EardrumsPop » Kristine Zipfel

Illustrator Interview: Kristine Zipfel

The seventeen-year old illustrator Kristine Zipfel from Norway has made the lovely cover-art for our 19th release, the EP from the Italian band Karibean. This is our illustrator-interview with her.

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

My name is Kristine Zipfel and I’m currently working my way through last year of high school in Norway. Art has always been a big part of me, and I’m mainly self taught. During my exchange year in New Zealand I did Photography and Art Design classes and that really gave me a whole new approach to art and idea development.

How did you get started in the illustration field?

I guess its just always been my hobby, since I was a kid. I feel empty if I haven’t created anything for a while.

What are you working on right now?

Just some personal works. My head is in general filled to the brim with ideas I want to get down on paper, but time is short! I’m also getting used to a new lens I just got for my camera
.

What are your favourite tools?

Watercolour, nice colour pencils, ink and photoshop from time to time.

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

I usually don’t plan my works too much, and kind of just go head-on into it. So I mainly draw on impulse. Sometimes I carry an idea too long in my head and I can have it planned for days or weeks or months before I finally get started, With the cover I first listened to Karibean’s songs and did a brainstorm, a few sketches, jotted my ideas down and sent them to Stefan to see what he thought. Then I got started on the actual cover.

Who / what are your greatest Visual Inspirations?

Shaun Tan, Stacey Rozich… It’s hard to name them all, I get inspired by so many people throughout the day.

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

Oh, definitely! Music might just be my biggest inspiration. If I have to list the band that has the most impact on me, it has to be Mew. I don’t know how I’d be today without them. Other bands that I really enjoy at the moment are Bon Iver, The Middle East, M83, Sufjan Stevens, The Phoenix Foundation, Team Me, The Black Seeds and Bob Marley to name a few.

How did you develop your style? Is it different now than when you started?

I constantly draw inspiration from other artists, music, people, nature, books, documentaries, movies and things that happen around me. My work has definitely changed since I really got into drawing at the age of 11-12. For a while when I actively hanged around on DeviantArt I was very much into fantasy and dragons. Nothing else interested me for a while, luckily that changed
. The later years I’ve been experimenting way more and I’m more confident in my colour choices and my development of ideas has improved a lot. I’m still figuring out my style.

What’s your favorite color?

Red! No.. Blue. Or maybe lime green. Or a nice yellow. I can’t decide!

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

I’m really keen to study photography in New Zealand once I finish school, and to keep on illustrating and drawing as well! I got a lot of dreams for the future, it’s all so exciting to think about.