Interview with Ciara Chapman

I am motivated by working on projects that excite me and working with people and organisations I enjoy working with. Illustration is definitely more of a lifestyle than a career. I am never without my sketchbook no matter where I am or what I am doing.

I chose to become an illustration designer. I had taken a break from the art world for a few years because I wanted to work in a profession that would help me earn more money however I realised it wasn’t right for me. I was miserable not being able to find time to work on my illustration work and even had a 3 year artist block that was terrifying. It was obvious that I had taken the wrong path and when the opportunity to work in a Fine Art Printmaking workshop came up, I jumped at the chance to right my course again.

I often design emotions and feelings that people and organisations are trying to convey. Sometimes it is to create awareness and other times it’s for a particular event. I love to draw people and animals, expressing emotions but also really developing and conveying the personality of the characters involved in the work.

Be prepared to receive far more rejection than success. If you are serious about your design you have to stick with it. It’s important to look at other designers as forms of inspiration and not to consider them threats. There is enough work to go round and we all have different strengths to offer.

Great designers listen to those around them, great advise comes from the most unlikely of sources. Be confident in your abilities but aware that you can always learn more. Look at other designers at forms of inspiration not threats to you and your own career.

I think the best design often looks so simple that you think ‘I could do that’ but in fact it took great consideration, lots of drafts and a considered eye for the designer to reach that point. I think a great design has certain key elements like colour, function, aesthetic and emotional appeal.

Good design often connects directly with technology and progress. I recently watched Back to the future and could not believe how close the technology and progress that they conceived and designed in that movie could be so close to where we are now in the world. Progress and change feed off things like design. They are so important because design can often break the moulds of function and push things forward.

I’m currently working on a Graphic Novel to explain chronic pain to those that can’t understand it and those experiencing constant pain. To be paid for working on a project like that would be an absolute dream.

My dream project is my Graphic Novel about Chronic Pain. It’s a 3 book series that is challenging my drawing ability and forcing me to improve as well as pulling on all my design and fine art experience. It’s a wonderful project I am endeavouring to find the time to work on, a passion project to explain pain and thank those who have helped me.

I think my secret ingredient is capturing a moment in time and connecting it to the viewer.

My favourite designers are Pascal Campion because of his ability to create worlds that you feel part of, Gabriel Sancho for his ability to express so much by illustrating so little as well as being very humorous, Tim Easley for his style, use of bold colours and thick lines, children’s illustrator Cory Shaw for his characters and spaces as well as his sense of restraint and fashion designer Una Burke for her incredible work with leather, creating bold designs and incredible pieces.

My favourite designs are anything by Pascal Campion, Gabriel Sancho, Tim Easley, children’s illustrator Cory Shaw and fashion designer Una Burke.

I think my greatest design is My Chronic Pain Diary. It has been a lifeline for me as well as a project that has forced me to improve every day and it has given me the confidence to connect with people I wouldn’t have been confident enough to approach in the past. I also had a fear of using colour in my work and mainly worked in black and white before starting My Chronic Pain Diary, now it looks like a rainbow has exploded all over my work which is an enormous step for me. I like to have a little fun in my work too and sometimes use humour to convey my weightier themes.

Focus on the specific aspect of design that you want to work in as a goal and get tunnel vision when it comes to achieving that goal.

I think if I hadn’t become a designer I would probably be a fine art printmaker. In another life if I had a stronger stomach and an endless supply of cash I would have a guinea pig and rabbit sanctuary with donkeys and goats to round things out.

Design for me works for the viewer on a conscious and a subconscious level.

My biggest supporters are my husband and my mother. My mother is my earliest supporter and she helped me work and focus on realising my dream to go to art college and never stopped supporting me since. My husband is a very talented graphic designer and he has supported me in my pursuit of illustration as a career wholeheartedly.

Family support, tunnel vision and a strong sense of who I am and what makes me happy.

The challenges are the same now as they have always been. Making sure work is coming in as well as going out. Technology is an expensive tool for a designer so keeping up to date with your hardware is also vital and costly.

I think there should be an up to date website. Personally I love websites and social media feeds that present final works as they looked as works in project as well as the end result, I think it shows pride in your work. Nothing compares to a printed design though, seeing it on paper makes it real for the designer and client and it shows a different aspect of the finished work.

My next project is my dream project, a Graphic Novel about Chronic Pain. It’s a 3 book series that is full of action, emotion, heartache and possibility.

My ultimate goal is to have a sustainable business and brand that would mean working on projects that I love using technology that I love without needing to worry about a pay cheque.

People expect me to continue to move forward and push myself and my abilities to grow my illustration business into a recognisable brand.

Design pushes function and function leads to a better standard of living all round in society.

I’m especially excited about my Graphic Novel which is titled ‘Amelia’ and looks at Chronic Pain and how it impacts life. People who live in constant pain are superheroes and it’s time to celebrate that fact.

My Chronic Pain Diary gave me the most satisfaction. People contact me all the time about that project, it lead me to work in festivals, art exhibitions, magazine editions and created exposure for me through press articles like the Irish Sun newspaper and Cork’s 96fm radio.

I would like to see more of a connection between fine art and design in the future. I think it pushes boundaries.

To see where design is headed we can look at sci fi movies and tv shows from twenty years ago, it’s a genre that is almost prophetic in its ability to see where the world is headed.

Depending on the project it usually takes me ten days to a month to finalise.

I always start with my sketchbook. Thumbnail sketches and just random thoughts that pop in, things usually snowball from there into a final project.

If it doesn’t feel right on a gut level, it’s not the right project for me.

I think both are true. Design can often prompt technological breakthroughs but the reversal is also true.

Half of my work is physical sketchbook work and the other half is dependant on technology. I would be lost without my MacBook. Photoshop and my Wacom Tablet.

I use a Wacom InkSpace tablet and Photoshop Cs in my work.

Colour and materials are vital for design, they are the difference between good design and great design.

I would like people to ask me about different parts of my process especially the software side

I wish I had done that

My ideal partner would be someone in a creative director role with an interest in business.

I think the festival I worked on last year was a big learning curve. My work was moved from a 2d world into a 3d world so I leaned on a lot of artists around me for help and they had a direct influence on my design.

Agatha Christie has a major influence on my design. Her ability to create whole spaces through her little details are the word version of excellent design.

Work on it every single day whether its a five minute sketch in a notebook or a twelve hour illustration session, it all matters.

Sia, I find her music and videos incredibly inspiring in a design sense. The whole package of her brand works as a design unit.
Agatha Christie to get a sense of her ability to create such vision in her work.
Ed and Lorraine Warren - they are artists and demonologists, their world view is fascinating to me.

I haven’t had a lot of awards or recognition so I’m not sure this question applies to me

Blue, Home, Pizza, Bunnies and the Moleskin notebook range.

Whenever I get bogged down in the details, I look across the room at my rabbits flopped out on their mini rabbit bed and think ‘man, they’ve got life sussed’ it usually takes me out of myself enough to get back to it with a brighter attitude.

I motivate myself by having the physical space around me exactly how I like it before getting started. My home feels a little like Wonderland sometimes and I’m Alice with rabbits hopping around the house, colourful works in progress all over the place and small animal furniture dotted around. I love my work space!

It was very clear from when I was very young that I would work in the Art World. There was never any question about that.

I imagine a thousand years from now the world will either be flourishing because people copped onto global warming or else there will be a new apex predator altogether.

I like to have a bit of fun as an illustrator and don’t take things too seriously. Life is a long time if you do it right and I want to look back at my portfolio and smile.

I am a freelance designer and I work on projects I feel I can bring something to.

Design for me is complex simplicity. The most amazing designs look effortless, all the work goes on behind the scenes, the final result is clear.

I love illustrating emotions, human or animal, communicating something that the viewer looks at and thinks 'I get it'

My favourite design (of mine) is My Chronic Pain Diary. It has been a lifeline for me as well as a project that has forced me to improve every day and it has given me the confidence to connect with people I wouldn’t have been confident enough to approach in the past. I also had a fear of using colour in my work and mainly worked in black and white before starting My Chronic Pain Diary, now it looks like a rainbow has exploded all over my work which is an enormous step for me. I like to have a little fun in my work too and sometimes use humour to convey my weightier themes. My favourite design that isn’t mine is a lot of the design used in the MegaBlok action figure packaging. The whole thing comes together beautifully.

A Harlequin Clown for a theatre company, it was a lot of fun and seeing children pose with it was such a nice bonus.

Fabriano and Daler Rowney sketchbooks with UniPin fine line pens. My MacBook Air and Wacom Inkspace tablet with wonderful Photoshop CS.

I feel most creative in my home studio space that I pretty much live in. I motivate myself by having the physical space around me exactly how I like it before getting started. My home feels a little like Wonderland sometimes and I’m Alice with rabbits hopping around the house, colourful works in progress all over the place and small animal furniture dotted around. I love my work space!

I often get a little bogged down when it comes to colour, it's such an important element of the final piece that I agonise over the colour selection.

EVERYTHING!!! often design emotions and feelings that people and organisations are trying to convey. Sometimes it is to create awareness and other times it’s for a particular event. I love to draw people and animals, expressing emotions but also really developing and conveying the personality of the characters involved in the work.

The designer is proud of it and the viewer understands it without explanation

Gut reaction. I think the best design often looks so simple that you think ‘I could do that’ but in fact it took great consideration, lots of drafts and a considered eye for the designer to reach that point. I think a great design has certain key elements like colour, function, aesthetic and emotional appeal.

