We were lucky to catch up with Ashly Lovett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashly, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

From a very young age, I showed a strong interest in drawing. I was always the nerdy art kid assigned to do the school mural projects. When I started looking at my future, it was my brother who encouraged me to apply to an art school, and later that year I was accepted into Ringling College of Art and Design and majored in illustration. My four years there were wonderful. I learned the fundamentals of design, had incredible instructors, and built many strong relationships with my peers.

However, by the time I graduated, I still didn’t quite know what type of artwork I wanted to create. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do for my portfolio, which was frankly all over the place. Two months after graduation, I did land a job creating artwork for a baby product company. I was the person who made all those cute little characters on bottles and pacifiers. This was not a very creatively empowering career choice for me. I wasn’t interested in cute illustrations, so I only stayed there for a year. My next job was as a graphic designer for a local magazine. I was in charge of creating ads for sponsors. Again, not an exciting career path for me personally.

Now two years had gone by since I graduated, and I was only just beginning to understand myself and what made me creatively tick. Fortunately, what helped turn things around was when I received a two-year scholarship with Visual Arts Passage formerly known as The Art Department. This is an online art school with many talented instructors that I admire like John Foster, Sterling Hundley, George Pratt, etc.

During my time with them, I started asking myself what kind of artwork did I enjoy personally consuming. I loved fantasy, fairy tales, mythology, film, and RPG video games. And ultimately I loved reading and the relationship between the written word and illustration. Ever since I was a kid I loved breaking down book covers and how they would relate to the stories I was about to read. I would do the same thing with the spot illustrations above each chapter. I’d say the Harry Potter book illustrations by Mary GrandPré were the best.

I started analyzing my work and trying to understand the type of design language I used. I decided I instinctually enjoyed drawing flowing organic shapes and using expressive mark-making. Much like the painters that inspired me in college like John Singer Sargent and Jenny Saville. I also loved doing portrait work. So, with this new focus, I was able to pursue commercial work and personal work with a clear game plan. I made a list of clients that I wanted to work for based on the type of illustrative work I wanted to draw. I wanted to do illustrations for young adult publishing for fantasy, horror, and pop culture. I finally figured out what made me tick.

In hindsight, I wish I would have taken a step back sooner and dissected who I was as an artist. But honestly, sometimes it just takes time to figure out what you do and don’t want. You’ll always get there eventually so long as you keep creating.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Ashly Lovett and I am a freelance illustrator. I create horror and fantasy illustrations for the publishing and entertainment industry, as well as, my own content. This means that I work for myself in my home studio and create commercial work for books, films, and games, and create content and merchandising from my personal projects. My income derives from commercial work, crowdfunding projects, Patreon, selling merchandise, selling works in galleries, commissions, licensing, and teaching online classes.

My most recent commercial work was creating some interior illustrations for Hit Point Press which publish campaign books for Dungeons and Dragons. Another recent project that gives me great pride was a poster design for the Academy-nominated film ‘Nightmare Alley’ by Director Guillermo Del Toro. Mr. Del Toro had purchased artwork of mine for his private collection over the years. But this was the first time I worked on a commercial project with him and Fox Searchlight. I was incredibly honored. He asked me to illustrate what is called a fan core poster for his film. A fan core poster is meant to appeal to del Toro‘s main fan base.

It was one of the biggest projects of my career, and also the tightest deadline I’ve ever dealt with. I quickly learned that many projects in the entertainment industry usually demand fast turnarounds and a lot of hurrying up and waiting. For my subject prompt, they asked for the main character of the film, played by Bradley Cooper, to be centered and surrounded by his three love interests as misty figures. Lighting had to obscure half of his face. And the hat was essential. The biggest challenge for this particular project was incorporating the women in a visually pleasing way. Adding a bunch of floating heads can easily look silly. I also had the challenge of working with very specific photo references required by Fox Searchlight. I was given access to thousands of photos and had to Frankenstein a concept together. That meant matching up everything with consistent lighting and good reference to make a nice composition. Overall, it was a stressful job, but highly rewarding.

When I’m not doing commercial work, I’m constantly creating my own intellectual property that I use for merchandise and licensing. My last really big project was an illustrated book of “The Little Mermaid.” It is an adaptation of the original story from the 1830s by H.C. Andersen. The project played to my strengths since I love drawing mermaids and the darker narrative worked with my aesthetic. It was fully funded on Kickstarter back in 2019 and was later picked up by the publisher Eye of Newt Books for a second edition. This was pretty awesome since that was my dearest hope for the book when I first began its creation. Overall, it was a real labor of love that took about 3 years to complete.

Designing a book from scratch, building a campaign for its launch on Kickstarter, and working out all the logistics for its production was a huge endeavor. But, the final result was well worth it and I’m already working on my next book titled, “The Book of Fairy Tales” which will be written and illustrated by me. It is an adaptation of classic fairy tale stories like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Except I’ll have some gender reversals and many of the stories will be more about platonic love. And each tragedy will be connected by a single villain, an evil fairy. The book is still in development, but I’ve completed a lot of concept artwork thus far. I look forward to beginning several of the illustrations later this year. The book is scheduled to launch on Kickstarter in 2023. I’ve been sharing my process lately over on my Patreon and in my Quarterly Kickstarter Newsletter.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started selling my work as a vendor in 2016 at fantasy conventions like Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA, I realized my work appealed to a niche market. I was offering mostly prints of portrait of fantasy characters, which I loved creating. And they were well received by the crowd, but I wasn’t making the income I wanted. I needed to expand my portfolio. That’s when I decided to create an illustrated book. I would use written content that was public domain, but it still meant I would need to do sequential artwork and tell a consistent narrative. The prospect intimidated me a lot. But, when you’re pushed slightly out of your comfort zone, that’s when you start creating something magical. Especially if you’re passionate about your project. People will respond to that passion.

That pivot in my career lead to more clients, more income, and more illustrative work I had always wanted to do. It was scary and sometimes difficult to execute, but well worth it. Always ask yourself, “What’s the next best step for my career?” It is the only way to progress and become a better artist.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Honestly, online tutorials and classes from amazing art school and illustrators are everywhere these days. Gumroad is full of them. I wish I had those resources when I started out. So, I’d suggest taking advantage of it all. See what your favorite artists are putting out there on Gumroad, Discord, Patreon, and other platforms. Do your research based on the industry you’re most interested. I personally have my Patreon that offers demos and tutorials for illustrating traditionally with chalk pastels and digital color.

Contact Info:

• Website: Ashlylovett.com
• Instagram: Ashlylovett
• Facebook: Ashlylovett
• Twitter: Ashlylovett
• Youtube: Ashlylovett
• Other: Patreon.com/ashlylovett

Image Credits
“Ambition” and “Storm” need to say ©Eye of Newt Books “Nightmare Alley” ©Fox Searchlight Everything else is ©Ashly Lovett Illustration LLC.