most of my ideas and when I’m out I usually have a starting point for my assignments.

Midday I take a 1-hour lunch break. Recently I decided to go for a walk but that isn’t part of my routine yet, so it really takes an effort for me to put on shoes and a coat and get out of the house.
When I’m back, I start doing production stuff, which means colouring illustrations, answering emails, admin, etc.

Throughout the day I spend quite some time on social media, as I use it as my marketing tool. I try to wrap up my day around 5PM, do groceries and cook dinner in the evening.

I do have days where I’m travelling a lot by train or car, to meet clients or other meetings. I have about one day a week where I spend most hours in public transport or a car.

The life of a freelancer

Going right back to the beginning… what are your earliest memories of illustration or art?

We didn’t have a lot of books around when I was a child, nor was my family interested in art so I have no clue why I was so interested in them right from the start.

I do remember my brother and I both had a book by Richard Scarry. My little brother had a book with little text, and I had a book with stories in it. I was obsessed with these books!

Later on I started reading comics, so from there my interest in the visual arts grew. I never went to a museum until I was 19 years old and already in art school.

I later found out my dad made paintings before I was born but I have never really seen him draw or paint. He refuses to draw until this day.

Living the good life!

You were born and grew up in the Netherlands. What were some of your creative influences as you were growing up?

When I was about 7 or 8 I read a lot of books illustrated by a famous Dutch illustrator, called Fiep Westendorp. She still is my biggest inspiration, even though she passed away many years ago. My other main inspiration is Quentin Blake. I read all the Roald Dahl books with his illustration when I was young.

Another thing I remember is tracing the covers of Disney comics and loving it so much that I knew right away that’s what I wanted to do. I was always writing stories in little notebooks and when I was 9 I started writing and drawing my own comics.

Like every child in the 90s I watched a lot of cartoons and I think you can definitely see that in my work today.

Another peak inside Marloe’s studio

For a number of years you worked as a graphic designer before you went full time as an illustrator. Was there anything in particular that inspired you to take that leap?

I got into art school thinking I was going to study illustration but I ended up graduating in visual communication as my teachers felt I wasn’t talented enough to be an illustrator. I wasn’t really the type to argue with teachers so I just did what they told me to do.

Working as a graphic designer and art director at ad agencies I wasn’t particularly unhappy but I felt this wasn’t what I was supposed to do. So I quit my job and tried freelancing for a few years. I paid my bills with freelance graphic design jobs while developing my illustration skills in the evening. Slowly I got more illustration jobs until the day came I had to say goodbye to graphic design so I could focus all my energy and time on illustration.

It’s never too cold for ice cream!

A lot of your comics seem to be a way for you to look at yourself with a self-critical eye. Do you find it enjoyable or difficult to get your thoughts on to paper?

That’s impressive! I don’t think everyone even gets why I am doing those comics but that’s exactly the reason.

Making comics or drawings about my daily life and thoughts is a way for me to deal with everything that happens to me or around me. I’m very much an over-thinker, but when I draw my thoughts I feel like I can let them go and move on.

I don’t find it difficult and the joy comes afterwards, when it is all on paper. While I’m drawing I still struggle with it. Sometimes I worry people won’t understand me. But lately, I’ve been trying to let that go: not everyone has to understand what I mean. The viewer is allowed to fill in blanks. I don’t want to over-explain myself anymore.

A quick introspective sketch

Your comics also capture lots of humour in small everyday situations. Do you notice something funny in your day and then rush to draw it, or do you decide you want to do a comic and then sit and think through funny scenarios? What’s the process there?

I carry a very tiny notebook with me most of the time. I jot down all my silly ideas and things that have happened in there. But I store them on my phone as well, when I don’t have my notebook on hand.

When I feel like it, I start drawing. I’m not much of a sketcher so usually I draw the whole thing in one go. I find that when I sketch things, the spontaneity is gone by the time I’m making the final comic.

Another studio shot

You seem to enjoy experimenting with different materials a lot. What’s your favourite medium at the moment, and are there any new techniques you’re hoping to try out?

It’s mainly because I’m very eager to learn. I have the same thing with books and reading about new subjects. I also get bored quite easily and trying new materials or techniques helps me focus.

Some illustrators might say that sticking to one medium will make you better skilled at that, and I think that’s true for many. For me, it’s better to try new stuff because my brain gets excited and I see new doorways on how to approach illustration. It’s not about the medium per se, it’s about how you use that medium and how it adds to your skills.

In the end, I mix everything. I might start in gouache and pencils but I scan it and work on it further digitally. I rarely use one medium for the whole piece. At least not commissioned pieces!

The truth about working from home

If you could go back in time and talk to yourself when you were tackling some of your first illustration jobs, what advice would you give?

“Cut yourself some slack.”


I’ve set the bar way too high many times. I stressed about too many things too many times. I still do, by the way.

I wish I enjoyed some of the processes and successes a bit more. I was so busy working towards the next big goal, I forgot what an amazing ride it is. I want to do better now, hold still and observe what I’m doing.

Just one of the varied mediums that Marloes dabbles in

Do you listen to any music whilst you work? If so, what kind of music do you find helps you work?

Is it really weird if I tell you I never listen to anything while I’m working? Maybe one hour a week I listen to a podcast while I’m colouring, so I get distracted so very easily, I just can’t listen to anything.

Muddled thoughts

What’s your favourite thing that you’ve bought recently?

I bought an iPad Pro last week! I’m loving it so far, I find myself sketching in the evenings a lot more. It’s good for developing my skills for sure. I think I sketched not nearly enough and this pushes me to try more.

Simple seasonal clothes

Finally, what’s the one thing that everyone should do today?

Stop for a minute and think about the things you are proud of. I think most people don’t give themselves enough credit.

A truth that many of us understand!

A big thanks to Marloes for her time. Check out more of her work over on her website and follow her over on Twitter and Instagram.

Your work is a lovely mix of graphic, geometric and textural elements – how did you develop this style?

I feel that visual style or language shouldn’t be arbitrary or based on trends, and that usually when you feel comfortable working in a particular way it’s because it makes some sort of sense to you, linked to your personality.

I tried working in lots of different ways through college and uni as I didn’t really know how I wanted to work, so it was really a process of experimenting, and then getting to a point where I was able to look back over a lot of different projects and pick out the common thread. Whether I worked with paint, collage, or photography, I always seemed to have an affinity for using big bold shapes, precise composition, high contrast, etc,. So realising that those aspects were naturally my visual language, I could then cut out all the noise and focus on those exclusively. I think you could explore these qualities in various mediums (and I intend to do so!) but working digitally seems to be the most efficient way for the work I’m doing at the moment.

Dominique uses minimal colour to maximum effect.

What inspired you to develop this style?

I do think it was a natural progression rather than a choice after seeing a particular piece of work or artist. That being said, I do love mid century art and graphic design, people like Alvin Lustig, Paul Rand and Mark Rothko.

The minimalist approach where all you need is one or two shapes to say something is very efficient and makes a lot of sense to me. There’s that famous quote by Abram Games – “maximum meaning, minimum means” which always sticks in my mind.

