We recently connected with Heather Schilling and have shared our conversation below.

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I would say that I knew I wanted to be a professional artist when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I would draw and color all the time, copying comic strips and creating my own little characters. Of course I had a love of animation and comic strips. I would watch all the Saturday morning cartoons, including the Bugs Bunny hour, and I would read Calvin and Hobbes every Sunday. When I was about 8 years old I saw a documentary/special about Bugs Bunny that showed Chuck Jones talking about and drawing the famous rabbit. This is when I had my “people get paid to draw?! I want to do that!” moment. After that I would search out more behind-the-scenes specials, books and magazines about artists and drawing.

Heather, 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?

I am a scratch board artist, which means I draw with a knife. A scratch board is an ink covered clay board and I use an exacto knife to scratch away the ink as I draw. It’s kind of like that assignment in art class where you color the paper with a crayon, then put another color on top of it and use a wooden stick to scratch off the top color; but it’s the next level. I first introduced to the paper version in high school where, admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan. Later, in college, I tried it again. This time it was the clay board, and I fell in love. I have been using it ever since. A lot of scratch board artists use the medium to create portraits or animals. My subject is a bit darker or whimsically macabre, if you will. I create a lot Halloween themed illustrations and characters that may seem dark and scary, but I give them a humorous or sweet touch. My characters include an exuberant young reaper who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps, a Corgirus (Cerberus, but with corgis) and a little girl who fights an ongoing war with snowmen. I am most proud of the pieces that make people laugh out loud.
I sell original art, prints, t-shirts and sketch/art books as well as commissions. While I do have an online store at my website (www.artofhmschilling.com) I also make appearances at various oddities art fairs and pop culture conventions.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Right now my particular goal is to create story books. I always have some kind of story in my head as I draw each illustration; and I use many of the same characters in these pieces too. However, I have not put them all together in story form. This is something I would really like to do and am working to accomplish.

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

I would say that one of the times I had to pivot in my career actually happened a little gradually. That is, it took a while for me to realize I had to change. When I started with scratch board I would do dark subjects, mostly skeletons, but they had no humor. There was a bit of sadness, mystery or horror in the work. Occasionally a small scratch would show my sense of humor, and people got the jokes. They were fun to do as well. While the other work was popular, I found I enjoyed doing the whimsically macabre stuff more. It was time for me to change it up and I pivoted to the stuff that made me more happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artofhmschilling.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/artofhmschilling/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArtofHeatherMSchilling