Meet Hollie Puterbaugh

We recently connected with Hollie Puterbaugh and have shared our conversation below.

Hollie, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

Burnout is a real thing that affects so many creators, including myself. I think it is really important for artists to give themselves another outlet of creativity that isn’t their main form. For me, I absolutely love to try all kinds of arts and crafts as well as music! When I’m feeling burned out and nothing is coming out right for my illustrations, I will switch to another artistic outlet. Recently, I got an electric guitar and am teaching myself how to play. I also have gotten into cream clay and decoden.

Another way I keep my creativity alive is with “body doubling”. Body doubling is where you grab a friend or family member and just work on your own activity while sitting together. Sometimes picking up the pencil can feel daunting and having someone with you can give you a burst of confidence! It’s also important to go outside and experience things as an artist and body doubling can help with that too.

Lastly, I think social media is a place where you can get inspiration, however, too much social media can really damper your own confidence. It’s really easy for me to consume too much of other’s work and it will cause my self esteem and confidence to dwindle. Because of this, I try to limit my time on Instagram.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am an illustrator that specializes in conceptual editorial illustration, however I also create work for children’s/young adult publishing, concept design, surface design, and graphic design markets.

I think the most exciting part of my work is that I feature conceptual ideation methods, portraits, unified color palettes, and texture in my work. A lot of my work focuses on using conceptual ideation methods such as visual metaphors and symbolism to create illustrations that scrape the nature of reality. I love the ideation part of the creative process because it allows me to use my creative problem solving skills to the fullest.

I usually work digitally with a variety of textured brushes. I am a trained oil/acrylic painter and I love using that knowledge in my digital work. No digital drawing program scares me! I love working in Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Clip Studio Paint.

I am almost finished with my masters thesis that is a deep dive on conceptual illustration methods within editorial illustration and then I will enter the world of freelance illustration. I am also hoping to start selling my work as prints, stickers, etc on my online shop and in person at conventions and markets.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of North Texas where I studied painting. Traditional painting with oil and acrylic paint is an area of knowledge I will always be thankful that I learned because it is so impactful in my work as an illustrator. Traditional painting taught me how to mix and create colors from scratch which helped me learn color theory, a skill that will always be helpful as an illustrator. A quality in myself that has been impactful in my artistic journey is passion. I am an intensely passionate person and this passion fuels my perseverance through creative blocks and setbacks. Another quality that is impactful in my artistic journey is my openness to feedback. In my graduate studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design, I always made sure that I was open to feedback and I believe my illustrations and work improved exponentially because of that quality.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

If I had only a decade of life left, I think I would spend my time traveling with my sketchbook and drawing in new places as much as I can. As an artist, it is so important to go outside and experience new things because it opens new ideas and creativity. It can expose you to new ways of thinking, make you look at things from a different perspective, expose you to new experiences, and of course, be your source of inspiration. There are so many countries I want to travel to: Switzerland, Japan, Ireland, etc and hopefully I can experience their beauty one day!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hollieillu.com
• Instagram: @hollieillu
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/hollieputerbaugh
• Other: email: [email protected]