We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea D’Arcy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Andrea, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
When I got my Leaving Cert points, I got under the amount I needed and had no backup plan at all because I had been pushed to go immediately into a four year University course. I had picked random places and had no idea what I was going to do and was having a hard time keeping a cool head. By this point, I had fully given up illustration for four years and had no plans to go back to it, given the bad experiences I had had with my art teacher. My mother saw an ad in the paper advertising a technical course in GTI (Galway Technical Institute) for an animation course, which I applied to as a late applicant. I was thinking of going into a sector where I would be sure to make money but my mother insisted I try out for the animation course. I went in, found out the animation course was no longer running, but that they had a game design that I could apply to and had a good interview but was told the course was full and not to get my hopes up about it. Fast forward a few months and I got an email saying I had been accepted and I was absolutely delighted. When I got into that classroom and started drawing again and creating more artwork then what was necessary for the brief just out of sure enjoyment, I knew that this was the only career path for me and I would never be as happy or fulfilled if I tried anything else.
Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I got into the industry through a work placement I had in college. They really liked my work and I loved working with them and I was delighted when they accepted me into the team as a junior artist. I’ve grown and continued to grow because of the people I work with and cannot thank them enough for giving the tools I needed to be the artist I am today. I work mainly as a prop/character designer for a variety of animated kids shows, but most people would know me from my personal work, which mainly consists of fanart, particularly Pokemon fanart. I love getting to draw Pokemon just living in the world and have been working on a series of pleinairs depicting different Pokemon existing in the world for PleinAirpril and I’ve felt like it’s been a hit with the people that follow me and has helped me distinguish myself and my art a bit more. It’s definitely the series I’m most proud of, because it has shown my improvement from the previous year I participated in PleinAirpril and also that I’m skilled enough to incorporate these designs into different environments and lighting situations. I think it’s also shown people that I love to try out new things and can adapt to many different styles.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Getting the opportunity to learn has been the most rewarding part of being an artist for me. A lot of the time it can feel like you’re failing upwards, but I think making mistakes in painting (even if they look hideous) and getting to try again and again has helped me improve a lot simply because I’m learning by doing and a lot of the things that went wrong in a particular piece can be used as a learning curve and you can tackle the next piece with that information and make a better go of it, which I absolutely love.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think society needs to change its overall opinion that art is ‘unimportant’ or ‘less deserving’ of attention. There’s a sense of entitlement that people should just be given art and not that it is a privilege given by the artist. A lot of artists share their work because they want to connect with people and because people have free access to it, they think it is a constant and never consider the labour that goes into it and if told, people are in disbelief and say that they should spend time at something ‘worthwhile.’ Art has always impacted me in ways I couldn’t believe, either making me gush over linework or cry at a painting. Art is very important to the human experience and I think if people treated it with a bit more respect, artists would be better supported.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreadarcyart/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andreadarcyart Tumblr: https://at.tumblr.com/andreadarcyart/cu2fd82pryyz
Image Credits
Image Credits: Andrea D’Arcy