Join Tamara for an interview with Charla Pettingill, a published illustrator, surface designer, and illustration professor with 14 years of industry experience designing for print and pattern. A native of East Tennessee, she graduated from SCAD with a B.F.A. in Illustration and an M.A. in Visual Communication, then moved to Atlanta to work in the industry.
She’s now back in Savannah, having returned to SCAD’s Illustration department as a professor. Charla juggles this with her freelance work creating artwork for magazines, product packaging, floor coverings, fabric, gift wrap, and greeting cards, as well as children’s activities and books. Repeat patterns are her passion!
Check out Charla’s work and follow her here:
https://www.charladraws.com/
https://www.instagram.com/charladraws/
Topics in their chat include:
Savannah feeling like a big city when she arrived in 2004; learning the “straight line technique” in life drawing class; interesting facts about the use of gouache in mid-century illustration, and its revival now, including being used in Rifle Paper Co.’s greeting card illustrations; while in “Intro to Illustration” class as a sophomore she got a freelance job illustrating a family friend’s book, “The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin;” what does “Work for Hire” mean in a contract?; how print on demand sites are great for artists to continue making passive income; how Charla transitioned into digital art during SCAD, learning Illustrator and Corel Painter (now surpassed by Procreate); her advice to anyone doing graphic or surface design to “make friends with Illustrator;” what is “collateral” in the design world?; how nowadays illustration can overlap with animation, film, graphic design/advertising, and architecture; what is “fairycore?”; and the time a journal she design was featured in Apartment Therapy.
Tune in and get all the details!
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