It’s time for our next Featured Student! For January we are featuring:
Carlianne Tipsey
Website: carliannecreates.com
Instagram: @carliannecreates
Twitter: @carliannecreate
SVS Forum: @CARLIANNE
Below is an awesome Q&A that Kathryn Adebayo (@KATHRYNADEBAYO) conducted with Carlianne:
When it comes to paving a career in illustration, there is no straight path to follow. SVS Learn student, Carlianne Tipsey, is a great inspiration when it comes to someone who made the decision to pursue art as a child and who traveled on a unique journey to make that dream come true.
Hi! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your art?
Hello! My name is Carlianne (to pronounce it just say Carli and then Anne). I am an author/illustrator from San José, California. I've always been fascinated with childhood. When I was eight, I would have told you that age two was the best, and I dreaded becoming a teenager or an adult. Because of that, I think I've always held on to a bit of a childlike personality. I love bubbly cute things. I love making people laugh, and I will try to take any activity and make it fun. I've always loved and have wanted to have kids of my own (even when I still thought boys were gross). Now, I'm incredibly lucky to have a one-year-old and a three-year-old. You will see them often depicted in my art. Since I have a pretty childlike, bubbly personality, I love making art that is colorful, fun and above all, cute. If I had a catch phrase it would be, "I can make anything cute." So even if I'm trying to draw something sad or scary, it'll still end up really cute. For a while, I wondered if I should try harder to be versatile and draw dark or scary stuff, but I realized, to do so, I had to feel dark and scary things. So instead, I decided to lean into the cuteness, and here we are!
Can you remember a story that stands out to you about your process of deciding to become an artist?
When I was nine years old I was really in to coloring books. I remember one afternoon I was coloring while watching the Lion King. I looked up at the movie and thought that the backgrounds were so beautiful that I wanted to learn to color like that one day. I even wrote Disney to ask if they had a job just for coloring. They sent me back a really sweet letter that said the animators usually color the characters, so I should learn to draw really well and sent me a bunch of art schools to look into. So, that is what I did. I learned traditional animation in school as well as illustration and through that realized my passion was illustration.
Could you share with us some of your work that shows the direction you’re headed in illustration?
This piece I created for the Slowvember prompt. I debated for a while what topic or theme meant a lot to me and decided on illustrating this memory of my kids. With toddlers you get very suspicious when there is a quiet moment in your house, but when I went to check on my kids, I found my son reading to my daughter in their closet. Of course I ruined the moment by walking in, but now that I've illustrated it, I can save that moment forever.
For this piece, the prompt was, "She overheard them talking about her”, and although I kept trying to get myself to do a happy piece, every time I read the sentence I remembered the feeling of being bullied in school. Once I decided on the theme of bullying, I wanted it to be clear what she was being bullied for. These two characters are from a book I'm writing now, with two characters that are just… a little bit different than everyone else.
I frequently like to doodle memories of my children in my sketchbook, and sometimes I'll paint them out like this later on. I have a friend who is absolutely bonkers about pugs, and my daughter who loves all dogs in the universe. Painting moments like this helps me capture the memories and feelings of this special time in their lives.
I wanted to include this piece because I did this painting when I was doing a lot of style explorations and trying to figure out what my own personal style is. When I created this piece I felt like I had a sudden "Aha!" moment. And who doesn't love mermaids, stuffed animals and sparkles anyway?
Is art your full-time profession? And how do you find the work that you take on?
Yes it is! I currently work full time for a children’s products company called KiwiCo. I illustrate children’s books, comics, magazine play pages and educational content to go along with a monthly subscription. Before KiwiCo, I worked full-time with Disney Interactive creating 2D concept art, game assets and animation. When I have freelanced, I was somehow able to pull in enough work from friends, family and other contacts. Otherwise I would apply to smaller companies through InDeed or Linkedin. I don’t have an agent yet, so it was all me reaching out and contacting others for work.
As a professional author, illustrator and animator, what is your best advice to someone closer to the beginning of their path as an artist?
From my observation, it is far more important to have passion, perseverance and hard work than any amount of natural talent. To make it as an artist, you have to really want it. You have to keep on going even when you feel like a failure, and you have to put in a lot of quality time to get there. So work hard, try to enjoy the process and keep believing in yourself, even when you have no right to do so. That’s what I think it takes to make it.
As a graduate of San José State with a BFA in animation and illustration, what’s your perspective on receiving a degree in art at a traditional institution vs. pursuing a more self-guided education and stepping into the illustration world without a degree?
I am going to answer this question backwards. I don’t think a degree is vital in this industry. When I have reviewed candidates in the past, I looked at their portfolios first and their resume last. The thing that matters most is if you have the skills for the job. However, I don’t feel that I would have made it without going to a traditional institution. I needed the structure and the assignments to help me focus and the teachers to ask questions to. And then there is the networking. The first job I got out of college (Disney Interactive) was through my teachers and my school. Now that I am established, I feel comfortable furthering my education with classes like SVS Learn. And if someone is motivated and structured enough, I think that is an amazing way to go straight from the beginning. But if you’re not, research the school you’re interested in, look at the portfolios of graduating students, and if they are showing the kind of work that you aspire to create, then that’s where you should go.
Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself and your creations with the world! As icing on the cake, what’s your next goal as an illustrator?
My next goal is to work as an author/illustrator with a traditional publisher. Although I have collaborated on over a dozen books at KiwiCo, I would like to write and illustrate my own stories, in a style that is fully my own. I currently have two book dummies in the works and am getting ready to send out postcards. I’ll be looking for a literary agent and publishers this year!
Thank you so much, Carlianne!
If you would be interested in sharing your work for a chance to be featured for February head over to the SVS Learn Forum and post your best work by January 31st.