Interview with Illustrator, Scarlett Tierney

This week i interviewed Scarlett Tierney, a Bedfordshire based illustrator and co-founder/member of the "Circus of Illustration" team. A group created to promote illustrators based in Bedfordshire. Hello.Firstly,what do you like to do when you need inspiration? I like to get away from the studio and refresh my brain, maybe do something else creative like baking. I don't tend to look at blogs or other's work when I'm not feeling inspired because my ideas after that are often too similar. I get ideas at the most boring or unpredictable times and always when I'm working on other projects so I like to keep busy and not fall into the trap of having no planned work. Do you collect anything? I like to collect vintage tins, man I love tins. I have loads of them all with varying degrees of use. They look like they could be perfect for something... just not sure what. Do you have a favourite fine artist/painter? My favourite painter is the amazing Lucien Freud, I adore his portraits, if you haven't been to the exhibition at the NPG I absolutely recommend it. I also adore Egon Scheile, Alphons Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, Marc Chagall.....all quite figurative artists. Do you have any hobbies on the side, such as playing a musical instrument? I attempt to play the ukulele but I've never been very musical and I'm a bit crap really so I don't like to play of anyone can hear me practice. So if the neighbours are home I won't play. Silly right? What role does modern technology play in your artwork? Are you an Adobe addict? I am a huge advocate for hand drawing, a lot of the skills of hand drawing and painting I feel are being lost with the increased popularity in digital art. I love the depth and textutre of real pencils and paints! I do use a bit of digital magic to tidy up my work or change colourways. I'm not anti digital by any means I just like to get my hands dirty. Who would be your ideal client/company/band to work or collaborate with? I'd like to illustrate for magazines like Vogue, I get very bored of all the photography in those mags. I don't think I have a dream client. I'd like to illustrate a book, not a story book though.. For you what is the least favourite aspect of being an Illustrator/artist? At the moment, not having enough time to actually produce work, so much of my time is taken up with promotional stuff, approaching new clients and agents and just basically trying to sell my work. I don't know if other illustrators feel the same but I sometimes feel like everything I draw needs to be important for something as I have such little time to draw and I don't do it enough for the joy of it anymore. Hopefully that will change the further I move into my career. Your work seems to come from using lovely traditional, tactile materials. How do you feel about artwork that is made completely digitally? I appreciate that it's an artform in itself but I don't feel it has enough soul in it for me. I'm a lover of the good old fashioned pencil. What is your poison of choice? In addition, have you ever over indulged in the name of art? Haha poison? I'm quite fond of a Bailey's. I rarely over indulge, unless it's cake, or cheese, or roast potaoes... ok I quite often over indulge, but in the name of gluttony. Do you play music; listen to the radio whilst working? If you do, what band/radio station do you find yourself listening to the most? I love BBC6 Music, I can't really stand Steve Lamaq though so I'll listen again to the gorgeous Cerys Matthews or the brilliant Craig Charles Funk & Soul show. Anything that is upbeat. Failing that it's The Beatles every time. What project(s) are currently working on? Right this minute I am working on an illustration for The Circus of Illustration for our exhibition in July, it's of a tattooed lady and I'm rather enjoying it! Do you have any projects lined up in the future that you are allowed spill the beans on? Bits & pieces. At the moment I'm concentrating on getting prints of my work done ready to sell and creating a cataloque of products to approach stockists with. Again, not enough drawing! You can find Scarlett's illustrations at: http://scarlettrebecca.co.uk/