We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Penny Fournier. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Penny below.

Penny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

For a long time, art has been the only thing I was good at, it was my outlet and my escape. So when I moved to New York to pursue it professionally I was afraid that I’d lose the joy that came with creating. And for a while I did. A few years ago I launched a brand of stationery and gifts. I was selling everything from pins, patches and greeting cards. I spent my days packing orders, drafting invoices and printing paper goods from a freezing studio in Dumbo. I found myself in a nine to five of my own making when I was trying to avoid exactly that. I was spending 10% of my time creating content that wasn’t fulfilling to me and the rest running a small business. I had lost the taste for creating and with it, my sense of self. I took some well needed time off, put away my pencils and orders and tried to figure out if being an artist was still making me happy or was I doing it because I was “good at it”. Should I just get a regular job and draw on sundays? I was living in New York, the summer was hot, humid and soul crushing. I was spending my days walking around the streets and people watching. And it was during this artistic and litteral drought that I found myself reaching for my sketchbook, writing ideas, drawing cool things I saw in the city. I wasn’t planning on showing these to anyone and I realized, even if I was the last person on earth, I would still be drawing. I closed the stationery business and decided to get back to the side of art that made me give up the security of a nine to five in the first place. I truly believe that the most sincere form of art is the one people relate to the most. By creating pieces I was passionate about, talking about women’s rights, mental health and the everyday struggle of being a twenty something in the world, not only filled my cup but filled others too. By putting work I was proud of in the world I got to meet amazing people, work on exciting projects and find a way back to myself in a way I could never have in a “regular job”.

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

I’ve been described as a “jack of all trades” for as long as I can remember. I love drawing but growing up in Paris, I was always inspired by paintings, architecture, fashion and animation. I got into illustration because it allowed me to apply my work to a lot of different fields and it really did. After moving from Paris to New York to pursue my BFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts, I worked freelance for various genres including book illustration, comics and surface design. While completing my Masters degree in illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I got to learn from amazing illustrators who inspired me and

broaden my horizons even more. I got to work as a set designer, I illustrated book covers, created wedding invites, worked in editorial illustration and did more dog portraits than I ever thought I would! I’m always up for a new challenge and I’m able to adapt my work to a lot of different fields while retaining the whimsical and satirical aspect of my own style.
I find inspiration in real life experiences, traveling, learning and exploring. I love living in New York because I get inspired just walking around, observing the city and it’s inhabitants. In my personal work, I like to post short comics about my life on instagram and soon on Webtoon. I talk about funny things that happened to me, random thoughts, but also my experience as a woman in the world, dealing with street harassment and sexism. My illustration have a lightness to them that allows me to talk about serious matters in an entertaining and relatable way. Through my work I like to educate, provoke and make people laugh!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Both in my creative journey and my life, I expected to have a linear growth. I thought the first big job I had was going to set me for the rest of my career or that I’ll learn a valuable lesson from each mistake I made. I quickly learned that reality is everything but linear. For every breakthrough I’ve have a hundred failures that I learned nothing from except how bad they were. But I’ve also had incredible successes that I could never have planned. I suppose I learned to embrace the unexpected and forget about any tight expectations I had about being an artist.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Personally, getting to do what I’ve been passionate about my whole life as a job and not hate it is the most rewarding part. Art has always been an important outlet for me and I was worried that doing it as a job would ruin the craft for me. As a creative, it’s hard to have a healthy balance between work and life because art is part of every aspect of my life. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. In the past, I’ve neglected that balance and ended up burning out and falling out of love with my own work. Now, after a lot of calibration and work, I am so happy to feel proud and excited about my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pennyillustration.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/penny.illustration/
• Other: Tik Tok is https://www.tiktok.com/@penny.illustration