Always push forward, look at what other designers are doing, not in a competitive way - as a means of drawing inspiration.

Function and aesthetics are really merging. The lines between different design fields are blurring, instead of using one designer from one background for a project, organisations are using a variety of designers to realise a concept.
To see where design is headed we can look at sci fi movies and tv shows from twenty years ago, it’s a genre that is almost prophetic in its ability to see where the world is headed.

My most recent exhibition is currently running. It's an artistic cafe in Cork city, the light is so bright and inviting- it compliments my work beautifully.

My sources of inspiration are primarily emotions and stories. I like to illustrate a story whether it's on one page or a full storybook. Designers that influence and inspire me are Pascal Campion, Gabriel Sancho, Tim Easley, children’s illustrator Cory Shaw and fashion designer Una Burke.

I've heard my work described in the past as 'Irish Manga' and I think it's pretty spot on. I like to draw from Irish symbolism/traditional style and the clean communicative art of Manga/Anime.

I live in Ireland and without realising it, I feel I draw massively from the culture of Ireland. The pros are it's a rich colourful country full of amazing design old and new, the cons are there are very very very few opportunities for illustrators and designers living outside of Dublin.

I usually work with one person instead of receiving information from multiple people, that way an illustrated horse avoids becoming an illustrated camel.

Select one point person to communicate with designers, someone who knows what they are talking about, I can't tell you how many times I have been promised something by a company rep who didn't know what they were promising, they lacked the information required.

I start with a sketchbook and do the outline of my illustration. I take a photo on my phone, email it to myself and open it in photoshop. Then either using the mouse or my Wacom Inkspace tablet I clean up the drawing, add colour and or textures/pattern layers.

Rabbits - I stare at them all day. Incredible looking creaturesDay bed - function and design.Wheelchair - very compact, nice colour, folds up neatlyWacom tablet and accessories - amazing design and functionRecliner chair - fabric design, function, assembly.

I'm housebound as a result of an accident so I spend a lot of my day managing my pain, I usually start my work in the early afternoon and keep going until midnight. It's a wonderful distraction. I motivate myself by having the physical space around me exactly how I like it before getting started. My home feels a little like Wonderland sometimes and I’m Alice with rabbits hopping around the house, colourful works in progress all over the place and small animal furniture dotted around. I love my work space!

Be prepared to receive far more rejection than success. If you are serious about your design you have to stick with it. It’s important to look at other designers as forms of inspiration and not to consider them threats. There is enough work to go round and we all have different strengths to offer.

The positives are you can let your creativity flow, completely let go and immerse yourself in your work and have a design at the end to look at and say 'this is what I did today'.Negatives - very competitive, very subjective work, difficult to get contracts all year.

If it takes longer than one sentence to explain then it's time to start over.

Adaptability, ability to accept constructive criticism, passion for your work.

Half of my work is physical sketchbook work and the other half is dependant on technology. I would be lost without my MacBook. Photoshop and my Wacom Tablet.

I am in a unique situation in that I am mostly housebound as a result of an accident so I spend most of my time on my work as a way to keep my mind busy. I can focus on my illustrations instead of focusing on my pain problems.

It completely depends on the project, typically it's ten days to a month.

What is your process?

Creating a 3d space for Ireland's biggest music festival in 2018. It was difficult because I had to use proxy's in my place for everything within the festival itself because I couldn't travel. Trusting others with your passion project is such a difficult thing to do.

Most of my clients are private individuals.
Public clients are:
Irish in France
Mill theatre Dundrum
Cork International Poetry Festival

Personal projects - getting to do anything you feel like and answering to nobody.

I am on the hunt for funding for a chronic pain themed Graphic Novel. If I am successful I hope to start in June this year. It’s a 3 book series that is full of action, emotion, heartache and possibility. This project is challenging my drawing ability and forcing me to improve as well as pulling on all my design and fine art experience. It’s a wonderful project I am endeavouring to find the time to work on, a passion project to explain pain and thank those who have helped me.

All my work is by myself.

I recently applied for funding to create a Graphic Novel. If I am successful I hope to start in June this year. It’s a 3 book series that is full of action, emotion, heartache and possibility. This project is challenging my drawing ability and forcing me to improve as well as pulling on all my design and fine art experience. It’s a wonderful project I am endeavouring to find the time to work on, a passion project to explain pain and thank those who have helped me.

My websites www.ciarachapmanillustration.com or www.mychronicpaindiary.comAll my work in progress is available on Instagram @mychronicpaindiary

My biggest supporters are my husband and my mother. My mother is my earliest supporter and she helped me work and focus on realising my dream to go to art college and never stopped supporting me since. My husband is a very talented graphic designer and he has supported me in my pursuit of illustration as a career wholeheartedly. I feel like I should take any and every opportunity I have to thank them for everything they have done for me and my career.