A personal project illustrating people in different jobs.

The geometric shapes and layouts you create are a clever use of composition. Does that take a lot of planning? Is there much trial and error to your images?

In a word, yes! I tend to have a very vague idea in my head of what might be an interesting composition, maybe just a couple of abstract shapes, and then I’ll quickly do some thumbnail sketches to get it down on paper. Then it’s usually a lot of trial and error, moving shapes and lines around in Illustrator, sort of like how you would with a collage.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes you have to make it work, whether just to push yourself out of your comfort zone or because a client has given you an unusual format to work in. I usually like work the best when you’ve had to challenge your preconceptions of what a person/object/subject ‘should’ look like and you have to get really creative with the design.

Turning beautiful illustration into gorgeous animation.

You combine your simple animation cycles into your work so well – is this something that you always wanted to do or did this come from working in animation itself?

I’ve only done a couple of basic animated GIFs of my own work. Most of my work that’s been animated has been done by friends or animators much more talented than myself! They are fun to do though, and I would like to try and do more when time allows as it’s always great to expand your skill set and explore how your work can be used in different ways.

A great use of colour, texture and negative space.

I know youve worked in animation – how involved in the process are you? For example – do you handle storyboards, to designs, to assets, to animations or more as part of a team?

I’ve done a bit of design work over the past year or so that has been used in animations but I’m not an animator myself. So far it’s mostly been the case of working remotely, designing to a storyboard or animatic, if supplied, and creating the designs or assets to send off to the animators. Sometimes I’ve had more say in the overall design, colours, style etc, and other times we’ve sat down together and roughly storyboarded things out if they need something more specific. But it’s always team work, and hopefully as long as we’re all on the same page about what we’re trying to achieve from the get-go, it usually works out pretty well, whether we’re in the same room, or in different countries!

Using geometric abstraction into an illustration.

Your work has a very storytelling feel, from the poses of characters and scenes you create. Illustration has this great quality to capture moments and tell stories – is this a feeling that inspires what goes into your scenes when you produce them?

Yes, I think that is the challenge of illustration, to be able to describe a feeling, tell a story or shed light on a concept in an interesting and clear way. As I tend to take a more minimal approach to illustration it can be a tricky balance to describe a person, for example, doing a particular task or what their relationship is to someone else, without loading it with detail.

This is something I’ve actively tried to work on over the past couple of years. Working in quite a flat geometric style, it can be hard to illustrate a sense of movement, so I did a project on different sports where I tried to capture that moment in time, with an imagined before and after, and describe a sense of movement and speed just through the poses and composition.

Building great illustrations.

Do you find inspiration from your surroundings? Have you always been based in Manchester?

I hail from Stockport south of Manchester originally, but have been working in the city centre for around 4 years. I think you can’t help but be inspired by your surroundings, and Manchester is a very vibrant, cosmopolitan city, with lots of phenomenal art and music, that is constantly evolving and changing, so it sort of sets the tone when you’re out and about every day.

I do also believe in looking outside of your surroundings and line of work for inspiration, so I try not to spend too much time looking at the work of other illustrators, and make time for other things I enjoy; watching films, reading (I like my sci fi), adding to my vinyl collection, etc. Indulging your other interests can help broaden your horizons and learn new things that ultimately feed back in to your work.

How do you find the creative community in Manchester? Has it helped you develop your work into what it is today?

There is a great creative community in Manchester and lots of friendly and talented artists and designers that I’ve met over the years. It has definitely helped develop my work, not only through some of the opportunities, exhibitions and word-of-mouth recommendations I’ve had, but also through being part of a group of people that are all very supportive and help each other out. Freelancing can be very solitary so it’s good to know other people are in the same boat.

Where the magic happens.

Do you have further plans with your work? How do you see your illustration work and how it can work on broader subjects? Is that something you’re keen to work in or are you more just enjoying drawing what you enjoy?

I definitely hope to keep developing my work, and it would be great to get it to a place where I could see it working in editorial, advertising, book covers etc. The ideal would be to be able to work across a variety of media and subjects at a consistent standard, and not be too constrained by only working in one way or on one type of thing. I get bored very quickly so variety is very appealing to me!

hasta la vista baby.

You’ve recently started a project illustrating people in different jobs, which I think is going to be great. Do you try and do as many personal projects as time allows? How important do you think personal projects are?

I basically have a full-time job as well as any freelance illustration I’m working on, so free time is very scarce! But yes I do like to work on as many personal projects as possible as it’s not only a chance to work on something you enjoy (if that’s not happening elsewhere), but its also the only time you have real control over where your work is going and a chance to develop. I try to use personal projects to tackle any weaknesses in my skill set, so the recent project illustrating people in different jobs is really just a chance to practice my people-drawing, and experiment and take risks without a deadline or anyone to answer to. It’s always time well spent as it’s when my work improves the most.

Gorgeous simplicity leads to an iconic image.

Is there anywhere you’d like to push your work to, any place you’d like to try working in?

I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, so if time allowed, I’d like to see how my work and style would translate into different mediums. It would be fun to do some more printing again, or really play around with collage and do things that are a more hands on. We had a great pottery class when I was at college and I’d love to try that again if I could work out how to apply it in my work, it was so much fun!

Lastly, what’s the one thing everyone should do today?

Take a break! Get away from the computer, that project or problem you’re dealing with, and truly forget about it all for half an hour. Speaking for myself, but I sense this is a common trait in the creative community, whenever I have some free time I feel almost guilty if I’m not creating new work. I expect this probably stems from social media and the illusion that everyone else seems to be working on new projects and sharing new work constantly. But truthfully I always have the best ideas or solutions when I’m not working, and always feel a lot more objective and inspired when I start again. So I would suggest everyone take break from the stress of whatever you’re doing, and from social media, and get out of the loop for a while.

A big thanks to Dominique for her time. Check out more of her work over on her site and follow her over on Twitter.

So you’re a graphic designer and an illustrator, what came first? Did one lead into the other or has that been the plan from the offset? I started off in design and moved across to illustration myself.

Well, I’m a graphic designer by trade – I studied Graphic Design at Uni and then worked for a design agency, then a publishing company before going freelance in 2013.

My Fine Art tutor at college suggested illustration as a degree, but I decided to go for Graphic Design as I assumed there would be a better chance of employment at the end. I never really considered a career as an illustrator until a couple of years ago, after meeting Ben (Tallon). He was a freelancer and I’d been commissioning his work for a magazine I was Art Directing on at they time, and he really inspired me to first go freelance but then to explore what I might really love to do creatively – and that led to experimenting with the bird illustrations, hence Little Birds Talk!

It’s only in the past 4 or so months since moving up to Manchester I’ve started working with the paper illustration (which I LOVE), that has got me thinking that I could move into illustration as my main income in time. At present I would call myself a graphic designer who likes to illustrate but hopefully eventually it might be the other way around!

Lets hear it for the birds.

You’ve gone from Cornwall to London and now to Manchester, how has this trek across the English Isle treated you in terms of work and inspirations?

