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Title : Meet the Illustrator: Anna Wilson
link : Meet the Illustrator: Anna Wilson
Meet the Illustrator: Anna Wilson
Anna Wilson, illustrator, Edinburgh, UK
Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Atmospheric, carefully coloured and observed,
What items are an essential part of your creative space?
A sketchbook, lots of ink, gouache, ink, crayons, markers, acrylic paint, watercolour and old brushes. Paper too. And a scanner.
Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
I love mixing everything together. Sometimes I think I should master a particular medium, but I just really enjoy playing with everything I can find in front of me - often searching for a colour, rather than a material, and then layering things on top of one another.
I’ve never been very patient, so I like to start with things that cover the paper quickly and then refine it more slowly on top with things that build on whatever I started with.
Name three artists whose work inspires you.
This is a very hard question. And I think I would have a different answer every day I was asked. But…
Growing up in Australia, I loved Mirka Mora. I loved her urban lifestyle and the world she created as a female artist, as well as her wonderful colours. Another Australian artist who inspired me when I was young was Jessie Trail, the printmaker who made incredible etchings of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I loved her observation of this technical process and I have always loved printmaking.
Picturebook artists whose work I love include Laura Carlin, Carson Ellis, Anne Brouillard, M Sasek, Eva Lindstrom, Marine Schneider, Beatrice Alemagne, Sophie Blackall … That's more than three. Sorry.
Which artistic period would you most like to visit and why?
I think I’m going to just say now. I find so much inspiration everywhere and feel so lucky to be making images today. It is not that it is a perfect climate to be an art maker, but I am so inspired by many people around me who are making work despite the challenges.
Name three artists whose work inspires you.
This is a very hard question. And I think I would have a different answer every day I was asked. But…
Growing up in Australia, I loved Mirka Mora. I loved her urban lifestyle and the world she created as a female artist, as well as her wonderful colours. Another Australian artist who inspired me when I was young was Jessie Trail, the printmaker who made incredible etchings of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I loved her observation of this technical process and I have always loved printmaking.
Picturebook artists whose work I love include Laura Carlin, Carson Ellis, Anne Brouillard, M Sasek, Eva Lindstrom, Marine Schneider, Beatrice Alemagne, Sophie Blackall … That's more than three. Sorry.
I think I’m going to just say now. I find so much inspiration everywhere and feel so lucky to be making images today. It is not that it is a perfect climate to be an art maker, but I am so inspired by many people around me who are making work despite the challenges.
I also think it’s more important than ever to share our observations as humans with everyone else in the world. Human hand and touch and eye are such a key part of our shared humanity. I feel the need to celebrate these things right now.
Who or what inspired you to become an illustrator?
The world inspired me. I think I have always loved observing the world - watching it go past a train window, watching the way people cross their legs (or not) under tables, watching colours change in different places and different seasons and watching how the weather affects lives. I can’t help but want to make pictures of these things I observe. I find the world utterly remarkable and want to share what I see.
Share a photo of your creative workspace or part of the area where you work most often. Talk us through it.
I actually don’t have one of these at the moment. I am quite nomadic and have been between homes for the last year and working in very odd spaces. Usually though, I just have a table covered with way too many things. I will share a photo of my last workspace table when I was working on something.
You can always find lots of cups of half-drunk tea, too many colours, and whatever I’m working on, plus my computer often balanced precariously behind it all.
Or, my other workspace and one I treat very carefully, is the world. I get most of my inspiration and ideas from sitting out in the streets or fields or clifftops wherever I am based, drawing the world around me.
What is your favourite part of the illustration process? Talk us through it.
The main painting. I don’t like roughs much (although sometimes they look better than the final work). When I don’t have to do too many roughs and can just jump straight in with colours on the paper I feel happiest and the work comes out best.
I tend to work in lots and lots of layers. First getting shapes down and then building up the colour on top. Here I'm starting to lay the brighter colours on top of the shapes of the animals in the water. On my screen is a zoomed-in part of my rough that had been approved for the publisher.
My desk also nearly always looks this messy. I have no idea how people work with clean desks!
What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?
I think just don’t stop drawing and sharing, drawing and sharing. Draw what you love and draw what interests you, and then draw these things again, and again. And then share it. It doesn’t really matter how you share - whether it’s online or sending postcards or things to people - but I think I have grown so much by making, making, making, but also sharing. Putting things out into the world can be vulnerable, but it is also how connections are made. And then, just don’t stop. Whoever doesn’t stop will get to keep going.
Anna Wilson is an Australian illustrator and designer who has spent most of her life travelling the world. She loves storms and snow and is happiest running in the mountains, drawing in the streets of new cities, or imagining new characters and worlds. She is currently based in Edinburgh.
The Festival of Ice & Snow, written by Angie Cui, is Anna's latest publication.
Anna's website is a delightful excursion into colour and whimsical reflection, and well worth a visit. (There is an online shop you can sign up to, for notifications when it is next open!) You can also find Anna on Instagram or follow her journey through her Substack newsletter.
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