Interview with Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple's Website
Dr Sketchy's Anti - Art School


: When did you know, without a doubt that you would make Art your profession?


Well, I decided to go to art school in when I was a high school sophomore, essentially because it gave me free range to deliberately fail all my math classes. Since I was 10 or 11, I had known I was either going to be a visual artist or a writer. Did a high school novel, realized it was dreadful, and, post slumming around Europe, realized I could turn a buck drawing things.




: When did you know you had "made it big time?"


Big time eh? I keep having these points when I think I've made it "big time" and I'm totally set. A day later, the euphoria wears off and I'm back to the grind.




:What inspires you to create the images you draw?


Performer girls with cotton candy hair, iron determination, and blisters hid by swarovski studded heels.






: What do you think the difference's are between Fine Art and Illustration
in relation to your work and from what you've seen in the industry?


Fine art. in the industry sense, is illustration where you have to please one client- the gallery. Fine art calls for people to be much more rigid and repetitive than illustration does. For many people, it becomes the process of creating increasingly polished versions of your best painting until you die.




: You seem to have many things going on at once,
like Dr Stetchy's/Editorials/Exhibitions,

how difficult is it to manage all this and have a social life at the same time?


I love my work, and am lucky enough to have a brilliant assistant, Melissa Dowell, who makes my fever-schemes actually come true. I really cherish my time with my close friends and make it a priority to see them.




: How difficult is it to be an Illustrator in today's current climate?

Editorial illustrators are having a hard go of it because so much print media is dying. While blogs and internet news sources are replacing print media, the speed at which online news is churned out makes it almost impossible for it to be accompanied by loving gouache paintings. I'm lucky enough to have carved a rather odd niche for myself that keeps me fed, but many people in the industry are suffering



: Three top tips for a budding Illustrator/Fine Artist?

Work hard. Make friends. Don't give up.



: How do you see yourself progressing in 5 years time?

Man, I can never answer this question! So I always say... "Sketchy's in Antarctica!"



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