Featured Artist: KayIllustrations

1)  Where are you currently living? Is there a place you would like to move?

I'm currently living in an overly crowded city in Indonesia. I would love to move somewhere more quiet and slow paced, but still have that high speed internet. Throw me into a remote island with good wifi connection and I'm good.

2) What are the greatest struggles/obstacles to your creative process? How do you navigate them?

To get all the voices in my head to agree on something is a struggle. There's so many ideas going around in my head and it's hard to pick just one! I have a small notebook to write or doodle down every small idea that popped up in my head. It's easier to go through all the ideas while flipping the pages of my notebook. Writing down your ideas is really helpful, especially when the creative voices inside your head suddenly decided to take a vacation.

3) What is your greatest accomplishment? Why?

Greatest accomplishment would be when I first sold my 'art' online. I grew up drooling over the awesome artworks all over the internet and thought I'd never be anywhere near as awesome as they are. When that first sale notification popped up, it feels like I've climbed over the big wall of self-doubt. I can't believe people would throw their money to get my mediocre drawing printed on stuff. It may not sound that great for others, but for me it feels awesome.

4) How do you balance your personal life and creative endeavors?

I balance my personal life like Batman. Try to act normal while doing daily chores during the day. When the night comes I put on my cape (uhm comfy blanket) and turn into a creepy artist drawing in the corner of my own room. Batman may have Alfred, but I have my cat and he's the best butler ever. I paid him with scratches.

5) Who do you think is a visionary? Why?

Guillermo del Toro! He's the one who turned me into the dark side, he made me fall in love with his visionary creatures in his movies. Usually a monster is portrayed as something so grotesque and just awful, but he made me sympathized with his beautiful monsters. Monsters can be beautiful too.

6) If we traded places, what is the one thing I should know about you?

If we trade places, you can't be allergic to cats because I have one clingy cat that will follow me everywhere I go. He (my cat) will always try to snuggle your armpit when you're trying to sleep. He will step on anything that you're working on if you ignore him. He's the boss and I'm just the butler.

Oh one important thing if we ever trade place and you'll be staying in my room, just know that the room may or may not be haunted. Occasionally at night you can hear ominous knocking or creaking sounds. Please just ignore the knocking from inside my wardrobe, the creak from my desk as if someone is leaning on it, the creak from the window curtain as if someone is tugging it, the knock from above the ceiling, or the tap from inside the plastic trashcan. No ghost ever showed up though. But maybe you'll be lucky enough to see one?

7) If your artwork was edible, what would it taste like? Why?

It would taste like that every flavour jelly beans. One bite it's sweet cotton candy, next bite is chocolate pudding, and when you're expecting another sweets, you got hit with rotten eggs. I mostly draw cute cats, and other sweet stuff but consuming too much sugar can numb your tongue. Sometimes I jump into the depth of darkness, drawing some skulls and little shadow people. If you followed my Instagram account, you can see that my art journey is a rollercoaster ride going up and down between colorful digital drawing and somber black and white pen drawing.

8) Imagine that you built a time machine and it is the year 2035. What do you think your art will look like? How do you think your art will have changed?

Oh boy, that would be very interesting to see! Would I go through the light peacefully by creating a fun light hearted artworks? Or would I fall into the pit of bottomless darkness making friends with the great old ones and create a dark art filled with skulls and monsters? (Fun fact: There are plenty of times where I tried to doodle a monster but ended up throwing them in the trash since I got spooked by my own drawing) Or would it be both? Something that is seemingly cute and innocent but then it turns into something menacing that will haunt you. 

9) How do you know when your art is finished (if ever)?

When there's a small paw resting on my hand and a pair of wide eyes looking at me like, "You've been drawing for hours. Stop it. I need Food." lol

I stop drawing for a while when my art is sort of look like the initial idea that I had before adding more details. I always find some small details to add. When the art started to get worse after adding the details, then I know that it's time to stop before I ruined it much further. The mighty Ctrl+z is the savior of this situation. But if I'm drawing with pen and ink then I just need to accept my fate.