We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Comstock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I have been drawing my entire life. Ever since I could hold I pencil I remember drawing, I think it came naturally to me. I was always creating characters and stories in my spare time, starting a multitude of illustrated books that never came to completion. Despite all of this, growing up I never dreamed of just being an artist. I always felt a deep love for the natural world, especially the ocean, and therefore my childhood aspiration was to become a marine biologist. I didn’t pursue this aspiration, instead, choosing studio art as my major in college. Now I’ve completed a bachelor’s degree in studio art and a master’s degree in creative technologies and work as a full-time freelance artist. I love that art is my job, however, there are still times when I have thought to myself “what would my life be like if I had pursued my other love, animals?” I do still think it’s something I could have done and would be happy with, however, I don’t have regrets about my path in life. Even though I am a full-time artist, my desire to learn about the natural world has never left. My art would not be what it is without my love for animals. I create creatures and worlds inspired by our own, bringing in features that can be seen all over the animal kingdom, both extant and extinct. I like to draw appreciation for all of these beings, from cute furry mammals to strange insects many would be repulsed by. I still seek to expand my knowledge of animals, photographing even to smallest insect to later identify and possibly incorporate into a design. Animals are my greatest inspiration. So, while I didn’t pursue the path of scientific work, I have always kept that passion and incorporated it into my life in a different way.

Hannah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello! I’m Hannah, a freelance illustrator and creature designer who also designs and sells merchandise. I create a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror-themed creatures as well as animal-inspired art. Many of my creature designs fall into original worlds that I’m developing, with the end goal to complete illustrated book projects about them. On the other side, my merchandise includes enamel pins, embroidered patches, and stickers that feature my artwork. Typically, I will begin by creating an illustration before redesigning that illustration into pin or patch form. My work is heavily influenced by my love for the natural world, but I am also a big fan of the horror genre and many of the ideas within it. I like to incorporate animals into my work with a twist of fantasy and horror, often mutating things with extra eyes and amalgamating animal features into a new being. I work in both digital and traditional mediums regularly, with my favorites being Procreate on the iPad Pro and pencil on paper. Other mediums I like to work with include Posca pens, ZBrush, watercolor, gouache, and ballpoint pen.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started Instagram back when I got my first iPod touch many years ago, using it to share photos of my pets and other random things. It wasn’t until the later years of my undergraduate studies that I started using my account seriously for sharing my artwork. At this point, I began only posting my art, whether it be a simple sketch I did that day or a completed piece that took hours to complete. It took a lot of posting and using hashtags to start gaining traction, but I kept at it. The more I posted, the more people began to see my work and share it. I started to connect with other artists and receive feedback from them. My best advice to those starting out is to keep on posting and sharing your work. If people like what you make, they will follow. Try to post something every day, even if it’s just a simple sketch. I have found that people love seeing sketches and in-progress shots. Consistency seems to be key, so I try to share something at least once a day to keep myself relevant in my follower’s feeds. Some of the posts I share might not get as much traction as others, but that’s okay, I’ve come to find that that’s just how social media as an artist is. The growth of my social media audience allowed me to pursue a full-time career as a freelance artist, as I started to create merchandise and launch Kickstarter campaigns to create products.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to share my unique creations with the world. I am frequently thinking up concepts of bizarre creatures and the lands they inhabit, and being an artist lets me bring those ideas to life and show them off to others. Seeing reactions to these creations is very rewarding, whether it’s someone wanting to know more about the world one beast inhabits or someone telling me my horrific monster is going to keep them up at night. I feel extremely fortunate that people like these original creatures I make, allowing me to pursue my ideas further and eventually compile them into something more. That people like my designs enough to purchase them and display them on their clothes and walls is amazing to me, and the fact that I now ship my artwork all over the world in the form of pins, patches, prints, stickers, and keychains still feels unreal.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hannahcomstock.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahorca/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hannahorca