We were lucky to catch up with Corinne Roberts recently and have shared our conversation below.

Corinne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The Wanderlust Playing Cards and Oracle Deck

I’ve always loved illustrating whimsical fantasy worlds and creating a mood/story for each one. Painting with watercolor is also physically and mentally relaxing for me. However, during the pandemic, my love became a need and form of escapism as I needed to “travel” when I couldn’t. I pushed myself to create more complex landscapes/cityscapes and my passion for creating whimsical worlds grew. By 2023 I had well over 70+ watercolor and pen illustrations. I decided to create the Wanderlust Playing Cards and Oracle Deck collecting 54 of my favorite illustrations.

It was my largest project to date and my first Kickstarter….an extremely daunting process in itself! I did my research, learned as much as I could and thankfully the Kickstarter was a success. A several year project that finally came to life for 2024.

Wanderlust means a strong desire to travel and that’s exactly what I want to inspire with this project. I hope you journey, reflect, meditate and wander these worlds as I did.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

BIO:

Corinne Roberts is an illustrator working in comics and children’s books (Bug Bites, Drawing Dragons and the Out and About series). Her other illustration projects include the Wanderlust Playing Cards and Oracle Deck and Dragon Calendar series. She’s received several awards for her watercolor/pen illustrations in her home state of Michigan.

Fun Fact…..I initially HATED watercolor. I thought is was messy, out of control, anxiety inducing and swore I would NEVER do it again. After college though, I kept seeing watercolor illustrations and longed to try it again. I learned watercolor wasn’t really the problem…I was. It felt out of control and messy because I feared ruining a piece and forcing watercolor to be something it was not. Letting go of some of my initial expectations gave me room to grow and truly learn to work with it. Watercolor and pen is now the only thing I work in.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Art shows and/or conventions…basically being in front of people. Lots of pressure is put on artists to gain new clients through social media. Although it absolutely helps, I’ve always found that being in front of people, engaging face-to-face etc. has created more new clients and a stronger following of my work. As a watercolorist, seeing people react to the physical watercolor painting that they’ve seen in a book, print or card is extremely rewarding.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

That I kept doing watercolor and pen even though I was specifically told to give it up professionally. For illustration the market is largely dominated by digital media. Traditional artists have a harder time fitting into published projects. However, I realized that I enjoyed doing watercolor and pen every day even if it wasn’t popular or bringing me profitable projects at first. I pursued developing my style and my enjoyment of watercolor. Because of that choice I now have a distinctive style that is grabbing attention and building my reputation as an illustrator.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.corinneroberts.com
• Instagram: corinneroberts123
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corinne.roberts.589/