Eliott Bulpett Interview

What is your favourite card you’ve designed for Sunshine Llama, and why?

My favourite design was probably the ‘Time to Crack Out the Birthday Suit’ – it was the one I was most nervous about because I’d never drawn a naked character before and wasn’t sure how I wanted to create it, but then I fell in love with how fun the illustration came out.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your design process? What do you enjoy most about the design process?

I always used to think picking out the colours was my favourite part of the process but I realised that it’s actually the most difficult part! I love using colour but struggle to choose ones that look good and rely on just ‘knowing’ when it’s right. I spend a lot of time playing around, adjusting things and using gradient maps (my new favourite way to chuck colour into a piece) until I’m happy. But once the sketch is finalised and I have the colours, my favourite part is when I can put it all together and make the final, clean version. It’s the relaxing part once all the decisions have been made.  

How did you get into illustration/design?

I’ve known since I was really young that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, so drawing has always been a massive part of my life. I never knew what kind of job I could actually do with drawing though and took a graphic design course at college before landing on illustration at University.

Where do you find inspiration?

Visually, I love scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest to look at others’ work, but a lot of ideas for illustrations recently have come from going out on walks and thinking about the things I love. I took a not-very-serious online quiz that was supposed to tell you what emotion you create from and I got ‘gratitude’. I’d never realised it before, but a lot of what I create does in-fact come from this and wanting to capture my appreciation for things, so that’s also a big source of inspiration for me at the moment.

Who is your favourite designer/artist/creative person?

This is such a hard one because there are so many different creatives that I love for all different reasons, but one artist whose work I love going back to is Melanie Johnsson. She has a wonderful mix of graphic design and illustration, beautifully bright colour palettes and I love how she always works on projects that mean a lot to her.

Do you have any top tips for aspiring designers?

Look at the things you like outside of art. The more I figure out who I am as a person, the more authentic and enjoyable my work becomes. Art used to consume all of my time and I never had any other hobbies, but I realised that without doing/reading/learning/experiencing other things, I had nothing to inform what kind of art I wanted to make.  I always tried to work on my art and find my style as if it was this separate thing, but your art is you! So know yourself too!

Tell us a fun fact about yourself 🙂

I love inline skating! I started a few years ago and I still enjoy it so much.

What is your favourite film?

Hmm probably a toss-up between Captain Fantastic and Hunt for the Wilderpeople! I love heart-warming, adventure-type movies!

What is your star sign?

I’m a Gemini!