Haha, that question made me laugh! It has been a bit of a trek from south to north! Maybe Scotland next? In terms of work and inspiration… well I think Cornwall was wonderful as it was such a beautiful place to live – I think it was a very inspired time of my life as I was a student, and everything was new and exciting.

I love getting out and about – at uni on Sundays me and my friend Jo used to grab a pasty and trek up to Pendennis point along the coast in Falmouth, followed by a bracing walk back along the beach and I think being outdoors so much and close to the sea influenced my design and perspective on life.

I was very interested in ethical design, I wrote my dissertation about the First Things First manifesto and was very keen to try and tailor each project to something to do with things like fair-trade, protecting nature, recycling – I was a bit of an eco warrior! And cornwall totally nurtured that in me I think.

And London…?

My very first job in London was at a design agency who’s whole ethos was based around ethical design – I met them at New Designers in 2005, and my work must have given off that vibe, as they offered me a placement and then a full time role! I loved the work they did there and was really inspired by the fact that they had such strong beliefs.
I didn’t actually move up to London until 2012, and by this time I was working in publishing and soon after went freelance.

I think once I found my feet a little, London was amazing as there’s such an overwhelming wealth of information and imagery pounding your mind on a daily basis, and you see so many people doing cool things that you challenge yourself more perhaps and think that maybe you could do that too.

I started going to lots of makers markets after I’d re-discovered my love of painting, as I’d been on a screen printing course at the University of the Arts and a sewing course in Clapham, and thought maybe this was an area I’d like to get into. I was majorly inspired by all the amazing makers and designers, and this spurred me on to having a go at designing my own fabric prints using the bird illustrations and creating a range of cushions, lampshades, aprons and tea-towels and trying my hand at some craft markets too.

I think moving to Manchester, being able to afford a centrally located studio space in a really lovely building, full of all sorts of wonderful creative people has really spurred me on to do something more ‘me’ and that I love. I’m feeling really inspired since moving here and have much more time to actually enjoy the work as I’m not commuting for hours each day and have a bigger and more functional space to work in too.

Laura’s cards in the wild on the shelves.

Have you found the creative scenes very different between each place?

I guess for Cornwall its harder to say, as I was there as a student – but it is a very creative part of the country and has a strong sense of its own identity – the Arts uni in Falmouth is of course full of creative types, and St Ives is a hub of independent stores, so I think there’s a lot of maker-type creativity going on down there.

London has everything, but I think its a very double edged sword. There are obviously thousands of creative people living and working in the city, but I think for freelancers or small business especially, they tend to be more grouped together in the suburbs. In my personal experience, a lot of the freelancers I knew there found it hard to just work on their passions and often had a side job, and studio rent was so expensive that you’re really pushed quite far out to afford a good space. However the creative community is really welcoming, there was a great meet up that I went to from time to time called Yo Illo which was full of lovely freelancers wanting to get together, have a drink and a chat and they’d often have speakers.

I’ve found the Manchester creative scene massively welcoming and approachable. I think because the city is smaller, people know each other and you see lots of the same faces at regular events. There are also so many things going on from design-related talks and conferences, to workshops and meet-ups that there’s a massive wealth of resources. I think the north is a wonderful place for creative people, and is getting stronger, and people really want to help each other out here and encourage them, which is fantastic!

Laura has the last lol with her cards sold in shops one of which is her stationery mecca.

Your bird watercolour illustrations that you use in pattern and stationery is a departure from your other work. The paintwork is gorgeous, is this a return to a first love of painting or something you developed later?

Aw thank you! That’s very kind! Well, I loved painting when I was younger, and as a child (who doesn’t!). At college, art was my favourite and I loved the laid back lessons where we’d just sit and paint. My mum was really surprised actually when she saw my final show as she said as a kid my drawings were pretty average! However, at uni, I learned more digital skills, and even though I like to still create hands on work, for a long while after my degree I don’t think I even looked at a paintbrush, and everything I made was digital.

I think the birds came from a mix of frustration with my design work, and the need to do something really creative and hands on. I didn’t even know I liked birds so much to be honest! But once I started painting them, I loved it and just kept going. I really liked the act of putting paint on paper and the way the watercolours bled and ran, it was very cathartic. And I think I was as surprised as anyone with the results. It opened up a new perspective for me and I felt that maybe this was worth exploring some more.

What inspired you to create this range?

Building shapes and colours.

I’d tried the patterns and the making, which I’d really enjoyed, but I soon realised that being a full-time maker wasn’t really for me. I loved making one or two items, but as soon as it became ‘work’ the fun kind of dispersed. So I thought about how I might use the birds in another way. I’d had a go at some illustrated typographic greetings cards and tried pitching them to a local card shop in Balham, but the owner wasn’t having it at all (which was fair enough, they weren’t great!), and I’d done some notelets with the birds for some craft markets which had sold well, so I think this must have been the kick off point for the cards – it’s hard to remember!

I already had the name ‘Little Birds Talk’ before the cards were actually ‘talking’, so adding the speech bubbles and having the birds say things seemed the obvious thing to do really! I wanted them to be a bit different though and appeal to my (somewhat dire) sense of humour (I love a pun and a bad joke), and thought the contrast of a delicate, watercolour bird illustration, and some modern text-type language might be funny… so started there!

The first card was the Toucan saying ‘LOLZ’, and then I think it went on to the BOSH and BOOM, and so it began… I was absolutely over-the-moon when card publisher Whale and Bird contacted me and said they’d like to publish 12 of my designs – and seeing the cards in actual real-life Paperchase (my stationery mecca!!!) on Tottenham Court Road was possibly the highlight of my career so far!

Firstly, awesome news about Paperchase! You mention you don’t want to be a full-time maker? Is your idea now to create things you enjoy and if you see a way of up-selling them you will?

The beautiful use of textured paper.

Thank you very much! It was VERY surreal – I have been in love with that shop for decades and never dreamed that they would ever stock something I’d drawn, so that was incredibly exciting. Regarding the making, I guess so, yes! I want to focus on the paper art for now and if there’s a way that can evolve into something I can make an Etsy store from then amazing!

How important is it to you that you create work you love? I ask this because more and more I’m seeing people in the creative business getting despondent doing work for others and not being invested in their work as much.

Even the rips create a nuance to the illustration.

I think as I get older (and in theory wiser?!) I’m really starting to see that you CAN actually get paid to do things you enjoy and you really don’t have to do work that you hate (at least for most of the time!). The more you enjoy a job, the better you’ll do at it generally, so I am trying to follow that advice and turn down things I don’t like to give me time to make more things I do… I listened to the Arrest All Mimics podcast with Kerry Lemon, and was so impressed by her work ethic of thinking ‘what would I like to do’ and then ‘how can I get someone to pay me to do it’ – and sticking to that, and she’s done some incredible work!

Sounds like all 3 places have had a really positive influence in your career path? Did you think that would be the case as you went from place to place? Your positivity is infectious and great to see – do you feel this helped make the best of the experiences?

The layering and variation of colour really gives Laura’s paper portraits added depth.

