Melanihugginsillu’s designs instantly jump off the page. Her exquisite detail not only conveys the raw emotion behind each drawing, but it also opens a door to a fairy tale filled with curious characters, vibrant flowers, and vivid woodland animals.

She loves the idea of living in Europe because of the “ease of traveling between nearby countries” and being able to live in a place that is surrounded by so much culture and a blend of “history and modern innovation.”

However, she confesses that it really can be “hard to pick just one” place to live in the world.

Melanihugginsillu admits that when she is creating art, she has to try to see things from multiple perspectives first.

Not only does she try to “do something else every hour or so” in between the drawing process, but she also takes “photographs or screenshots of the piece in progress” to send to someone because “changing how it's being looked at helps me see it differently.”

She admires an array of artists like James Jean, Kate Mackay Gill, and Teagan White but jokes that “the list could go on forever.” Melanihugginsillu is especially fascinated by the Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha, and how he incorporates nature into his work.

To her, creativity “is being able to visualize something in your mind and then put it into existence.” She often has an idea of what she wants to create but she must first “flesh it out in my head.”

However — more than anything — she loves to create a “feeling of movement” in her art. She admires the Romantic period in the late 1800s because of the way that artists were able to create a similar “sense of drama” in their work. She works to evoke the same sense of emotion and life in her creative endeavors.

Melanihugginsillu shares that “unfortunately depression has been a big part of my life” and that the “feeling of melancholy often leaks through” in her art. However, she strives to “convey a sense of peace and comfort” in her work to make it a place of refuge from the outside world.