Illustrator Interview:  Featherfin

 Butterfly-Girl-

Can you give us a short presentation of yourself and your art?

My name is Knut, from Norway, and I make things. Slowly.

Making art, videos and music is a hobby of mine, – my kind of relaxation in stressful times. My digital collages are based on what I have at hand at the moment. I usually put everything together digitally, but the creations are usually built up of photographs – old and new, my own paper drawings, paint, paper cut-outs, paper scans, elements I find… all sorts of stuff. A mix of old and new, – a bit dreamy and surreal. My art is not supposed to be life-like.

 What are you working on right now?

“Right now” feels a bit wrong to say, because the artwork I am working on has been laying there untouched for some time, but I think it will be a good one. It’s based on an old photo that I have cut up, of three dancers in a wood-setting. I think this will be a large print in the end.

numbers

What are your favourite tools?

Photoshop, pencils and pens, colour pencils, water colour, scissors, paper, my iPad + my stylus + my Procreate app. Words, poems. For videos, Photoshop and After Effects.

How do you begin / conceptualise a project?

When I was a kid, I could spend hours sitting by the kitchen table, drawing, and I always drew some kind of story. If I drew a man, I always knew more about this guy than what was visible on the paper. Today, it’s similar. I make small stories, and they come alive while I make the artwork. It all usually begins with a photo or a drawing that I start playing around with. I rarely have a strong feeling of where it will end, and the ideas come to me while I work. I sometimes spend days just thinking about the artwork, without actually producing anything, and then suddenly I see where to go. Usually, I find “the meaning” of the artwork after it is finished.

featherfin-poorly-tied-knotsmedfinne

Please tell us about the process of making the EardrumsPop-cover! Is this the way you usually work?

Yes, it’s similar. The cover art is based on a much larger piece that I finished just before I decided to make the cover art myself, so using the elements from the original artwork was an easy decision. 

Who / what are your greatest Visual Inspirations?

Lots of them! I am an illustration nerd, and I often read blogs and books on illustration, so I guess that’s where I find most inspiration. Children’s books and book covers in general are big inspirations. Record covers. I really like the works of Souther Salazar, Lizzy Stewart, Kathleen Lolley, Jon Klassen, Julien Pacaud, Philip Kerk, Julia Guther, Andy Kehoe, Nicola Colton, Holly Chastain, Rebecca Green, Alberto Cerriteno, Dan Burgess, Matthew Lyons, Bjørn Rune Lie, MiraRuido, Eduardo Recife, Jung Eun Park, Oliver Jeffers, Kate Pugsley..

5-6c. Hyperlipidaemia sildenafil dosage.

. and many, many more. Other than that, – nature, light and daily life experiences.

Mouth Island

Is music or other forms of art an inspiration? If so, what do you listen to?

Yes, of course. Art, music, words and creativity is the blood that my body needs to survive
. I listen to lots of different music, mainly indie/indiepop, folk and electronica. Books and poems have also become a huge source of inspiration the later years. I suffer from a chronic illness that in periods drains me from energy, and in these periods, my house is often very quiet, – no music at all. I need music, but I also need silence.

What are your future plans? Any exciting things you are looking forward to?

I don’t plan much, since this is my hobby, and it’s something I do when inspiration hits me. I would love to develop my style, learn more techniques and try out new ideas. It would be great to finish more artworks, more music and more videos, and maybe in a couple of years have an exhibition. For now, I am satisfied with how things are.

 

See more from Featherfin on his Facebook-page: