As Beth sleeps, I’ve finally got a little time to myself. I did a little survey on what people would like to read here and one of it was how I started this creative journey.
To begin, I’ve always been a doodler. I was a three-year old with serious separation anxiety. I somehow always ended up bawling for my parents in children’s church so the next best option was to keep me quiet in adult sermons with a pack of coloured pencils and paper. I suspect we threw away most of the drawings from that era, but I remember my mom used to help me with art and craft projects I had in primary school. She probably was an early influence – I specifically remember how she taught me to draw simple birds in the sky (an m with a dash below), and that she had told me to colour in my backgrounds because they look nicer. The latter advise is something I still keep in mind when designing books (especially I’ll Love You Anyway) and selected artwork. Note the colored background:
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Fast forward to 2014. I was in my second year of the Speech Therapy Masters course. I think that’s when lettering was starting to become trendy, but some of the trend setters had set their price point really high. Instead of studying, I thought I should try some lettering myself and see if I could eventually letter my own wedding invites. I had no idea what tools to use, so I went with highlighters, random brushes, and a flat-nibbed pen and wrote my name about 400 times because if I’m going to calligraph my own invites I’ll need to know how to write my name right?
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I never thought it was going to go very far but in late 2014/early 2015 before I started full-time work, I had requests for commissions. I remember back in the day my commissions costed like $25 to $80 eventually. I look back now and laugh, because I didn’t know anything back then. I also was making a lot of mistakes then so there was quite a bit of anxiety accompanied with every work, and there were some re-dos as well. All that comes with being a newbie doesn’t it?
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The coffee & tea commissioned set! 93 of #100typographydays #kristenwrites #kristen100
In 2016, I finally did get my dream of illustrating and lettering my own invites. It was actually more stressful than anything I’d done, probably because of the expectations I’d set on myself.
In Jan 2017, #kkslittlepeople was born. It’s been my style ever since. It’s not easy finding your style. It took me 3 years to get my style. I did not intend to draw myself, but somehow people are telling me my little people look like me! Interestingly, the techniques I use to draw humans were techniques I picked up from “How to Draw Winnie the Pooh” instructionals when I was a child (I never understood the importance back then though!).
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I’ve since stumbled and picked myself up, done some work that I felt were backbreaking and willed myself to charge more for something similar in future. All that’s contributed to where I am right now. Looking back, it’s been an incredible journey and I’m looking forward to even more exciting times as Beth grows up. I actually hope she likes whatever mom does, rather than find it uncool. We’ll find out in several years time.