That’s very kind of you to say, Ste! To be fair, I’ve had some great opportunities and have been so lucky to have had the support of my family and friends along the way. My parents have never laughed at me (well, not to my face) when I come home with another hair-brained scheme, or despaired when I’ve told them I’m moving house for the umpteenth time!

I suppose wherever you are you’re influenced by the things around you. I really love having the city and country mix, I crave the beauty of the countryside, but also need the crazy, dirty, hustle and bustle of the city. I really enjoy wandering around really old cities like London and Edinburgh and thinking about all of the people who’ve passed by before and all of the amazing things that have happened through the centuries – its really thrilling when you think about it!

Even a simple wink has added umph.

Do you think the journeys and visits helped get you to where you are quicker than if you hadn’t?

I think maybe moving about and living in different places has given me more life experience, so maybe more confidence generally. And it’s been great for meeting other people in the industry, which definitely pushes you, as you see that all these different things can be achieved! If I’d never left my home town (well village to be fair) I probably wouldn’t have had the experiences and meetings that have led me to where I am now, so yes I think actually I wouldn’t be doing the job I’m doing if I hadn’t moved around, and potentially it would have taken longer – or not happened at all!

You’ve recently started to work with paper to create illustrations and collages from different types and colours of that medium, can you tell me how you developed into that? For me there’s a link to the fluidness of watercolour with your work, very colourful and allowing random chances to inspire artwork – is that something you see yourself?

Laura combines colours so well in her paper illustrations

YES, that’s a great way to describe the paper art actually – I think the random chances are exactly what makes the style work, and what I really like about it. I started working with paper as a bit of an experiment, I’d been using the watercolours for my bird cards, and was trying to expand that to other things, but it just wasn’t working. I’d seen people on instagram working with paper, and some beautiful mixed media work where one illustrator was using watercolour and paper collage, and thought “ooo that looks fun, maybe I could have a go at that”.

However, I ended up just using the paper, and after a few experiments found I liked the results & also really enjoyed creating things in the style. I like to work quickly, so the tearing thing was ideal, and using lots of existing paper alongside painting my own and tearing that up meant that the artwork was really different each time, and also used up all sorts of paper-based things that might usually be thrown away, which is a big bonus too.

Can you see or have you any ideas how you would like to develop this style or are you enjoying seeing where it takes you?

So clever.

I’ve got a few ideas, and things that I’d like to try – and so many people have given me brilliant suggestions of ways I could develop the style and content, so I have a lot to think about and crack on with! I’m just about to launch a website dedicated to just the paper, its all very new, but over the coming months I’ll be adding more content and hopefully a few live commissions if I’m lucky…

I had my very first paper commission in January for a digital magazine called ‘Ambition’, which is the magazine of the Association of MBA’s. The fabulous editor David Woods-Hale let me have a crack at the cover and some internal spreads, so I can’t wait to see that!

Lastly, what’s the one thing everyone should do today?

I’ve just got a puppy, and having a pet about the place is awesome, so I would say go and pat a dog. (ask first though if its not yours, obvs.)

A very big thanks to Laura for her time. Check out her work on her website, and follow Little Birds Talk on Twitter.

Step one: wake up, put on snazzy socks. As you can see, the ones I am wearing today have fuzzy polar bears on. Disapproving dog does not understand why we are awake at 6am nor why I am taking pictures of her next to my feet.

I leave the house while still half-asleep and stumble to the train station. I split my time between freelancing and teaching printmaking at a local University – this morning I am in teaching a class called ‘introduction to monoprint’ so I have to catch a train to work and hope that there aren’t leaves on the track causing unforeseen delays (who knew leaves could cause so much chaos?).

After a delightful commute where I sit next to someone eating a tuna sandwich for breakfast (why?) I arrive at work and set up for my class while trying not to get ink on my new jumper (which inevitably happens anyway).

Part of my class this morning involves showing students how to make registration sheets for their monoprints. I use this opportunity as an excuse to draw dogs while my students look on pityingly at the crazy dog lady before them.

After my class I go down to my office to start preparing for a print fair we will be attending with our students in a few weeks. When I get down there, my colleague shows me these amazing rosettes that a member of the Fashion Department has made for our students to wear at their print fair! They are snazzy and I want to steal one (but I resist, because I am a good egg).

After I leave work, I head home and start working on some sketches! Today i’m working on my illustration for The Pretty Picture Club, an international illustration studio/collective that i’m part of. As well as our normal freelance work each month we set a theme and a limited colour palette, then we all produce an illustration around the theme. This month’s theme is ‘creature comforts’. You can check out what we do at www.prettypicture.club

I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening working at my desk in my spare room. After i’ve come up with my initial idea for this month’s Pretty Picture Club theme, I work into it using my iPad and Procreate. I’ve only just switched over from a Cintiq to an iPad and i’m still getting used to it, but so far i’m really enjoying the freedom that it gives me (and by ‘freedom’ I really mean that I can be lazy and draw from the comfort of my sofa)

Beanz Meanz Heinz! My partner is working late tonight so I cook myself a hearty meal of beans on toast. My friend and fellow Pretty Picture Club member, Nicole Cmar is from Pittsburgh where Heinz is from so I took this picture in her honour. (She also makes awesome illustrations, you can check her work out at http://www.nicolecmar.com/)

After eating far too much dinner, I drag myself upstairs and start packing up all my work for an art fair i’m selling at this weekend. This is one of those jobs that I hate doing but alas, I am a one-man-band and therefore sometimes you have to be willing to play the triangle.

Once i’ve packed everything up for the fair, I spend the rest of my evening lounging in front of the fire with my dogs. I inevitably fall asleep on the sofa and wake up confused and disheveled when my partner gets home. Being an illustrator is very hard work but someone’s got to do it.

A huge thanks to Megan for her time. And there was a dog photo! Make sure to check out her site and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Welcome to Thunder Chunky Steve. You use colours and characters so well and you’re always hitting such a high quality consistency with your illustrations. Have you found that you are always striving to better the last project in your work?

Thanks, that’s very flattering as I tend to see a thousand and one faults when I look at my own work. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve been doing illustration as a full-time career. I can see my work has improved just by doing a lot of it… but also by having relatable imagery as apposed to the more psychedelic imagery I started out drawing.

Lights, camera, action, presenting… Steve Scott.

What led to the voice you use? Did you have particular influences when you were growing up?

Again I still feel like I’m developing… so I’m an omnivoracious consumer of imagery!

A few years ago I was a bit stuck with illustration, trying to work out how to make a living at it. I was making a reasonably successful career as an animation director but I wanted to move into illustration.

I got some really good advice from Charlie Sells from Jelly, my agency in the UK. She talked about relatablity and accessibility and it really helped kickstart a proper career in illustration. It made me think more about how does this image relate to the viewer and what can they get out of it. In terms of relatability it’s the old ‘extra-ordinary from the ordinary’ idea. I’ve never formally studied illustration so this may seem obvious but it’s been really helpful to me and changes how I look at the world around me.

