Here at Graphic Tide, we’re always looking for ways to help support our artists and designers, by showcasing their work on our tees, conducting Featured Artist and Creative Interview blog posts, sharing their work on our social media accounts, and generally supporting them throughout their creative journey.

Following on from our third t-shirt voting platform winner, we wanted to ask the talented Jessica Emmett a few questions so you can get a sense of her creative process, working methods, and see how she created her winning t-shirt design.

Jess gained 30 votes on our voting platform and became our third winner, with her design titled ‘Tree Man‘. It’s a great design which you can still purchase at the pre order rate of £17. The design will soon be going into our shop, so make sure you get your hands on it at the discounted pre-order rate!

We want to say thanks for all of you that are busy voting on our voting platform, and it’s great to see so many of you gain the magical 30 votes mark, and we’ve got another 2 t-shirt designs who’ve won on the platform! So many thanks for your votes and your submissions!

But let’s get to know Jessica Emmett a bit more with today’s Creative Interview blog post!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself. What’s your main discipline?

I’m a freelance illustrator and I work mainly digitally. Generally I am known for my cute cartoon/comic style, which is what I’m normally commissioned to do, but I work on all kinds of projects. This tree man illustration was a nice distraction from that =).

2. What are your biggest influences or inspirations as a creative?

My only real influences in terms of illustration have been my love for manga, anime & animated films/tv, but I don’t really have one person I can point a finger at and say that’s my illustration idol. But I do like those moments when you see someone’s work and just feel blown away! =D In terms of inspiration, I always try to keep a childlike wonder of the world.

3. Tell us about your t-shirt design

I remember I was feeling frustrated about something that day while also thinking it might be nice to draw on paper for a change… this sketch just appeared on my page. Admittedly, this was just a piece for myself so originally it wasn’t well coloured. I was inspired to submit a T-Shirt design for the first time so I decided I would revisit this piece and make it t-shirt friendly by adding roots and completely redrawing it from the ground up digitally.

I always like telling a story with my work. However I am a big believer that each person should bring their own thoughts to a piece… Is the man bad or good? Is it a magic tree or a magic man? Is he escaping or being consumed? Was he always a man? How did he get there?

4. Can you tell us about your creative process? How does your day shape up?

As a freelancer I work from home. I’m mainly a digital illustrator so it means long hours on my computer using my graphics tablet. I pretty much wake up, walk to my computer, only stop for lunch which I normally eat at the desk and work until I cannot draw any more. Even when I’m not working paid hours I’m still drawing when I watching TV or I’m thinking about drawing. The line between drawing for work and drawing for myself in free time seems pretty blurry these days =P, but as people keep telling me, it’s nice to enjoy what you do =).

When I’m given a brief I tend to actually sketch on paper super quick rough ideas, compositions, almost stickman level! =P. I’ll then take that rough sketch and sketch it up better on the computer. If my client is happy with it I’ll draw out the smooth line work and colour it again on the computer.

I thought you might find it interesting to see how I did this piece:

1) Original sketch on paper. Normally this would be a super rough sketch.

2) Expanded the sketch digitally. Developed sketch stage ready for line work.

3) Trace sketch using smooth lines. Sometimes I add a second thicker line, but not here. I also realised it was too wide and made it thinner.

4) Basic colour flats.

5) Light and shading added.

6) When the piece warrants it, I add more texture and colour variation and SFX, but as most of my work is simple cute cartoon work it’s not always needed.
Done ^.^!!

5. Tell us something which we might not know about you.

I haven’t always been an illustrator. I started out as a conceptual photographer & video artist which is what I studied at university. After uni. it didn’t take me long to feel disillusioned by conceptual art so I started do more freelance design and community art. It wasn’t until 2009 that I started to dabble in illustration and finally in 2013 decided to become a freelance illustrator full time!

6. Where can we get in contact with you?

I work with all sorts of people and many different projects. If you’d like to see more of my work, or if to commission me for a custom t-shirt lolz =P, please feel free to visit www.jessica-emmett.com.

Thanks Jess for your great answers for our Creative Interview blog series, it’s fantastic to see how your working process, and how you developed ‘Tree Man’ into a great looking design!

Be sure to check out Jess’s ‘Tree Man‘ design or visiting her portfolio website.

So thanks for visiting today, be sure to leave a comment below, as we would love to hear from you. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, it will be great to see you on there. Thanks again, and have a great day!