Rebecca Crane studied illustration at Edinburgh University and an MA in Character Animation at Central St Martins. She now lives in Australia where she works as a freelance illustrator, in an art shop, teaches illustration to highschool students and backstage at a number of art festivals and theatres!
To find out a little more about Rebecca’s work, we asked her the following questions:
What inspires your work?
A lot of things! I love animation, so a lot of my inspiration comes from background painters and concept artists in the industry – people who can capture atmosphere and movement very well.
I have a good collection of folktales from Scandinavia and the Scottish and Irish coastlines that I’m currently working my way through, and I really enjoy traveling and reading about new places. I always make sure that in every country I visit I source children’s bookshops to see new books, and junk and antique shops to pick up old photos or postcards of curious characters and places. They always serve as great inspiration if I’m stuck on a project or need new ideas!
Then there’s also the day-to-day stuff, like seeing an interesting person on the train, or a great piece of street art tucked away down a grungy back alley, or a corgi waddling down the pavement.
Tell us a bit about your process….
I usually start a project by brainstorming and sketching in a coffee shop for a few hours listening to music. I keep this loose and fun – my sketchbooks are filled to the brim with ideas and notes for future work. I scan the sketches I like and clean up the line work, and then it’s just a case of colouring with lots of textures and layers. Half of the time I know exactly how I’d like a piece to look, however sometimes I’ll just go with the flow and the work will change a lot from the initial sketches (these are the exciting ones!).
