FK chats to artist Kat Cameron about her creative label Team Kitten and her wonderful ability to bring happiness and fun to her work!
How would you describe your style of artwork and how has this evolved?
My artwork is based on my inspirations which is pretty wide and varied. I have a love of Japanese kitsch to Scandinavian folk art. I enjoy happy rainbows, sunshine, music and kittens and then on the flip side I enjoy magic, clouds, rain and darkness! These elements feature in my work, but overall I really like to make Happy art!!
What is your background and when did you start illustrating?
I always enjoyed doodling but never realised it was something I could do as a job until I was contacted in the early 2000’s by Total Girl magazine, who saw my images in Yen mag and they wanted me to illustrate the “how embarrassing” column. From there I did their girls diary and then other work started to pop up. I didn’t train professionally in illustration, however I did study Graphic Design and Multimedia and I think that has helped with my designs and layouts.
Who are you favourite artists? and what inspires your work?
From a young age I really enjoyed Australian Fairybook illustrators – like Peg Maltby, Ida Rentoul Outhwait, Pixie O’harris, May Gibbs. Then Mary Blair and Alice and Martin Provensen. When the internet hit I was exposed to Mark Ryden, Junko Mizuno, Miss Van and many others! Wow – they are amazing!!
What materials and mediums do you enjoy working with and exploring? And what other areas would you like to explore or expand into?
I currently enjoy drawing – basic pencil and paper!! I also really enjoy working in Illustrator and creating lovely vector artwork. I would love to do more painting, but on a larger scale, for childrens rooms preferably or large installations.
Describe your workspace and surroundings and what your creative process is.
My creative process usually starts out with drawing. I’ll draw and sketch and draw some more, then when I think I’m onto something, I’ll scan and darken in Photoshop and then bring it into illustrator for some colour. Sometimes I will redraw my whole sketch, I used to do that a lot, but lately I am enjoying keeping the sketchy look. My workspace for drawing is usually the car (I leave a little early on the school run some afternoons, so I can sketch in the car!) or the couch with a movie or TV series on, or bed!
What advice would you give others wanting to follow a similar path?
Keep on practicing and drawing. If you want to pursue a career in art I think you have to put the time and effort into it, which most creative beings do. However these days I feel that it’s not enough to be just amazing, you have to learn some business smarts too.
What kind of clients have you got to work with, and what have been some of your favourite projects?
I have had some great clients but I think my fave job was with an agency in Ireland and it was a Coke campaign. I was asked to design massive billboard posters for ‘The Spring side of Coke‘, and these posters had gorgeous flowers blooming and birds cut out. It was also displayed in bus shelters and they had the sounds of spring playing with birds chirping. It was a great job and easy to work with.
What aspirations do you have for the future and what would be your dream project?
I would love to get my artwork prints into shops and create some more art for products. I am looking into licensing my artwork onto products in stationery and home decor which has been a dream of mine for a long time. Another dream job (I do have a few) would be to have creative freedom to paint a child’s bedroom – it would be full of clouds, rainbows, sunshine and happy characters! 🙂
