Dear
Natalie
Growing
up, my life was full of magic
and, as an adult,
I have tried and
tried to reconnect with nature and the
adventures had as a child.
Natalie
Toms is an illustrator.
She grew up, like me, in the middle of the
countryside
and spent her summers at her grandparents house
making
drawings and collecting leaves, feather, seeds
and other natural
pieces along her travels.
As
an artist she works closely with nature and has built a portfolio of
work based upon whimsical creatures
and taking saying and turning
them literal. Her work is inspiring, thoughtful and beautiful.
Now
living in Bristol, Natalie has a new land to explore; taking in the
culture as well as the nature reserves this
new city has to
offer.
Kindly agreeing to give me a few moments of her time, Natalie has answered my questions and given me an
insight into her
artistic lifestyle.
From
reading your bio on Carbonmade, I can see that your childhood sounds
as magical as my own! Do you still believe in magic and if you do,
where do you find it most often?
“I
find magic, although it best describes a supernatural occurrence,
exists most within humanity; our imaginings and how we share our
thoughts and experiences with one another and influence each others
lives positively is the most magical thing we can be a part of. Magic
from my childhood came in at the stories of fantastical worlds and
creatures who inhabit them. A child's imagination has fewer voices of
reason and logic to restrain it from running away with itself. I read
a quote only a few days ago, which went “The creative adult is the
child who has survived.”
I
remember you once told me that you enjoy “taking sayings, phrases,
idioms and making them literal” but when drawing your more
imaginative pieces, i.e. 'lion hearted girl', where do you find the
inspiration?
“When
I'm sitting at home looking for inspiration, I tend to be listening
to music or watching films. Lyrics are often a strong source of
inspiration for me; the more you surround yourself with inspiring
things, the farther your mind wanders. Specifically 'Lion-hearted
Girl' came from a Florence + the Machine song called 'Rabbit Heart'.
It got me thinking about a literal lion-hearted girl and how that
could manifest physically as well as conceptually. There is one thing
I always do before illustrating anything, I make sure to look up the
word(s) or phrase in the dictionary. You'll learn something new about
something by its definition almost every time along with other ways
of spelling or reading into it, which just adds to the creative
tangents you could explore.”
How
would you describe your work space?
“In
my bedroom, which also sort of doubles up as my creative space, the
shelves are full of sketchbooks, reference books, natural ephemera,
patterned fabrics and curios; the walls are covered in fantastical
photographs and illustrations mostly encased in wooden frames and the
furniture is wooden too. Surrounding myself in this world allows me
to wander freely and create from what I see, but also feel at home.
I'm constantly trying to bring the outdoors in!”
Are
there any songs, poems or books which inspire you?
“Music-wise,
I feel my most creative when listening to Patrick Wolf.; he captures
my homeland of Cornwall so intricately and yet effortlessly in his
music and lyrics and I find myself most immersed
when
I hear him sing and play violin. Visual artists such as Arthur
Rackham and Alan Lee are among my favourites, I love to peruse
through old illustrations of natural history and reference books are
among my most common haunts as well.”
What
are you up to in Bristol and where would you like to take your art next?
“Moving
to Bristol has been wonderful for my creative side, I have been able
to explore a very creative city with so many diverse forms of art. I
wanted to develop my portfolio in terms of my own creative input, not
so much by way of increasing my client list (although that wouldn't
be a bad thing either!) Up until fairly recently, I didn't feel as if
my work correlated or connected with itself. Much of my work felt
like stray thoughts or ideas with a style that didn't match. Without
meaning to create the same piece of art over and over, I intended to
bring some consistency to what it is I have to offer, aesthetically
and conceptually. To find the artist I love being most. I plan on
renting a gallery space sometime within the next year, sooner rather
than later in fact, and putting on my first solo exhibition of my
most proud and tightly weaved collection
of artwork to date.”
What
is the dream for you as an artist?
“To
be financially supported just enough so I may continue doing what I
love: creating art. I'm not ambitious enough to want to become world
famous and wealthy, but a modest living within the creative market
would be fantastic. I would like to have my own art café in the
future, a social place where fellow creatives could display their art
and musicians could perform as well. I'm quite idealistic at heart,
can you tell?”
How
would you describe your work?
“Hmm,
that's never a simple task! I'd have to say 'made by hand'. A great
deal of hours go into such small illustrations; I desire to capture
as much detail as possible, give character to my creatures without
taming them. I only ever tweak my work digitally using Photoshop to
either correct a mistake, correct colouring so the scanned image
appears more like its original drawing or to strengthen contrasts and
sharpness. I want the textures within the image appear to be
tangible: ink and paint. For those reasons, even with my fantastical,
fictional subject matter, I think my work could also be described as
'sincere'.”
Lastly,
what advice or tips would you give to anyone wanting to get into
illustration?
“If
you ever drop your creative tool, make sure you're never far away
from picking it back up again. Don't give up! Study your inspirations
and devote time to what it is you do. Unfortunately, I don't find the
creative business very accessible, to start with you may want to try
a couple of unpaid commissions for people you know, artwork for local
projects for example. Keep feeding your portfolio and perhaps even
mock up fake adverts or commissioned illustrations to show future
enquiring clients your potential. If you begin to get a lot of
requests from others asking for designs, particularly designs for
free, resist the temptation of giving in for the commonly promised
payment known as 'exposure'. Exposure isn't an acceptable commodity,
make sure to give your time, effort and artwork value so that others
do also, in no other line of work would this kind of trade be
expected or agreed to. Some people find it encouraging to be part of
a collective, a group of similarly minded artists who can seek out
work and display their designs together, it depends on how you work
best. Just keep doing what you love, stay focussed and committed;
keep your eyes and ears open for inspiration as well as critique and
you shouldn't be steering yourself too far wrong.”
Check out Natalie's work here:
Buy Natalie's work here:
