{"id":1779,"date":"2018-09-05T13:40:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T10:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/?p=1779"},"modified":"2018-09-05T13:40:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T10:40:43","slug":"spotlight-070","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/spotlight-070\/","title":{"rendered":"Subsign Spotlight #070."},"content":{"rendered":"

We have a few artists in this Spotlight section from the Goodnight stories for rebel girls book, and having Justine was a must!<\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: I am a freelance illustrator currently living in London. Most of my personal works are portraits, often inspired by cinema, music, and literature. I like to draw people (mainly women) who inspire me, artists I look up to. I also love recording the cities I travel to and make detailed cityscapes of new place I discover.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: What was your childhood like? Do you think your experiences from childhood have influenced your present creative endeavors?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: I\u2019ve always been very attracted to images, and I had some great illustrated books as a child which I think had a great influence on me. I come from a very creative family and have always been encouraged to follow an artistic path.
\nI grew up constantly drawing and so naturally went on the be a professional illustrator. It\u2019s a fascinating world to be part of, with many inspiring artists. I love that sense of a creative community.<\/p>\n

Subsign: What did you want to be as a grown up?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: As I was fascinated by images and always loved cooking and eating, I wanted to be either a photographer or a chef. Maybe I should have been food photographer? I would love that! But I think I naturally became an illustrator, without having to make the actual decision one day.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: How does your workstation look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: As I live in London and therefore do not have a lot of space to expand my workspace, I try to keep it very simple.
\nMy favourite place is in the green house at the back of my flat. It has a very special atmosphere, quiet and lovely. It is bathed with natural light and opens onto our small garden. I set up my desk in the morning on the dining table, and the fact that I have to pack it back up at the end of the day makes it very clean and minimal. Of course I\u2019d rather have a proper studio but I am genuinely so messy that it\u2019s probably better this way!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: Do you have a work style? How would you describe it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: My illustrations are very detailed, which means that I often spend a LOT of time drawing\u2026 it can be stressful when deadlines are tight! So let\u2019s say it can become quite epic, but I actually really like drawing late at night, when everybody is asleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsign: Can you share with us how your creative process works?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: Inspiration comes in different ways, but music and cinema influence me the most\u2026 What I see during the day, what I hear in the news or in the street, will also have an impact. London is a fantastic city for inspiration, there is so much going on everywhere and all the time!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsign: What is your favorite work you have done so far?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: One of my favorites is a portrait of Astrid Lindgren I did for the \u2018Goodnight stories for rebel girls\u2019 book published at the end of last year.
\nI didn\u2019t know much about Astrid Lindgren\u2019s life before I was asked to draw her portrait. I knew she was a much-loved children\u2019s book author but when I started her portrait I read a lot about her story and I became obsessed with her strength and charisma.
\nNot only did she managed to overcome all the adversities of being a single working mum in the 1930s, but she also helped unseat a Swedish government, influenced changes in the law and even inspired anarchists. In Sweden, she is considered a true national hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsign: Who do you follow for inspiration?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: Quite an eclectic bunch of arty people, from fashion blogger to art directors, photographers, travelers, but of course a lot of illustrators. To name a few awesome female artists: Bodil Jane, Kate Blegvad, Kate Pugsley, Nina Cosford, Manjit Thapp, Sonia Lazo\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: What advice would you give to someone starting out in the creative field of work?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: My advice would be to keep going, even when you feel down and\/or frustrated. Use all of those feelings as fuel to keep making and going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: If you would have a superpower, what would it be?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: I would absolutely love to fly! I also suffer from fear of heights so not sure how these two would realistically work\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsign: Can you recommend for our readers a book, a song, and a movie?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: Book: Francoise Sagan\u2019s La Chamade
\nSong: Clair de Lune, by Claude Debussy
\nMovie: My Golden Days by Arnaud Desplechin (and all his other movies)
\nSorry they\u2019re all French!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsign: If you could throw any kind of party, what would it be like and what would it be for?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: I would throw a fancy dress party set in year 3000, just to see what cool ideas people would come up with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subsign: What famous people would you invite to the party and why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Justine<\/span>: Definitely the Foo Fighters for the fun & the music. Probably also a few scientists I admire, for accuracy debates: Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace, Jane Goodall\u2026 some artists like David Lynch and Yoko Ono, and a few robots I guess. It would be quite a strange but brilliant party!<\/p>\n

Thank you, Justine, for being a part of it!<\/p>\n

If you know an artist that should be in the spotlight, contact us at\u00a0jojo@subsign.co<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

For more of\u00a0Justine’s work, you can follow her on the links: Justine’s Instagram<\/a>, Justine’s Facebook<\/a>, Justine’s Portfolio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a few artists in this Spotlight section from the Goodnight stories for rebel girls book, and having Justine was a must! Justine: I am a freelance illustrator currently living in London. Most of my personal works are portraits, often inspired by cinema, music, and literature. I like to draw people (mainly women) who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1779"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subsign.co\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}