Kelly Thompson Interview

Interview with Kelly Thompson

Question: What originally inspired you to become an illustrator?

Kelly Thompson: I have always been creatively driven and can't imagine being any other way. From a young age I was always drawing, or making things and performing for family, so I guess it was inevitable that I would end up somewhere in the creative industry. After graduating from University (I did a Bachelor of Design with photographic major), I was working between retail and as a photographer, and in quiet times I started to draw. A flatmate noticed one of my drawings and told me that people would buy them and told me I should have a show. I thought she was crazy, but after a while I ended up having a big stack of images and thought I would give it a go. I had my first show in 2007, should 30 prints (to my extreme excitement), and that was really the nudge I needed to consider it as a job.


Question: What is a typical day like, for you?

Kelly Thompson: It involves a lot of sitting! Each day I go for a walk or a run in the morning, and aim to be at my desk between 9am and 9.30am. I usually spend the first hour or two responding to urgent emails and managing my social media, sometimes this can take a lot longer if I have had a busy couple of weeks, I never manage to empty the inbox! Late morning/early afternoon I start working on whatever project is my most urgent, this usually involves sketching or working in Photoshop. I usually break for lunch at around 2ish, although a lot of the time this does happen at my desk and I usually multitask and do another round of emails. These days I try hard to stop working at around 6.30 as I have been very bad at keeping the life balance, but often I can end up working until 10pm or midnight. I have an Intern now, so I am hoping that sharing the admin side of things with her will mean that I have more time to be active!


Question: What artwork have you recently completed?

Kelly Thompson: Well of course there is the Nintendo work that had me hosting a Masterclass in Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and will soon see me doing a one on one Masterclass with the winner of the Nintendo New Art Academy competition. I have also recently completed "Get The Look" makeup illustrations of Ricki Lee for Covergirl, they were really great to work with! I've been working on quite a few personal commissions for people which is fun, and have also been completing a colab with photographer Derek Henderson, we are creating a limited edition book together which will hopefully be released very soon!


Question: What form of education did you do to contribute to your career?

Kelly Thompson: I did a Bachelor of Design with honours and majored in photography.


Question: Tell us about the Nintendo New Art Academy game?

Kelly Thompson: The New Art Academy game, I wouldn't really call a game! It is fun of course, but it really is a great learning tool for anyone interested in developing their drawing skills and knowledge of art practice.

Question: How do you use the Nintendo New Art Academy game?

Kelly Thompson: You use it just as you would traditional drawing tools, but digitally. You can choose your paper or canvas and choose the colour of it, then choose your medium depending on how you want your image to look. Using the Nintendo stylus as your tool you can then select if you want it to be a paint brush, a pastel, a coloured pencil or a standard pencil, you can then choose colours, mix colours and apply them just like the real thing! The best part is that you can use the 3D camera to photograph inspiration anywhere that you see it, then you can grid it up on your screen and start sketching straight away, or save it for later in your photo library.


Question: Why was it important to education others to use the Nintendo New Art Academy game?

Kelly Thompson: I'm very pro tools that enhance creativity. I think we spend so much time on our cell phones and checking emails while we are out and about and in transit, often it is wasted time, or we do it out of habit or because we are bored. Why don't we instead take this time and learn something, become better artists? It was important to me to educate other people about this because it is such a great way to learn translatable techniques, and because it is so portable any moment of inspiration can be captured no matter where you are.


Question: What advice do you have for up and coming illustrators?

Kelly Thompson: Practice, draw all the time and immerse yourself in it, it is the best way to develop your unique style and give you an eye catching folio, if you are a successful illustrator it has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with motivation. It is also important to market yourself as much as possible; if you have amazing talent and nobody ever gets to see it then it will only ever be for you.


Question: What are you currently working on?

Kelly Thompson: I'm currently working on two commissions for customers and preparing fresh personal works to coincide with my new website launch which is hopefully not far off! I am also working for an International fashion company on their worldwide campaign that launches next year, unfortunately I can't go in to details about that, but it's really exciting and I can't wait to show you! I'm also preparing for three exhibitions one for Melbourne, one for Sydney and one for Auckland that will showcase my new book with Derek Henderson, and prints and original artworks.


' For more information see: www.kellythompson.co.nz and www.nintendo.com.au
Interview by Brooke Hunter

 

 

 

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