I fell in love with Babara Reids work as soon as I laid eyes on it. I myself love using plasticine as I get to make and build charaters and create a picture.
When I came across Babara Reids work in my first year, she has been my biggest influence and inspiration ever since. Every time I look at her work the hairs on my neck stand on end and all I want to do is get out the plasticine and create some work myself. Come pay day all I ever think to buy is more plasticine, I have draws filled to the top of the stuff....its fantastic!!!!
What I love so much about her work is the attention to detail and the colours and composition....but most of all how she captures the scenes with emotion, to make you feel what the picture is showing you (I do hope that makes sense) Every piece of work she has created are just as stunning as the next.
I have put a few images of hers below but its a must that you check out all of her work on her website...you will not be disappointed, and she also has little clips to show you how to make plasticine pictures yourself!! www.barbarareid.ca
I got very excited when we got a project recently to get in contact with three to five of our favourite illustrators to ask some questions, because even though I could have done that anyway, I always put myself off as I didn't really have the confidence... but for it to be a project, meant I had to stop being a chicken and to do it and I'm so glad I did because she replied and I've been beaming ever since!
So here is my interview with Barbara Reid...
Q.1)Who are your inspirations and were there any illustrators/artists who influenced you into making plasticine art?
1) My inspirations were the illustrators of picture books I read as a child: Beatrix Potter, Pauline Baynes, Arthur Rackham, N.C. Wyeth, many more. I also love the expression, drawing and storytelling of Toulouse Lautrec, Daumier and Brueghel. I got the idea for trying plasticine illustration from a magazine cover with a plasticine caricature; I don't know who the artist was, it just caught my eye.
Q.2) Is it harder to work for a client than it is writing and illustrating a book of your own?
2)
In many ways illustration for a client is easier, because it is a job
of problem solving, and there are specific boundaries. Restrictions
force me to focus and there is no time wasted second guessing the text.
Writing is very difficult for me, it is really creating something from
nothing. What is the story? How can I tell it? So many possibilities!
It take me ages, but it is very satisfying when it actually turns into
something.
Q.3)Being a wife and a mother, how do you manage to balance your time with your family and work and deadlines?
3)
Balancing work and life is a challenge for everyone. However, book and
educational projects being large projects usually have a longer
production time which makes room for flexibility. Advertising deadlines
are much tighter and there is a lot of back and forth, so I found those
jobs difficult to combine with "real life".
Q.4.) Making plasticine picture's myself I do use quite a lot of it, so how much plasticine do you go through and how often do you need to buy more?
4) My
illustration is a relief style, not 3D, so I expect I use about 30 1
pound bars in the course of a book. Even though I think I have enough
there is usually a panic run to the supplier mid-book for a particular
colour! I use Plasticine brand, which can be difficult to find here in
Canada; I have to go to a hobby supplier to find it.
Q.5)What advice would you give to illustration students who are about to graduate and step pout into the real world?
5)
I think today's illustrators need the traditional skill of drawing -
each person's style is unique and that is what clients want. But it is
also essential to be up to speed on digital skills - taking what is
unique to you and using the tools of technology to produce it in forms
and a at speed that the market demands. Animation is becoming very
important - the more we view images on screens, the more we want them to
move. Be yourself, and work very very hard!
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| I wish I was in that snow ball fight, it looks like so much fun! |
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| Yep...this is all made out of plasticine! Incredible! |
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| I love the this scene...every window has its own little story going on! |
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