We recently connected with Katharine Harris and have shared our conversation below.

Katharine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Throughout high school, I was pondering what I wanted to do professionally. With the desire to further my education, I was stuck between a lot of options on what I wanted to pursue. At first, I was hesitant to pursue art due to a family member’s poor experience with pursuing his passion in composition as a career. Around the time I had to make a decision on what I wanted to pursue after college, I discovered the game Spiritfarer. This game was the first video game that left a lasting impact on me. Described as a “comfort game about death,” it explored the process of grief and acceptance through a mechanically simple game and a strong narrative. This is what sparked my interest and desire to go into the game industry as an artist. The desire to not only develop a game but to be a part of a team that is trying to share something bigger. Although, while this sparked my interest in pursuing art as a career, what solidified it was when I began to take commissions. I found that I enjoyed the collaborative work that comes with working with a client. I knew from that experience that this was the right path for me to follow.

Katharine, 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’m Katie–or Kat–and I’m a 21-year-old artist! As of right now, I am primarily a 2d Artist, but I’m finishing up my studies to start branching out as an artist in the Game Industry in both 2D and 3D disciplines. Online, I go by Hanbaycruise (or Cruise for short). I’m passionate about all things fantasy and sci-fi. I have been consistently taking freelance illustration commissions for the past 3 years but have pursued art for most of my life. In my work, I value bringing to life my client’s visions and staying true to the work given to me. Most of the commissions I take are poster-like in style and feature original characters of my client. In my work, I enjoy being able to try new things with my art. Whether this be experimenting with mediums, techniques, or styles, I enjoy being able to push my limits on what I can create as an artist. One of my most successful services is my experimental commissions in which I get to have creative liberty with the style of the piece I create. I love being able to create in my “normal” style, but the freedom of getting to experiment has resulted in some of my best work to date.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing how I’ve improved over time and how others have helped me through that. The best choice I ever made as an artist was getting involved in creative communities. I’m incredibly grateful to have the resources to be able to interact with others who share a similar creative lifestyle. It’s incredibly gratifying to be able to see what others create and feel inspired by their work. As an artist, I live by the stance that there is always a place to grow. As someone who has been incredibly active in creating art for most of their life, I love to be able to look back at old work and remember where I was at during the time it was made. Yeah, maybe that old piece of art from middle school is really cringe, but it is physical proof of a lived experience. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel a lot of other careers don’t have that same “window to that past” that being an artist has, and I’m incredibly grateful that I have this work to be immortalized within myself.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It may have been in middle school, but whenever I feel beaten down as an artist I think about the time that I had a little “existential crisis” over being an artist. Around 7th grade or so, I had just begun to get into writing and illustrating my own stories and characters. As a young artist who had just started to get online, I was surrounded by peers and older artists who were “better” than me. I remember working on a piece of my character at that time and getting upset, questioning why I was still doing this and why I couldn’t be as good as those around me as fast as I wanted to. I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist, and over the years I have had to learn how to not let being a perfectionist get to me. I couldn’t tell you exactly what made me have a change of heart that night, but I pushed through making that piece. I hated it in the moment, I remember being angry with myself while making it and almost giving up, yet I didn’t. I’ve had people around me supporting me in my work and telling me to keep pushing forward. In every moment I have felt doubt, I just remember the joy that this line of work has brought me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hanbaycruise.wixsite.com/portfolio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-harris-/
• Other: Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/hanbaycruise
  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hanbaycruise.bsky.social

Image Credits

Lauren Palumbo