FANTAST IN FOCUS: JULIE DILLON
Julie Dillon began her freelance career in 2006. Since then, her art has been published by companies such as Tor Books, Wizards of the Coast, and Oxford University Press. Along the way, she’s picked up a World Fantasy Award nomination and won a Hugo Award and Chelsea Award. She’s also crowdfunded Imagined Realms, her own sci-fi art book series through Kickstarter. Julie was inspired to develop the books by her desire to “create more illustrations that feature positive and diverse representations of women”. Needless to say, Julie is just getting started. I spoke with her about her artistry and her plans for future books.
The Custodian: The romanticism in your works reminds me of the art of Elihu Vedder and the backlighting makes me think of some of Kinuko Y. Craft’s pieces. Who would you say are the artists who have most influenced your work?
Julie Dillon: I haven’t knowingly directly tried to emulate any specific artists in any direct way, and I don’t really have any singular favourites because I like so many different artists’ work in different ways. Sometimes I’m inspired by an artist’s approach to colour, their compositions, the way they stylize figures or design creatures; and sometimes I’m just inspired by how an artist has fashioned their career. There are themes and subjects that tend to resonate with me, and I will like anything that touches on those themes, whether it’s another artist’s work, or a book, or a movie, or music, or nature. I see it as sifting and collecting all the tiny fragments of things that resonate with me personally, and then finding a way to express what I like about all those things in my own work, rather than trying to style myself after someone specific.
C: You used to work in computer science and in theatre. When did you begin to make digital art storytelling your main focus?
J: My interest in art had always been present in the background despite my pursuing other career paths. I had always thought that you couldn’t make a living as an artist, and that it would be smarter to choose a more stable and reliable career path. However, I realised that no matter what else I studied, I was always doing art on the side; art was what I really loved to do. The opportunity arose for me to change paths and start studying art full-time, and it just felt right. It was a bit of a gamble, but I think it was the right decision.
C: When you start an artwork do you take some time to let the story marinate in your mind? Or do you feel it out and immediately sketch the concept?
J: It depends on the project. Sometimes I have a clear idea of what I want and can jump straight to the sketch and finish the piece within days. Other times I have a more vague concept, and it takes me a long time to figure out how I want to approach it so I can get it right. Sometimes I’ve sat on an idea for over a year, and still can’t quite figure out the right layout and approach to make it feel right. I’ve been trying to train myself to just take a shot at it anyway; better to have a finished piece that is 90% what I want, than to have nothing at all.
C: A lot of people are big fans of fantasy and sci-fi but are not able to draw their own visual worlds. How does it feel to be both a fan and a creator–to see that after you produce your work it becomes something that will forever live on in people’s minds?
J: I have a hard time really processing the fact that other people actually pay any attention to my work beyond a “Oh, that’s nice” sort of way. I try not to think too much about it and focus on just getting new work done. I’m so used to spending time being the one who looks up to everyone else that it’s hard wrapping my head around the idea that other people might feel that way about my work.
C: J.R.R. Tolkien, another brilliant world-builder, wrote this in his essay On Fairy Stories:
The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power.
Have you ever thought about artists as kinds of enchanters?
J: I can’t say that I have, but then again, I’ve long had a habit of downplaying anything I’m involved in, so maybe in the future I might see things differently. I really just try to stay grounded, not let successes go to my head, and remind myself that no matter what I create, at the end of the day I’m just like everyone else. I believe everyone has a creative spirit, even in small ways; everyone has the potential to be an “enchanter” of sorts, whether it manifests as something big and demonstrative or something small and private. I just happened to focus on training myself to paint and draw and develop my ability to brainstorm visual ideas. But I think we all have the ability to evoke feelings in each other, to touch each others spirits, and to find beauty in small things.
C: You’ve already successfully financed two books on Kickstarter. Do you have any plans for other volumes of Imagine Realms and will they also be funded on Kickstarter?
J: I’m not sure at this point. My first two did well, but they were a lot of work, and I feel like I need a bit of a break before I dive into another. I have some plans for the next book, but I’m not sure if it’ll be in the Imagined Realms series or if it’ll be something different. I’d like to make a project focusing on nature magic, goddesses, and mythology, but I haven’t quite figured out how I want to approach it yet.
You can see more of Julie’s art here and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.