We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elenor Post. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elenor below.
Elenor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Like many artists, I have been creating since I could remember. However, in high school, I often prioritized other subjects and thought I would pursue a career in another field. That eventually changed thanks to my incredible art teacher. I started considering art more seriously, investing time into my work and falling in love with painting. With so many techniques and mediums to try, the possibilities were endless! My classes taught me watercolor, oil paint, and acrylic paint, in addition to how to tell stories. Combining paper, fabric, and collage, I had the chance to experiment with all sorts of materials. Yet even in experimenting, I found it easy to become too comfortable with the same thing.
High school ended and college began, and I was still stuck in the exact art style I had been developing for the last four years. I chose Illustration as my major, but I wasn’t sure how I would fit into it with how important digital work is in the industry. It was intimidating to see how talented my peers were, including their skills in programs I had never even opened. The pandemic hit, and I studied online at home. I tried out digital art, but nothing looked right. I began to feel extremely hopeless; I saw such amazing digital illustrations online, yet I couldn’t even begin to replicate their success. I could do work traditionally, yet not at all digitally. Eventually, I decided to focus on traditional art again and push myself within that.
College life returned to being in-person, and I took my first digital illustration class. While very much imperfect, the work I did then changed everything. I was pushed like never before, and I soon realized that I had forgotten the most important part of experimenting: allowing yourself to make mistakes. After that, I constantly researched new digital techniques, watching videos, reading drawing books, saving social media posts, and asking professors. With all this new information, I tried new things, and in the end, I found that I didn’t need to completely abandon my traditional painting to begin my digital work. Now, I love painting both ways, and I am practicing forgiving myself for making mistakes while experimenting. I feel that it is so true when they say that your taste in art often will improve before your skill in art does. So, while learning the craft, I hope that others will also learn to be kind to themselves and enjoy their mistakes.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello, everyone! My name is Elenor Post, and I am a freelance illustrator working in publication and surface design under the name Elenor Makes Art. Since I was a kid, I have always been interested in learning about people, relationships, emotions, and life. Now, my goal is to create art and design that connects with others through those ideas. I also like to incorporate decorative symbolism, portraiture, cute animals, layered color, and pattern into my work! Currently, I study Illustration, Painting, and Graphic Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design and am preparing for my after school goal of working in-house while continuing freelance illustration. I especially enjoy illustrating for package design, home decor, children’s books, and editorial. I am constantly looking for inspiration in my everyday life, music, art, books, and other media, and I enjoy creating intricate and vibrantly colorful work in both digital and traditional mediums. From my personal hobbies to the community service and jobs I have worked on as Elenor Makes Art, art is at the heart of all that I do!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I feel like I often have heard that in order to be a successful artist, you have to always be making something. I have heard illustrators talk about how they are constantly working, sacrificing balance, and how that lifestyle is ideal for them. Therefore, for many years, I was stuck in that idea. And, maybe that works great for other artists, but for anyone like me, it becomes easy to burn out. I absolutely love art and being an illustrator brings me joy. However, after overworking myself for so long, when it came to my art, I felt that nothing ever was enough. Recently, I was diagnosed with ADHD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Social Anxiety Disorder, and I had to start reevaluating my life in order to understand why and where I was failing. I realized that in forcing myself to illustrate for long hours all the time and constantly trying to produce perfect projects, it became difficult to motivate myself and to be able to enjoy the process. Someone once said to me that you can’t love being an artist if you only enjoy the final piece rather than the process itself. So for the last few months, I have been restructuring my workflow based upon that concept. I now work in shifts rather than trying to finish everything at once, and I have been unlearning my perfectionist habits. I think it’s difficult to unlearn something you’ve built your habits on, so I definitely still have a long way to go. But, for the first time in a while, I feel like I’m starting a happier, more balanced schedule for myself and my art.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I love this question! I think the best way to support a thriving creative ecosystem is for each person to do what works for them to support the arts. Following and engaging with artists’ content on social media platforms is a great free way to become involved. Similarly, sharing creatives’ work and shop information can be really helpful and is also free! With sharing, I think crediting artists is also extremely important. Whenever work goes uncredited, artists lose out on networking, payment, and it becomes easy for art to be stolen. Additionally, financial support like buying art sold online is great. So many fantastic artists I know have their own shops with items for all sorts of price ranges, which are great for gifts! In-person art festivals, craft fairs, and art markets are a fun way to engage as well! These events are especially good for supporting local artists in your community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elenorpost.wixsite.com/portfolio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenormakesart/
Image Credits
Elenor Makes Art