In terms of influences growing up, I grew up on Tintin comics… I was passed my uncle’s collection of 60s hardback Tintin comics and fell in love with the storytelling and style. It’s still something I look at. It’s had a big impact in terms of character design and colour choices. The super-flatness of it is very ingrained.

I also really loved psychedelic design… so illustrators like Martin Sharp, Tadanori Yokoo, Heinz Edelmann’s designs for the yellow submarine. In the last 10 years or so I would say Yves Chaland’s work and that whole school of Atom Style that was around in the 80s has had a big impact. Ever Meulen’s approach to imagery is so inspiring and always makes me want to shake up my approach to composition. In terms of colour; the ever present Charlie Harper, Chris Ware & Frank Newbould are people I’m still learning from. More recently I’ve been looking at lots of Ukiyo-e and Shin Hanga work.

Steve uses colour so well.

Did you always want to be an illustrator?

Nope! When I was a kid I wanted to write James Bond novels, later it was to become a comic artist. In my 20s I wanted to make music and then I accidentally fell into animation while making a music video for my band. But illustration was always there as just something I did but seemed impossible to think of as a career until the last decade.

You seem to do most of your work for editorial – was that a conscious choice or just where you naturally progressed to?

The last year has seen a lot of work for editorial but more by accident than design.

I also do a fair bit of commercial work or otherwise I couldn’t do this full-time. I find that, apart from the U.S., editorial work is pretty badly paid… so I’m a bit choosy about taking on this type of work.

Storytelling at its finest.

I know you are agented and I know it’s always the holy grail for illustrators. Did you get agented quite early on in your career or did you have to find a consistent look before being signed up?

I feel really lucky to have great agents. It’s been great for advice and help.

I didn’t get signed up early in my career. There was at least 12-15 years of doing jobs in various creative industries before an agent got interested in my work. Also the fact that I moved from Sydney to London really helped me. My style has changed a lot over the years and I hope will continue to do so. When Jelly signed me up I was drawing giant psychedelic heads and now I’m in a totally different space and style. Luckily they stuck with me! I don’t know if there’s a rigid approach to having a creative career. For me it’s about feeling my way through this, responding to what life is throwing at me.

Do you find yourself creating personas for your scenes so they’re styled more naturally?

It probably has a bit to do with my love of comics and working in animation. So you want to have a bit of a story in the imagery to help the eye navigate. Also I want the images to have some sort of emotion or humour. It’s not in every image but it’s something I think about.

The storytelling and detail really keep you exploring Steve’s work.

What influences the colour choices in your work?

Colour is a constant struggle with me. I probably should stick to the same colour palette and have a ‘brand’ identity. However when I colour an image I’m usually thinking how can I create the right mood for this particular piece. So this means each image I start from the ground up. It’s probably not the best approach. I also grew up on lots of psychedelic art so I tend to go for punchy choices. At the moment I want to add more of a sense of light so I’m looking at a lot of photography. The work of Henri Riviere and Kawase Hasui have been really inspiring and I would love to bring more of sense of atmosphere and mood that these works have.

Your work for Racing Post is beautiful and shows how well you fill a scene and for it to work – was this a challenge for you?

Oh sheesh, thank you, yes that was a hard one to pull off. I’m not sure I entirely got that one right though. I now have a better idea of how I would construct a crowd scene. It’s about shaping a crowd into clusters and shapes that let your eye navigate the image. With the main image I wanted the eye to be drawn to the man on the chair. So you use shapes of bodies, legs and poses to point towards him… hopefully.

Steve’s process with The Racing Post illustration

Steve’s process with The Racing Post illustration

And the final image

How did you go about planning such an ambitious set of illustrations?

Hmm… it all starts with lots of scribbling that gradually over a few rounds tightens up. So a lot is gut feeling and a hell of a lot of revisions.

You’ve also done a lot of illustrations that combine different scenes into one large setting – again was that something you used to solve an idea or something requested?

I think this came out of my love of Ever Meulen. He uses the pictorial image in such an interesting way. He’s not trying to draw a realistic scene but seeing the drawing as lines on paper. If you see the image like this then shapes can start to interact in fascinating and unexpected ways. I started out trying something like that as an experiment and for some reason this got some nice reactions from clients and has led to more of this work. I guess the thing to learn is that if you want clients to hire you to draw ‘x’ you better be drawing ‘x’…

Great conceptual ideas mixed with brilliant character design.

Is there an area you’ve not worked in yet that you would like to? Any illustrator goals?

Probably it would be to do some illustrated books. The idea of developing something over a book length is very appealing. I’ve got a few ideas kicking around but I need to see if they have legs.

You seem to be very busy most of the time. I know recently you had to work whilst battling the flu – I know its not always possible but how important is it to try and take the time to relax and recharge – how do you like to unwind after a busy illustrative day?

This is a trick I would love to learn! I know I’m very eager to take a break and try out some new things. I managed to grab a week just before Christmas but it wasn’t enough. The plan this year is to turn a few things down and try and get more time to develop and think about what I’m doing. I love being an illustrator but naturally clients tend to give you work based on your portfolio. If you want to try something new you really need to give yourself the time to do it.

Lastly, what’s the one thing everyone should do today?

Dance around the living room to ‘Try to Understand’ by Lulu.

A big thanks to Steve for his time. Check out more of his work on his site and you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

And that’s it, that’s our collection of inspiring artwork to raise a smile at the end of 2017. Thanks for reading TC this year! If you liked this feature, please consider sharing it on your social networks – it’s pretty much the only way we grow the site. High-five!

Welcome to Thunder Chunky Tommy. During my research I noticed your earlier work was a bit different from now, which seems to be a common journey for most illustrators. How long did it take you to find your feet?

When I started out, I was just doing my own thing at my own pace and didn’t have a regular workload coming in. This was perfect for finding my voice as an illustrator and was a great starting point as I wasn’t happy with how my work looked when I left education.

As I steadily got more paid work, I found the quick turnaround times and briefs would also shape my style as I couldn’t afford to be fucking about with different methods. So the less I thought about how it looked, and whether this was going to be my style, comparing it to other illustrator’s work (which is a dangerous path to go down, by the way), the more natural the work turned out. It was odd but fulfilling.

I’d say this journey started at the end of my time at Plymouth University (2014) and is still an ongoing one. I’ll very quickly get bored of doing similar sort of angles and like to shake it up a bit. At the moment I’m trying to brush up on my perspectives and colour palettes after a sloppy couple of years. The clients may not like some routes you take but I think it’s important to try it and see.

Some of Tommy’s earlier work.

Did going to uni guide you on your illustrative voice – to stick to one or to use many? Was uni essential for your career as it is now?

I tried multiple directions when I was at university. Warping the proportions of characters and angles, limited colour palettes, different mark making techniques, terrible children’s books, even worse apps. I tried the lot.

Obviously this made for a very diverse portfolio when I left Plymouth which some clients didn’t like but, in hindsight, I’m glad I did it. I found out what I enjoyed to do and that’s what I’m all about.

The tutors are also there to help pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, with their wealth of experience and knowledge. But at the end of the day, it’s up to you what you take onboard.

