TURNING A STORY BEAT INTO ARTWORK

Alexandria discusses the importance of personal work and where she goes for inspiration

“For a very long time, I thought I wanted to become a writer. But I’m clumsy with words, and can do a much better job telling a story with a picture. Personal illustration work always starts with an idea or a narrative beat. I’ll think ‘this scene would be cool’ and then start formulating a little story around that in my head. Who are the characters? What are they like? How can I sell their personality? What’s happening in this image in a single moment?

At this point, I’ll sometimes write in a sketchbook. I don’t often use sketchbooks for sketching. I use them a lot for writing stuff down and doing really rough, almost illegible thumbnails. Inspiration comes from all sorts of random places. Sometimes I’ll see something that sparks a little idea that I’ll pick away at. Sometimes I’m in the shower and it just pops fully formed into my head.

The landscape studies are a different thing for me, because it’s not so much about narrative as it is a mood. I’m constantly taking photos wherever I go – generally on my phone. If I see something that appeals to me – a nice-shaped tree, or a really good sky – I’ll snap a ton of photos then dig through them later when I have more time and see if I can get a good moody painting out of them. I’m always shooting reference.

Professional work is someone else’s ideas that I’m helping bring to light. Personal work is my own ideas. For that reason it’s very important to me. I don’t care much about techniques or how I made a piece. I care about the story it tells and getting that out there.”

LANDSCAPE STUDIES “My comfort zone. I tend to be drawn to moody, soft lighting, cloudy days and simple shapes. These have all turned into exercises in seeing how simplified I can make an image while still having it read. They’re incredibly therapeutic, because it’s just studies of photos I’ve taken in my day-to-day and travel. These sort of studies are also great for art block.”