www.heidibenjamin.com

How did you get started in the illustration field?
Drawing pictures was my favorite thing as a kid and I always looked forward to art classes in school. Besides working with animals, there was never anything else that made sense to me as much as making art. Nothing brings me as much joy as creating things. I love to tell stories, make funny looking animals and sweet images that make people giggle and smile. Drawing and imagining is what I do best. I cannot imagine any other life for me.

What is your process when working with clients? Can you run us through a typical job?
Every job is about creative problem solving. Someone comes to me with an idea, but they don’t rightly know how it will look when it is tangible on paper. My purpose is to translate their thoughts into images, add in something quirky from myself, then make it real for them. A client is most often presented with a choice from a few different thumbnails of ideas from me, we discuss them, pick what’s best and I’ll come back to them with color, corrections or whatever else is requested. The best part is when your client is happy, delighted and surprised by what’s been created.

What is your creative process?
Everything is work for me, but that is not depressing or scary in anyway! I love what I do, so everyday is a dream. I am always looking at things: people on the street, cute doggie noses, pictures in travel magazines, art in museums, images online, movies on the big screen. All of those things plague my brain until they are somehow translated to an idea that reaches paper.

What was one of your favorite assignments?
I’m in my final semester of school, and the most recent assignment I received is called “the Dream project”. Basically we are allowed to create a series of images that work as a part of a larger idea. It can be about anything at all! I am always making lists of ideas or sketches of thumbnails for things I want to draw, so this was just an opportunity to finally bring to life something that had been sitting in some stack of paper under my desk.
This time I am working on double portraits styled after early daguerreotypes, of people and their dogs. I love drawing animals, especially dogs, so this will be a lot of fun. Each of the people will resemble their doggie partner and vice a versa. I am excited to create and mold each of their characters and give life to their stories.

Describe your work setting.
Sometimes I do something really bad, and draw or paint on my bed. I read somewhere that you are never ever ever supposed to do work on your bed, it is bad for your sleeping habits or something. My desk is topped by a cork board with post its all over it, some outlining the steps to a project I’m working on, some are grocery lists and some are thoughts I had to jot down not to forget. It’s important to keep yourself surrounded by images and things that inspire you, so pasted on the wall are pictures created by Mary Blair, Alice and Martin Provensen, Beatrix Potter etc. I get really weird about things being in the right place, so before I sit down to work on something I always end up doing a reorganization and straightening up of things, otherwise I can never concentrate.

Do you ever have creative slumps? What do you do then?
Of course, that terrible feeling happens to everyone, in creative fields or not, where you just don’t know what to do anymore. There are not many other feelings worse than that. If I’m feeling like I’m at the bottom, I usually take a shower. For some reason all my good ideas come to me in the shower, or on the bus/train somewhere. That’s why its always important to have a pen and paper handy. Don’t let those thoughts go to waste!
Looking at work that inspires you always help, go see a pretty movie, walk through a beautiful park, look at paintings in a museum. Nothing is created in a vacuum, all of our good ideas come from somewhere!

What has been inspiring you lately?
I am having the best time ever at the New York Public Library Picture Collection. There are shelves and shelves and folders and folders of any kind of picture you can imagine. They have a great resource of dog images too! Most separated by breed. As well as their website that contains all kinds of cool old portraits of people from the 17th and 18th century. The clothing and hair do’s of those individuals are so curious and full of opportunities.
I really want to get more hands on with my work, creating my own fonts and letters and exploring paper cut images as a choice of media as well.

Any advice for others who are pursuing creative goals?
Do what makes you happy. If it doesn’t make you happy, don’t do it!
Life is small and weird and individual happiness is just as important as it is for world wide happiness. Don’t you remember those posters in your elementary classrooms, “Smiles are contagious” ?
But seriously, creative work is hard, it taxes your brain, your self esteem, your whole being! Always strive for something new and better. Keep learning and always have fun.

-H