I wouldn’t say it’s essential to go to further education (it costs a bomb after all) but it gave me a solid three years of discovering what I liked in the world of illustration, and what I didn’t.

Gorgeous mix of shapes and colours in Tommy’s compositions

You say it’s not essential but have you seen that people who study illustration seem to have any advantages over people who sidestep into the industry from another discipline?

I wouldn’t say everyone who receives further education necessarily always has an advantage. I know many illustrators who haven’t gone to university and have gone on to be very successful which goes to show you don’t need a degree. Saying that, I think the main reason to go is to spend a lot of time discovering what you want to do. It’s great for people who are unsure where they want to take their work and having three straight years of self discovery can really help.

If you don’t go to university, I imagine there’s a lot to juggle around if you need to work a full time job but still find the time to enjoy life and progress your illustration career. University just offers focus and guidance that some may struggle to find outside of education.

I think sidestepping into illustration from a different industry can be done very well but you just have to be careful. You’re going to lack the experience other illustrators have and may be unaware of how the industry works. This could lead to terrible scenarios of undercutting the market and devaluing the industry as a whole.

Conceptual fun is commonplace in Tommy’s work.

Speaking of devaluing, I have seen a lot of issues with underpaid or free work being a bigger issue than usual at the moment. Do you have any experience with this?

I think the underpayment / free work issue stems from various routes.

Firstly, it’s students, graduates and new kids on the block not necessarily knowing the correct rate to charge. I have to admit, I sometimes struggle, which is why I let my representative, Luke, handle that side of things. I think it should be talked about more openly and illustrators need to be aware of resources and organisations such as the AOI and SOI that can help with the pricing aspect of the industry, either over the phone or email.

Secondly, I think it’s also big brands taking advantage of their popularity and paying illustrator’s in exposure rather than hard-earned cash. Exposure won’t pay the bills. Ever. There is a sense of achievement being approached by a big brand for a job but having you work for free is just wrong. Imagine if Coca-Cola asked a plumber to fix their boiler but they’d pay them in ‘exposure’. Phoning the AOI would be my first point of contact and see what they recommend as a course of action.

I think there are only a handful of circumstances you should work for free… charity work, for something you truly want to do (it’s your choice at the end of the day), and your own projects..

From personal experience, I’ve only done a couple jobs that have been underpaid and free.

My first one was for Onnset Records where I charged a very low fee and involved making four vinyl covers. I knew it was terrible pay at the time but I still wanted to do it. I mean, how often do you get to work on a niche market like vinyls? My second one was creating a piece for Brothers and Sisters, a small local exhibition where half of the sales went to ACLU. They gave me free reign on what I wanted to draw celebrating love, equality and hope. Both of these jobs were fun opportunities and I’m glad I did them. I was aware of what I was and wasn’t getting but it was my choice to do them.

Using simplicity to convey a scene perfectly.

I think a really good thing would be to try and get to illustration talks and workshops perhaps. Feed the knowledge that way, what do you think?

Talks are great – especially from organisations like the AOI and the House of Illustration – but two things will always get in the way.

Firstly, they aren’t tailored to your personal needs. They’ll generally be quite broad to cover the needs of the many and so you’re receiving a diluted version of the guidance you want.

Secondly, unless you live in London, talks are very limited. Illustration isn’t a common profession so there’s a lack of consistent events to go to. To my knowledge, the AOI has only ever done one talk in Bristol, which isn’t a lot when you consider how many creatives there are here – both student and professional.

Tommy calculated what it took to be a successful illustrator.

Do you find the illustration community offers support or help to each other? Is that a way to get experience you may have missed from uni/college?

I wouldn’t say I missed out on it. Whether you go to university or not, you’re still part of the illustration community. You definitely get a lot more support from university as you have tutors and fellow students in the same room as you – not just some random person from Twitter.

Saying that, the illustration community is a good one – both in the digital and physical realm – even if you don’t go to college or art school. It doesn’t come with the pretentious snobbiness you often find from the design community. Everyone is there to help, offer their advice and share their experiences.

Tommy’s fantastic illustrative journey.

So after you left uni how did you find the transition into actual work? Did you go straight into it or did you have to juggle with a part time job?

I spent about a month being unemployed and managed to scrape my way into a junior design role at a ‘customer engagement agency’ (a stupid, buzz-word way of saying ‘marketing agency’) by applying for a junior art director role. I didn’t mind it – I did it for a year before moving to Atomic Smash to be their designer for a couple of years. I started off doing the odd illustration commission a month whilst I working at these jobs and then it just started to snowball from about May 2016, when I started working with Synergy.

I’m actually pretty fresh to the illustration-only work life (full-time since the end of June) and it’s great. When I was working at Atomic Smash, I would wake up at 5:30, do some freelance illustration stuff for a couple hours, do a 9-5 day, and then cycle home to do more drawing. Some days were easier than others and I can’t say I recommend it unless you have a partner who is supportive (luckily my girlfriend was) and a positive mentality. It can get horribly busy and stressful!

So much choice of good work.

You mentioned your work snowballed when you signed up to Synergy – bringing up the the age old argument about the advantages of having an agent. Did they approach you or you them? Do you have any agent advice that could help others get signed up?

They approached me which was strange, if I’m honest (I think it was via Instagram since I followed their profile). Obviously I’m glad they did but I can’t say I was actively looking for representation. We just got talking, did a 3 month trial to see how things went and the relationship just carried on.

I think researching agencies is important. You don’t want to be bothering a children’s book agent with the prospects of looking for editorial work. Also, taking a look at their existing illustrators will give you an idea if you’ll fit. You don’t want to be mimicking anyone’s style but you also want to feel part of the family.

Watch out for the bad agencies out there as well. There are many that will take advantage of artists and are clearly only in it for the money.

Thankfully, Synergy care about their illustrators and they’re great people to work with and I can honestly say I haven’t had any issues with them. Luke is a great guy and it’s nice catching up with him every few months to just chat over a coffee. And also hearing his email count soar (the guy gets like 70 emails an hour, no exaggeration!).

Making the point in a clever and thought provoking way.

For the most part your work is of a conceptual nature. Is that your preferred way of solving an illustration brief?

I really like the conceptual briefs because I love the problem-solving aspect of it. Coming up with a visual solution to a client’s brief can be seriously challenging but that’s what makes it rewarding.

Drawing general scenes can be fun but I can’t say illustrating backgrounds is a strength of mine (another thing I’m trying to get better at) and can sometimes lack the appeal that the more metaphorical briefs have.

Tommy’s path to getting an agent wasn’t as tough.

Your work has a lovely blend of humour, ideas and current affairs. Do you find the brief guides these topics in your work or do you actively try to work them in?

Each project is different and depending on the subject and article, I’ll try and make it fit the needs of the brief. But most of the time, it’ll be a light-hearted approach.

I’m not great at doing things too seriously – I guess that comes down to my own personality. I just want people to have a bit more fun in their lives so if I can influence that even a little bit, I’m happy.

Do you do many personal projects on important issues to you and if you could have a dream brief given to you – what would it be? Where would you like to go with your illustration?

