Exclusive Interview with Illustrator Andrew Denholm
This amazingly-colourful work is created by Scottish freelance illustrator, Andrew Denholm, who loves to design illustrations that are fun, bold and outlandish! Apart from ultra-colourful creations, he also enjoys working with monotone prints as well (check out his Behance profile for more work).
★ Here’s a set of 12 questions I asked Andrew about his work, including his Top 3 design tips at the end. There’s a selection of his work scattered throughout this article for you to view. Here goes…
1. Tell the Design Soak Magazine readers about yourself. What motivates you?
My name is Andrew Denholm and I am from Melrose in the Scottish Borders. I studied Illustration at Edinburgh art college and have worked as a freelance illustrator for the past 4 years. I currently live in London as I believe it is the best place to be to promote myself as a illustrator.
I love making new designs and illustrations. I think self satisfaction has to be a major thing for any artist. If you stop wanting to create then that is a problem. As long as you are motivated to keep doing what you enjoy most then it is a pleasure to work.
2. When did you first start illustrating? Where did it all begin?
I started illustrating as soon as i could pick up a crayon. I would copy pictures my older brother had drawn, trying to make them as similar as I could to his. I would be very happy to sit down at home and draw for long periods and as i got older i began keeping sketch books full of cartoons and different characters. My parents always had paper and pens for me to use and this really helped fuel my passion for drawing as they where very encouraging.
3. How did you ‘find your own style’? Have you always used the same illustration methods?
I would copy a lot of cartoons characters when i was young from the Beano, computer games or TV shows. This then developed into me trying to make my own cartoons and slowly I found a style I was comfortable drawing in. When I was in art school I made huge leaps in how I would draw as I ditched the cartoon style and tried to make my work look like wood cuts and lino cuts. I really liked the textures and patterns that could be created with these techniques. My drawings started to then merge the two styles together becoming quite textured and detailed but with cartoon elements, trying to keep as much humour in the illustrations as possible that reflected the cartoon roots. I have tried many other ways of drawing with different mediums but feel happiest with pen and paper. I do most of my colouring on Photoshop now though as I love the smooth finishes it gives compared to colouring pencils or pens.