Who is Lelliefish...

F.A.Q 

Where do you get your inspiration/ideas?

The main things I like to draw/paint are eyes and spirals, I'm not sure why but I'm  drawn to them. You will often find me drawing them when I don't know what else to draw. I'll draw them at a start of a piece to get things going (especially spirals), or incorporate them in my pieces in different ways. Eyeball flowers for example. 

Other than that, I just generally like to experiment and draw all the things. I get very inspired by music and things around me, things I see. I also have an extensive Pinterest board collection of things and art books to bounce ideas off. 

These days I like to make things with a lot of colour and "weird" or different topics. Things that somewhat stretch reality.  You won't find me drawing realism  - I appreciate the art style, but I like to put a spin on things. 

Did you go to art school?

No, but I did do some art subjects in school. I've mainly learnt what I know now through just generally being interested in making things, doing my own research, experimenting and lots of practice. 

How do you deal with drawing when you have an essential tremor?

I just do really, I don't know much different. Some days are not as bad as others. There's days where I refuse to draw because my tremor is really bad and other days where I embrace the wobbly lines and random marks,  and sometimes I'm not shaking too too bad at all. Depends on a lot of factors as to whether or not I will embrace or avoid the shakes but I try my best to push through.  Oh! and kicking up the stabilisation on brushes in digital art programs helps for sure!  

Side note - I find embroidery is one of my hardest creative mediums because of the tremor. It's very fiddly and I struggle a bit with it, but I do generally enjoy it - maybe more the result than the process. I guess that's why don't embroider as often as I dabble in other mediums.

What mediums do you like?

All sorts! The more regular ones are listed below but I have also dabbled in photography, lino printing, screen printing, bleach spray on clothing, handmade jewellery... the list goes on!

• Drawing/Painting (Traditional and Digital) - I've been making art regularly for a long time, I drew a lot around 2003 through to 2011, then had a small time out. Then had a bit of shift in motivation in 2015 when I decided I wanted to focus more on my art and have been at it regularly since. I like creating art both traditionally and digitally, I don't prefer one over the other. I go with either one that feels right when I start an art making session, considering the techniques I may want to use while making the piece.

• Crochet and Knitting - I originally tried crochet in 2012, when I made a few amigurumi octopi from a pattern and quickly overwhelmed myself. Then I didn't pick it back up until 2021 and can happily say I haven't put it down since! Knitting on the other hand is a newer one for me starting in 2023 I haven't taken to it like I have with crochet but I'm getting there - stitch by stitch.

• Embroidery - I have dabbled with embroidery here and there over my creative years.  I got into it heavily in 2022 and have  worked on a few pieces a bit since . Its something  I would like to do more of.

• Sewing - I first learnt to use a sewing machine in school. I'm not an overly confident sewist but I can do what I need to do. It's an area I'm still learning a lot in.  I like doing small projects on my machine and I've experimented with making art/ drawing with a open-toe quilting foot.

• Animation - I studied 3D animation many years ago in TAFE but I actually prefer 2D animation. I use the programs Procreate Dreams and Clip Studio Paint to make the animations I make today. Still a bit of a newbie at it and have heaps to re-learn in regards to animation in general and learn anew in 2D! 

Favourite tools to create with?

As for traditional art supplies I like to use all sorts of different pens, pencils, markers etc but here are a few of my top favourite ones...

• Pentel Sign Pen Touch - It's a great pen for  thin to medium thick varied lines. It has water-based ink, which means I can't lay it down before adding something like watercolour or wet washes but I can add it after its all dry!

• Pentel Pocket Brush Pen - Awesome for making very thin to very thick lines! It has water resistant ink so its great for laying down before adding wet media. I just find this pen to be a bit difficult for me to control at times with my essential tremor. 

• Fabre-Castel Polychromos coloured pencils -  My all time favourite colour pencils. I sketch and colour with these.

• General coloured ink pens - Like the Tombow Markers or Crayola Super Tips - These are good for adding a splash of colour to my sketchbook pages without the ink going through the page necessarily too much.

• Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolours - I recently gifted myself a "Studio Set" of 45 half pans of the Cotman watercolours by Winsor & Newton. It definitely filled some gaps in types of colours my other pallets didn't have and they are very nice to work with. However I say the M.Graham watercolours are my favourites.

• M.Graham Watercolours - I was gifts a few pans of this brand of watercolours years ago and I love them. I also have a collection of  Art Spectrum watercolours which I like too, but M.Graham are by far the best I've used personally. Very pigmented and very amazing to use.

• Art Spectrum Gouache - Love this stuff.

• Talons Art Creations Sketchbooks - I recently switched to Talons Art Creations sketchbooks (previously used Moleskine Art plus) and I love them. They have more pages than Moleskine and they are a bit thinner than the Moleskin sketchbook pages but I prefer that.  I like stitch bound sketchbooks, not a huge fan of spiral bound.

Digital art tools...

• iPad - Perfect for drawing digitally with a screen and its portable!

• Procreate on iPad - It took me some time to get use to Procreate as I was used to programs such as ClipStudio Paint or Photoshop but I got there and I enjoy it.

• Huion Inspiroy (wh1409) Drawing Tablet - Although its large and sometimes a bit cumbersome to find the desk space for at times, I enjoy working with this drawing tablet. It's old now and not fancy with a display screen but I like the size all the same because I can make big sweeping motions when I draw digitally. 

• ClipStudio Paint - The program I use on my PC/laptop to make digital art using my drawing tablet. My preferred art program!

• Affinity Photo 2 - For image editing and making banners and icons for social media platforms and such.

Find me...