Not yet. I was thinking about doing something to do with climate change – perhaps an infographic. Since the Trump administration has come in and fucked the environmental policies, I think it needs more awareness than ever.

I’ve also been thinking about doing some minimal animations (more GIFs than animated shorts) to add a bit more charisma to my work.

Fantastic use of colour.

Lastly – whats the one thing people should do today?

Talk to other illustrators. Ask for help and critiques, grab a pint. There’s a whole illustration community out there, and most of them are nice people, where they work in solitude in front of computers so it’s good for everyone to communicate in some manner and learn from each other.

I really am so grateful for Tommy to spend his time answering my questions and had a nice email chat with him over all this stuff. He can be found on his website or check his awesome work out on Twitter and Instagram and via his agents website.

Hey Rex, welcome to Thunder Chunky. How do we find you today?

Hello. Yep, I’m right here, slumped over the Cintiq, with some cats sitting on my shoulders.

Rex’s artistic rendering of himself?

What does a usual day-in-the-life of Rex consist of?

I’m trying to have a pretty simple life at the moment, concentrating on one, relatively small, personal project and trying make sure my hands-on art and design skills weren’t drying up. So my days are spent crafting a video game from my kitchen-table as my cats hover around me and give me feedback. I’m one of those freaks-of-nature called “A Morning Person” so I get up very early, have a walk around East London. This lets me get the wind in my hair, some rain on my glasses and some smog in my lungs, and then I come home and launch into game making.

The real Rex.

The game I’m currently creating, Knights And Bikes, is a collaboration between me and my friend Moo Yu, so we chat a bit over Slack as the day processes, but mostly I’m lost in my own world, painting the environments, animating the characters, designing the gameplay and levels or working on the overall theme and presentation of the game. Basically, there’s a lot to do! But I have a rule that I have to have at least 2 walks a day, so I’ll usually go on another urban sojourn at lunchtime, to take a break and hopefully see some surprising things that’ll inspire my afternoon. And then an evening of cramming in as many people, films, music, books and games as I can in the evening, so that I’m topped-up again before the next days starts.

A Knights and Bikes artwork montage

We know you well from your superb creative work within video games. Where did your love of video games begin?

I didn’t have any technology as a young child, although I enjoyed the glimpses of games that I got. We had an educational game in my primary school called “Granny’s Garden” which I swear was the most bastard-hard game ever created, but I really enjoyed playing that with my whole class (the school only had one computer, so we played on it as a giant group). I didn’t want to directly play on the computer, as I was intimidated by all the typing you had to do, but I enjoyed shouting “GO NORTH!” with my classmates, and arguing with the ones shouting “GO SOUTH!”. I guess that made my first experiences with games very communal and social, rather than that more isolated stereotype that games sometimes have.

It also fired my imagination, seeing the way these adventures were depicted visually, even though the technology was quite basic. A particular example that made an impression on me was a game called “Atic Atac” which represented the players wellbeing (i.e. their health-bar) as a juicy roast chicken on a plate. But as enemies hurt your character, the chicken was slowly replaced with a boney carcass.

Roast chicken anyone?

I thought this was amazing. It really showed me how something that could have just been a percentage number, was represented in a way that I felt something about it. I felt actually hungry and weak when my character was low on health, and when my character replenished themselves I could almost taste that chicken! And I guess that’s something I’ve been trying to do ever since: use technology to create lots of little memorable moments of interaction and atmosphere (and with as few visible numbers as possible!).

How did you end up doing arty stuff within the video game industry?

In many ways it was by accident. I hadn’t totally forgotten the impression that early video games had made on me, but after studying Graphic Design in art college, it didn’t seem like there were any links between my qualifications and a job in the games industry. So I got into web design, and started using Flash, initially just for illustration, then for animation, and then I started to learn how to insert bits of code into my animations to control them. In fact, my final year project at college had been my own point-and-click adventure game.

I got inspired by a lot of the Flash pioneers at the time like Joshua Davis (Praystation) James Paterson (Presstube) and Hi-Res!, and made lots of little experimental web experiences and stories, which I guess were a little like tiny indie-games.

These experiments caught the eye of a games developer called Lionhead Studios, run by one of my childhood heroes: Peter Molyneux, creator of the god-game genre and titles like Populous and Theme-Park. And that brought me into the industry, and into an incredible hothouse of creative talent, even if I was just there initially to design their website!

Knights and Bikes looks incredible! Having had such success with Little Big Planet and Tearaway, what made you want to branch out and do an independently crowdfunded game?

Well, to be honest I was a bit tired!

I wanted to have a change in my daily routine, not forever, but I wanted to try a change to get me out of a rut. I’d recently attended a fantastic talk by Peter Chan (Concept Artist on Monsters University, Coraline, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle) which was mostly about his work/life balance, and it was so inspiring to hear how he was creating such fantastic work, but also working from home and having a good pure time doing it.

Big projects can sometime equal intense workloads

And obviously its not like one way or another is the perfect path to a creative life. But it felt like it was worth like trying something a little different, to give me a bit of time to regenerate during the usual post-project blues, which I think are pretty normal to get after pouring all your time and energy into some big long-term projects.

Where do you start when coming up with the visual style for a new game?

For me, it’s a mixture of absorbing what’s around you and stimulating you at the time, along with a lot of experimentation and a good deal of evolution as you and the team develop it. I like to have a strong ethos behind the game, not a visual thing, but a reason for the project to exist, so that it can actually say something. And that ethos can then drive all aspects of the project.

So for Tearaway, as that was the first time any of us had made a handheld game, the thought behind the game was to create a world that would feel like you’re holding it in your hands, and you are peering into this fantasy world that thinks you might be its God.

Tearaway’s innovative ‘God-like’ interaction

The visual style, of it being a world made entirely out of paper, came from that, but it wasn’t the starting point. It might have been a visual gimmick if we’d just decided to just make the game look like it was made of paper, but what was important was that the world would respond to how you were holding it, and touching it with the touchscreen. For those interactions to feel right, the world needed to be very responsive and tactile, and thats where the visual style of paper-craft came from, so the world would react very directly to how you touched it, more like a fragile pop-up book. So it was just as much about how it felt and sounded, as it was about how it looked.

Some of Tearaway’s incredible papercraft environments

How did you go about capturing a specific era in time, in this case the 80s, visually?

Well, for Knights And Bikes I’m trying to achieve slightly different angle on representing the ‘80s. Games tend to paint themselves in broader strokes than film, and most 80’s games are super-80s, dripping in neon unicorns. But unless you’re right in the centre of a major city it takes a long time for contemporary culture to trickle down. It’s not like everyone rushed out to buy a DeLoren on the 1st of January 1980, so we’re representing the period in a slightly more nuanced way, especially as the game is set on an island, slightly cut-off from the mainland UK, and is deeply inspired by the rural Cornish landscape I grew up in.

We may as well let Knight and Bike’s main character explain it for us!

So it’s a combination of personal recollections, the Cornish setting, and visual tricks to depict the world from a “child eye viewpoint”. This will hopefully create a kind of nostalgia, even for younger players that maybe didn’t live through the era, but want to explore another 1980’s setting like they’ve seen in The Goonies or even Stranger Things.

