Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicole Lesny. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Nicole, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

As an artist, being creative all the time is impossible. Breaks are needed to help restore those creative juices, and as of recently I’m beginning to understand this topic more. I have a few meaningful projects I’ve worked on in the past. I started and paused them as I kept getting ideas for new projects. These projects aligned with my interests, such as what I love to see in entertainment or an aspect of my life.

One project was about a young girl and a ghost of her grandma. I drew inspiration from my own life and culture, from being a first-generation Polish-American and the death of my grandma. I believed it could be a project I could put my emotions into and convey my views on the topic through story.

Another project focused on a fantasy adventure with some kids trying to get the main character back to his home in the skies. I’m fond of the fantasy genre, it is visually aesthetic and fun to explore outside the real world. I wanted to explore different life lessons through a fun adventure exploring the world and making friends. It’s stories like these that can lead to a bundle of emotions you never expected, they always get me when I read or see them in animation.

And one more favorite is a project taking inspiration from Slavic folklore, a young girl traveling to an island to help save her village. Over the years, I was inspired by one friend and came to understand that I want to learn more about my culture. While making a fun story, I get to learn folklore and find wants to transform it to help tell my own variation of the stories.

From my point of view, you can’t always make work for one specific audience. It’s why I’ve been exploring more of my work. But constantly making new ideas is difficult, and in times like these when I don’t have fresh inspiration, I discovered the importance of having these kinds of meaningful projects. Because of how personal they are to me or include my favorite things, I can let myself relax a little and continue to create while recharging my brain in my search for new projects.

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

I studied illustration at Columbia College Chicago between 2018 to 2022. At the time illustration was a hobby, but I wanted to see what could come out of it. Seeing how well my work was taken and discovering the fields of illustration, I kept working hard and found my passion. During one of my semesters I took a class on children’s book illustrations, and I felt that it was my calling. Spreads, spots, covers, maps, backgrounds, characters, there are many different kinds of illustrations that can be done. I became especially fond of the middle grade genre, it felt that my style fit right in. I believe that as an illustrator, one should adapt their style to meet the needs of the work, and it took me some time to understand this. But I am happy I explored my work because I don’t wish to limit myself to one genre of children’s book illustration or a specific audience, my desire is to create for a range of people.

One thing I am proud of and I believe is the largest appeal to my work is my use of color. Color plays a strong role in my work, for example, color can be striking, set the emotions of the piece, and it can lead your eyes in a certain direction. I am thankful for my one game art class I took because the final project was a series of pieces of a game we made up and I challenged myself to use saturated colors. I’ve loved working with colors for a long time, but they were fairly dull back then. Since that project, my use of color reached new heights. My use of color paired together with my painting style, a mix of hard and soft strokes, is an iconic detail to my work. Even if I adapt my painting style to meet other needs, the colors still hold that piece of me.

I have an interest in learning new things and putting my skills to use beyond illustrations. As I continued to develop my portfolio after graduation and successfully got an illustration internship, I also started to learn graphic design. Using resources available to me to further improve my skills, I got another internship where I gained more knowledge on graphic design and am continuing to work hard.

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

As a kid and to this day, I love watching animations. It’s a wonderful form of entertainment that sucks you in and gets you invested. It’s why I love to daydream, I love to come up with scenarios about characters I’ve designed. A hero’s journey, romance, betrayal, a fun adventure, though I am still a beginner when it comes to writing, I love to create stories. With so much happening in the world, kicking back and finding something entertaining is my main goal driving my creative journey. I want to create something that is fun or interesting to look at, an outlet for people to enjoy. I make a series of illustrations and tell a story through the scene, emotions, color, props, and characters, and I would like for others to enjoy the image and relax as if they are watching television or reading a book. Storytelling led me to my love for illustration and the fields I am interested in today.

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

I got my first part-time job when I started college. I worked twice a week while being a full-time student, and my scholarship allowed me to work twice a week and start saving to repay my loans while helping my family pay rent. It was okay at first, but as the years went by I realized how difficult working part-time and being a full-time student was for me. Long work days got in the way of attempting to make connections and friends during my freshman year as a commuting student. I prioritized coming home right away to complete homework to ensure some free time for myself.

The pandemic occurred during the spring semester of my sophomore to junior year. It was a halt in the already scarce contact or connections I had with my peers, all I had was my family and coworkers. My motivation was low, I was always tired from assignments and work, and I didn’t want to do anything. I remember speaking with a coworker, she told me her daughter was in the same situation as me and felt as if she had no time to do anything. Things couldn’t stay as they were, I was paying to go to college, yet I felt like I wasn’t doing anything even though three years had gone by. The summer before the start of my senior year, I quit my part-time job and my mother was not happy about it. It was out of concern because she was worried about how I’d pay for college and rent, but I saved a lot. Despite how upset she was, I knew I had to quit that job.

That following year was the highlight of my college career. Discovering techniques, developing interests in new fields, and making so much new work and connections with classmates, my senior year was a whole new experience. Graduating made me sad, it was my senior year that showed me what college was meant to be like and I wish I had gotten the chance to do so earlier, but I’m glad I made the decision I did, it transformed my work to a whole new level.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nlesnii.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nlesnii/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolelesny/