In Conversation with Naomi Skinner

We got to chat with Naomi Skinner about her artistic process, beginnings, dream briefs and more. Naomi has an incredible knack for capturing urban spaces, and finds her home of Bristol a constant source of inspiration.

“I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Naomi over the past year, In fact, we both recently had our Bright 1st birthdays!

We were only speaking the other day about how the year has been. What projects and clients have been like to work on and with. How in that short space of time Naomi’s experience and style has evolved, grown and developed. We concluded it had been a good first year, with excitement for publications to come and looking forward to more super projects with existing and new clients as her folio grows.

Working and communicating with Naomi has been easy, efficient, reliably effective and enjoyable. I’m looking forward to seeing how our latest development piece works out!” - Naomi’s agent, Anthony Hannant.

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Talk us through your creative process. How do you approach a brief?

So once I receive a brief I like to take my time to understand it and play with loads of ideas before committing to the final one. I read, reread and reread the brief, making lots of notes, then get a coffee and get set up with my sketchbook and favourite pens together with my laptop to research, research, and research some more all the while sketching, doodling, playing with ideas, and working through the ideas. Then, when I feel like I’ve arrived at something I like, I create a rough - usually in black and white - as well thinking about which colours would fit the feel and mood of the brief. The ideas will still be developing as I create the illustration and will sometimes change and evolve before submitting for review. Once the client is happy I will finally work up the approved rough to its final piece.

Your work is aesthetically unique to you, how do you approach translating your ideas to the page?

I love to doodle in my sketchbook and rework things a lot, I adore using colour and usually try to work to a palette that i’ve designed to fit the theme, I love anything quirky and like to always bring an element of fun to my work. I love freehand drawing and also using my Macbook, my wacom tablet and photoshop. I start with outlines and then try and bring elements of colour and texture to build the scene and then bring in atmosphere using light and shadows. I usually build up my images using different layers, I can sometimes end up with about 50 layers on detailed illustrations.

Who/What have been your key influences as an illustrator?

My daughters are always a fantastic inspiration and make for great models, when i’m trying to create characters, as does my crazy puppy Luna. My husband has also been incredibly influential, he has a great eye for design, and can really help with tweaking my ideas and giving a different perspective (which is sometimes super helpful and other times not so tee hee!) I love to look at my surroundings when out in nature walking Luna (and the girls ha!) I have always been inspired by travel and buildings and amazing cities and craft shops and trinkets, I love to look at all the colours and textures and take in the atmosphere. Bristol is an incredible source of inspiration and creativity and I feel really lucky to live here. I’m also inspired by food (drawing and eating!).

How did you begin illustration?

I have always loved drawing and anything creative and was constantly doodling as a youngster, I have also recently realised (took a while!) that I am a visual learner which helps and means I need to draw things to really understand them. I did an Art and Design GCSE at school, then went on to do a B-Tec in Art and design, one of the projects was creating an illustrated menu which I loved and so a teacher suggested Illustration (I hadn’t really thought about illustration but realised that this is what I wanted to do) so I found a university that had a great reputation for Illustration and luckily got a place on a Degree course in illustration at Loughborough University , it was 3 years of hard work and great times and a lot of learning and mistakes but it had ignited my passion to become an Illustrator. The real learning of course began after the degree when trying to get work in the real world.

What’s your favourite part of the illustration process?

I love it all, but it’s when I’ve got the idea and I’ve brought it to life in a rough and I’m just about to start on the final, then I find a favourite podcast and get lost in creating and drawing, I also like that sometimes something different comes out that’s better than I imagined, (sometimes worse things can come out too) I also love when it’s finished and the client is happy with the illustration and when i’m able to look back at a project and think ooh that is actually quite good! Especially when you see it in context in a book or magazine.

To an up-and-coming artist, what’s one piece of advice you would give?

Practice, practice, practice, keep a sketchbook with you doodle, draw, challenge yourself and don’t give up. Show people your work and get used to some people not liking it and hopefully lots of people loving it. Also try and get involved in local creative groups and meetups, go to gallery showings, get out and be inspired. Enter competitions, set yourself briefs and just go for it.

What is your dream brief?

I’d love to create a travel book, but I would have to travel to the places to do my research! I really like the idea of going off adventuring with my family and creating a book, illustrating all the adventures and creating a kids book with my daughters as the main characters. I’d love it to then become an animated series. I’d also love to do something like the artist for the Great British Bake Off where you get to draw all the baked goods, and I’d hope to eat them all too! I would also love a greetings card and stationary and homewares range if that’s not too greedy!. I just love illustrating and really any brief that comes my way.

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