But the secret weapon for creating atmosphere is always going to be audio. It allows so much more depth to be created, and I’m delighted that we’re working again with my favourite audio collaborators: Kenny Young (Head of Audio on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway) and Daniel Pemberton (LittleBigPlanet, and also composer for The Man From Uncle, Steve Jobs, and King Arthur).

This is atmospheric, but imagine it with audio!

When making Tearaway, I really wanted to create quite a dark folklore atmosphere behind the colourful visuals, as the games setting is very rural and unexplored and unknown. And its inhabitants have created their own customs based on the tiny interactions they have had with our “real-world”, much like a cargo-cult. But that atmosphere is very hard to fully communicate in visuals alone, and because its an interactive experience, the player can accidentally (or deliberately!) undermine the atmosphere you are trying to create, by jumping around on everything. But the right musical atmosphere can really bridge the gap, and subtly influence the player to “play along”.

Knights and Bikes has a subtle 80s British small town flavour.

I saw somewhere that you mentioned Mary Blair as an influence. What was it about her work that really appealed to you?

I really love her use of simplification and stylisation, everything is so beautifully and cleverly composed, but its never cold and dry, there’s still an expressiveness in the brushwork and texture of her pieces. So in other words, they are incredibly clever, but also infinitely charming and expressive.

Are there any other artists that you feel have influenced your work over the years?

So many! As a child it was the anarchy of Richard Scary and the spidery linework of Victor Ambrus, which then progressed through Ronald Searle, Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman and Mike Mignola. Along with lots of the classics, from Matisse to Duchamp. Most recently I’ve been getting a lot of my art influences from Twitter, and its my hobby finding inspiring new artists on there. The #VisibleWomen hashtag recently was like the most incredible curated gallery I’ve ever seen!

Your characters, such as Nessa and Demelza, tend to be slightly abstract, but always feel very human. Is there a process to creating them, or do they just spill out of your head?

A bunch of character doodles.

I guess the only process I have is to work a lot in sketchbooks, and try to zone-out and just draw. If I try to draw to a brief it’s usually the worst work (so much for my career as a commercial illustrator!) but if I just get myself in the right mood and then fill up a few pages without thinking about it to much, there’s usually a character or two that are suitable for my needs. The abstraction tends to increase as I warm-up, the first few characters on a page will be at the more conventional end of the scale, but as I work, I’ll start to get bolder and make characters that are more extreme responses to the previous thing I drew. And when I reach the point when I’m just drawing overlapping triangles it’s time to take a break!

Look at Nessa and Demelza run!

As the game has been crowdfunded, do you find this gives you more free reign on the design of the game, or do you feel a need to involve your backers in the process a bit?

It’s an interesting balance, because the crowdfunded backing gives you the freedom to work on a personal project full-time, but in order to get that funding you’ve obviously promised your backers a certain experience. So it wouldn’t really be fair to deviate massively from what you’ve originally promised to them, even though a lot of time (and new ideas) will pass between that initial pitch and the final experience.

So I think its important to create projects that have a strong atmosphere in its visuals, audio and overall tone, so everyone “gets it”. But you’ve got to leave yourself open to adjust the storyline and gameplay to make the best game. It’s probably not a huge insider secret that are lot of making games is making-it-up-as-you-go-along, but with a very clear end goal in mind, and having the flexibility to adjust based on what will improve the game. Because you have to experiment, and iterate on what you are creating, to make the best possible experience.

It definitely never feels like a chore to keep the backers updated, because it gives a bit of extra structure and encouragement to us. We always put out a fresh email and web update at the start of a month, and this helps keep us on track. We don’t have a traditional publisher, so it could be quite easy to slide on, obsessing over some tiny detail in the game that probably no-one would notice. But the need to put out a monthly summary means we’re always making sure we have a good mix of new features or content to tell our backers about. So while I might still obsess over some tiny details, we balance it with some bigger new features as well. So it keeps it development moving forward in a more rounded way.

Just one of Rex and Moo’s recent updates to their backers.

Could you talk us through the process of a sample scene or visual from the game? Does it start in a sketchbook, do you use a graphic tablet etc?

Although I always start in the sketchbook, that’s more of a visual journal where I chat away to myself and work out what I’m trying to make and why, as I find it much easier to externalise all the questions and goals. There’s still loads of drawing, but i’m not necessarily trying to draw the actual scene/character or item, but put myself into the right place to start working digitally.

Rex trying to sketch, with a cat to help.

Once the Mac is turned on, I’ll work up the artwork using a Cintiq and Photoshop. I’ll make simple versions first and save them out as PNGs and import them into Unity (the game making engine we’re using). Once they are in Unity I can compose the individual pieces of artwork together to make scenes.

During this stage I’ll bounce back forth between Photoshop and Unity, layering up the 2D paintings in the 3D scenes, and iterating on the painted elements back in Photoshop to add or remove detail. And while doing this I’ll also be thinking about gameplay and ways the characters would be interacting and navigating through the scene, to create feelings of surprise, drama, or discovery.

Rex creating assets and dropping them in to Unity.

Look at Nessa and Demelza on their bikes!

What helps you stay creative throughout the day? Music? Coffee? Fresh air?

Definitely all of those things, I also like to have spoken word radio on, usually Radio 4, so I learn something during my day. I used to listen to a lot of mix CDs, but in the days of streaming they are a bit harder to find, so maybe some sets on Soundcloud or BoilerRoom.tv.

And if I’m needing a bit of visual stimulation, I’ll often put a movie on in the background, although my lack of foreign-languages really scuppers a lot of my top choices, as subtitles and painting don’t work well together.

And as I was saying earlier, I take lots of walks, so I can absorb a bit more of the world around me. I enjoy walks because of the amount of surprises it gives you. I get frustrated that the digital world is becoming ever more tailored to our own tastes, so all surprises are taken away from us. But as soon as you step outside, you’re hearing music you didn’t choose to listen to, seeing posters for movies and gigs you’ll never see, seeing people you don’t know, hearing languages you don’t speak. Its all far more inspiring than just seeing more of your own personal tastes repeated again.

A doodled on coffee cup.

Do you have a favourite thing that you’ve bought in the last few months?

Currently I’m actually enjoying getting rid of things, more than acquiring new stuff. But hmm, I guess its always going to be a book. I recently got the Steven Universe Art And Origins book, and that’s one of the best “Art Of” books, as it really goes deeper into the process of making the show. So instead of just featuring the visual design, its about the writing process, the inspirations, the team dynamics – all the stuff that makes it the success that it is.

Finally, what’s the one thing everyone should do today?

If you work in a very small team, or even a big one, its good to start the working day with a hug.

And go for a walk and look at some things that are ugly, bad taste, weird, loud, broken and wrong. They’ll probably have more of an interesting influence on you than the tasteful stuff.

A big thanks to Rex for his time and we heartily recommend that you go and check out Knights and Bikes. And go follow Rex on Twitter @rexbox where he shares lots of interesting little updates on the game, amongst other stuff!