Featured Artist: Eirian Chapman

If there's one thing illustrator and designer Eirian Chapman proves, it's that the weirdest ideas are often the best ones. Whether she's illustrating ghostly combs, fashion-forward animals or delightfully eccentric characters, her bold and vibrant artworks are packed with humour and imagination.

Based in Melbourne, Eirian has built a hugely successful career creating work for global brands including Disney, Marvel, Apple and Adobe, showcasing her endless versatility across everything from logo and packaging design to editorial illustration and large-scale murals. Her visual style is equally diverse, moving fluidly from loose and expressive mark-making to tightly controlled geometric forms.

Read on as we chat to Eirian about finding inspiration in the unexpected, navigating the world of commercial illustration, and keeping a sense of play and curiosity at the heart of her work.

Looking back, where do you think your creative journey really began?  Were you always the kid with a pencil in hand, or did art find you later on in life?
The drawing bug bit me early in life. It helped that I had creative parents to encourage me to develop my skill. I was a slow learner and struggled in the early years of school so drawing was really a way to show everyone that I could do something. Did I use it to get attention? Damn right I did!

Your work has such a wonderful sense of whimsy and playfulness. In a world that can often feel heavy, how do you hold onto that sense of joy and wonder in your creative practice?
I’m a naturally positive and curious person so it feels normal to me to draw in this way. I have a broad interest in all levels of life, from the music of Drake to the costumes of King Henry VIII there is so much inspiration to be sourced from such random interests. My aim is to make people laugh out loud when they see my work, but don’t be fooled I like to layer my work with secret messages.

From mythical creatures to shredded fairies and melancholy clowns, your artwork is full of fantastically unexpected characters and scenarios.  What kinds of stories or themes are you most excited to tell right now?
I feel like I always fall back on clothing. I remember as a kid they asked what I wanted to be when I grow up and I said a clown or a fashion designer. Since learning how to sew my own clothes I’m aways trying to find a way to bring clothing and drawing together. I’m also working on a set of tarot cards, I love to research the history and symbolism of old traditions, I’ll only look at books when I research, I can’t seem to get that same excited feeling using the internet.

What's the weirdest thing that's ever inspired you to create an artwork?
On a visit to the De Young museum in San Francisco many moons ago I was inspired by the ancient combs made by Inuit people made from whale bone. The combs were carved in the shape of whale fins and bears in the most beautiful geometric shapes. Once I returned home, I needed a personal project and I decided to illustrate a comb a day. That project became Teeth & Hair and I illustrated around 60 combs with themes like jelly, soy sauce swimmers and ghosts. Each day I put one up on Tumbler (RIP Tumber heyday) and it launched my career.

You've worked with the likes of Disney, Marvel, Apple, Facebook and Thames & Hudson. Surely it doesn't get much better than that… or does it? What collaboration is still on your creative bucket list?
I would love to work with a big fashion house like Comme Des Garcons or Loewe. Maybe NASA might hire me to paint the outside of a spaceship (PS call me I’m available).

Communication and collaboration must be a huge part of working with such an incredible range of brands.  When working on a brief, how do you navigate client feedback that challenges your creative instincts? 
Being a commercial illustrator means that clients and I won’t necessarily like the same things, so being flexible and separating ego from my work is key to staying sane (It’s not personal, its business). I thrive in a collaborative environment and most of the time the work gets better with the clients’ suggestions and input. Very rarely have I had a situation where the job was heading in a direction I felt uncomfortable with. It’s all about a solid brief and honest communication straight up that makes a job both parties can be happy about in the end.

Have you ever been given a brief that felt completely outside your comfort zone? If so, how did you approach it?
Every job I get feels out of my comfort zone! I always learn on the job that’s what makes it so exciting. Every job is different and has its own set of challenges, new clients to get to know, new colours, mood, feeling, budget. Luckily, I have an agent (The Jacky Winter Group) to help me out with any issues I have if I’m really in the deep end, but challenging jobs are always the most fun.

What does your creative process look like, from ideation and first sketches to the finished piece? Does it change depending on whether you're working on a commission, an illustration brief, or a personal project?
I’ve got my process down pat now; I do a mind map and brainstorm first and do the roughest, ugliest doodles in a black gel pen to get those ideas into picture form as soon as possible. From there I do a bunch of thumbnail sketches in pencil refining as I go. I photograph the chosen sketch on my iPad and take it into Procreate to refine the sketch in black and white. I present the client with the sketch(es) and after amends and feedback I take the sketches into Adobe Illustrator to colour. I also transfer back into Procreate to create textures or scan hand painted elements and add those. I love to bounce between programs and handmade elements. 

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment that's fuelling your creativity?
I’m currently listening to these 3 albums on repeat: Nine Inch Noize, Robyn’s Sexistential and Drake’s Iceman (is Janice STFU the hit of the summer/our winter? Yes.)

I’m currently watching the BBC series, Wolf Hall on DVD from the library. Tudor England costumes are giving me life, so much heavy fabric, watching it is inspiring me to draw animals wearing 16th century cod pieces. Noticing little things like the executioner taking his shoes off so that Anne Boleyn can’t hear which side he is going to strike from is brutal (spoiler: she gets her head chopped off).

Are there any habits or rituals that have become an essential part of your creative practice?
Making sure I step away from the desk and move my body is important to get the creativity flowing again. I get my best ideas and clarification from doing yoga or going on a walk.

What's the next creative adventure calling your name? Are there any projects, ideas or goals you're excited to explore?  
I’m aways excited about exploring new mediums and I’ve been playing around with sumi ink which is a Japanese ink used for calligraphy. It’s a fun way to dive into drawing without a plan and seeing what appear on the paper. My commercial work can have lots of layers and refinement, so it is such a thrill (and terrifying) to just dip my brush into water and ink and go with the flow.