Artist Interview - Kathy Hare

Kathy's Shop ~ Moongazing Hare, Kathy's Wesite ~ Kathy Hare Illustration

I feel so honored today to introduce you to an extremely talented lady, artist Kath Hare. Her whimsical, sweet illustrations immediately caught my eye.

Enjoy her interview!

When did you first know you were an artist?

I have always loved to draw so in some ways I think I have felt like an artist from a very young age. My art has always been so important in my life that trying to make a career out of it just seemed to be a natural progression. As a child I would spend hours creating little worlds through my pictures, often creating whole families and stories for them to populate. My love of art continued throughout my teens and into my twenties but I married young and started a family so thoughts of going to college and studying art to become an illustrator seemed like a dream. I carried on drawing for pleasure but I always longed to pursue my artistic career. At the age of thirty-five my children were growing up and I had more time on my hands so I decided to go to college to study art part-time. After finishing a two year art foundation course I was encouraged to go on to university where I gained a degree in Illustration.

Who and/or what inspires your work?

I am inspired by many things; life itself, my lovely family, the beauty of nature, all forms of art whether it be illustration, fine art or sculpture. I could happily spend all my days strolling round art galleries perusing other artist’s interpretations of the world around and within them. I am inspired by many illustrators. I love the work of John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham, Edward Ardizzone to the more contemporary work of Shaun Tan, Oliver Jeffers, Lisbeth Zwerger , Raymond Briggs, Quentin Blake, Edward Gorey and Maurice Sendak... I could go on and on...


As an artist, what is your biggest challenge?

My dream has always been to illustrate children's books. I am continually trying to develop my portfolio with this in mind. I feel that my artwork is constantly changing and I am always trying to find a fresh approach to my subject matter. My style is very intricate and time consuming and I think I have a tendency to overwork a drawing, so at the moment I am concentrating on simplifying my work. My initial sketches often have a beauty of their own that can be lost as the work progresses so I am going to spend some time looking into this and trying to find a way to keep that initial freshness.

What do you do to motivate yourself when you are in a creative rut?

If I am struggling to think of an idea for a project I don't sit in front of a blank piece of paper, I usually try to busy myself with other things for a while and let thoughts slowly formulate in my head. I often find that my best ideas have come into my mind over the weekend when I am not really concentrating on artwork at all. I fill page upon page with little rough sketches of these thoughts and my end results usually grow from these initial seeds of ideas.


What is the one thing you are most proud of about your work?

That I followed my dream. It wasn't always easy juggling family, uni work and travelling but I managed somehow and came out the other side of it with a degree. I have since set myself up as a freelance illustrator and even though the work only comes in sporadically at the moment, I believe that if I persevere, one day in the future I will be able to work as a freelancer full time. I will keep sending my work out to publishers and hopefully one day soon my work will be seen by the right person at the right time and my illustration journey will truly begin.


What words of wisdom can you offer students?

Play, experiment with things, find what works for you. I have often spent whole days playing with new materials, dropping things into watercolour to see what happens, covering whole sheets of paper with scribbles of colour pencil building them up layer upon layer. University and college taught me discipline but most of my drawing techniques were discovered and developed through play.

Draw, if you want to be an illustrator draw as much as you can, have a little book with you and sketch when you're out, just quick sketches nothing too intricate, people, children, dogs, buildings, trees.. by doing this it helps you to build a kind of visual library in your mind that you can dip into as you draw. Not whole drawings necessarily, just the slope of someone's shoulder or the outline of someone's face... it all feeds into later work.

Persevere, push on no matter how disheartened you may feel. Whether it is a drawing I am struggling with or approaching publishers, I persevere. If a drawing goes wrong I either continue until I get it right or start afresh and the same goes with publishers, if I get rejection I keep working and sending out stuff until I don't! If you want something enough you have to keep going until you get it!


Your work and your outlook on life are a huge inspiration to me, Kathy. Thanks for this wonderful interview!

See you on Friday ladies! In the meantime, how about choose just one more creative exercise to complete by then.  xo