Lepus

How many faces can you see in the illustration on the left? Two, obviously but isn't it amazing and I bet you had to see it again and again just to make sure.

Well, this illustration comes from this amazing artist, Denise Nestor and is a drawn by pencil on paper.

Denise is a talented illustrator who hails from Mayo, Ireland but currently live in Dublin. She has completed her graduation from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Her forte is pencil sketches but she even plays perfectly with oil and acrylic. Most of her sketches are a mix of two different images that are put together using Photoshop.

The amazing thing about her sketches is that most of them have some or the other animal feature added to it, for example the image on the left has bunny ears. This makes her sketches unique. According to her the animal and birds that she draws are a reflection of her childhood. Read on to know more about Denise and her sketches, in our exclusive interview with her.


1. Hi Denise, please introduce yourself to our readers.

I'm an illustrator/artist from Mayo in the west of Ireland, but I live in Dublin and have been based here for nearly ten years. I graduated from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in 2004.

2. What prompted you to become an artist? Were you always the artistically inclined type of person? What art forms do you enjoy doing? What mediums do you like to use?

I've been drawing and painting from a very young age, I've always felt naturally inclined to it. My parents were quite creative in other ways, so I think that their encouragement had a lot to do with why I kept going with it.

My main medium is pencil but I also work with oil and acrylic from time to time.

Bear Suited

I usually gather the reference images and piece them together in Photoshop to form the composition I have in mind. I begin with a light sketch and then work in the areas of detail gradually. For the more detailed pieces, like the Wreath drawings for example, it can take me more than a week to complete the drawing. It really does involve a lot of hours and patience, it can be quite exhausting, but I really enjoy getting lost in a drawing.

Wreath

I grew up in the countryside, on a farm in rural Ireland, so I've always been surrounded by nature. As a child, animals and birds were the main focus of my drawings. Nature has always felt unattainable to me, I think part of the intention of my drawing is to capture nature in some way, to slow it down and really look at it. The animals and birds I draw also have a deeper meaning to me, they represent my childhood and the memories I associate with it.

Flock

The theme of my work is just something that has developed naturally for me. I never really decide on it, the ideas just somehow come to me. I often find that once I complete a drawing, the next drawing is influenced by it or inspired by part of it. They're all linked in some slight way. Its just a natural development.

6. What is the best compliment that you have received so far for your work?

I think that the most sincere compliments come form people who write to say that they've felt inspired or encouraged to start drawing more after seeing my work. That means a lot to me.

7. What are you working on currently? Any dream project in the pipeline?

I've got a group exhibition coming up soon in Dublin, so I'm finishing some pieces for that at the moment. I have an interesting project coming up that I can't reveal too much about just yet, but I'm excited about it!

Everything I didn't say

10. What advice would you like to give to a budding and aspiring artists?

My advice would be to be prepared to put in the hours and work really hard at what you do. It doesn't always come easy and it can often feel like an uphill battle, but I find that the hard work pays off.
Thank you Denise for taking out the time and doing this interview with us. We'd like to wish you the very best for the future.