BEHIND THE SCENES
Freelance illustrator Nicolene Louw usually does the artwork for our column. This month, we extended her brief to illustrate our feature about memorable childhood holidays (p 30), which she interpreted in her typically magical way.
Why did you become an illustrator? I’ve loved drawing since I can remember, but I never thought I’d be able to do something so fun for a living. I started working on a horse farm in Belfast, Mpumalanga, because I love animals, but then I applied to study occupational therapy. Soon after I was accepted, I changed my mind and decided to study graphic design at the University of Pretoria instead. It was the right choice. I went on to do a master’s degree in illustration at Stellenbosch University and started freelancing. I love what I do!
Did you resonate with the stories you illustrated for this issue? All of them felt so familiar, but “A tradition for every taste” by Marcelle van Niekerk resonated with me the most. My dad Faure and his four sisters are very close. When I was younger, the whole family always spent Christmas together. The result was one big continuum of food, swimming, gifts, cousins, uncles, aunts and sunburn.
How do you decide what to draw? Each assignment is different. Sometimes I immediately have a fully formed idea; other times I have to wring my brain like a wet cloth until something useful drips out. It all happens through sketching and looking at reference material.
Tell us about one of your own favourite holiday memories. I remember camping in Cebe on the Wild Coast when I was eight years old. We drove there in my dad’s custard yellow Chevy, towing a trailer with a secondhand windsurfing rig strapped on top. The journey was a showdown between the Chevy and the mud. Luckily the Chevy triumphed in the end.
Cebe had pristine beaches, a lagoon, a forest, stray horses and cows, and almost no people – all the necessities for a proper getaway. I have no idea how my parents did it with three young kids, no hot water, no camping fridge, no 4x4 and no shops nearby. On sunny days I blissfully followed the horses around; on rainy days we were stuck in the tent playing cards and Monopoly. Things don’t get much better than that.
What do holidays mean to you now? They still mean family, and time together in nature. I love camping in Nature’s Valley with my own family, my parents and brothers.