We were lucky to catch up with Tina Carbone recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

I’m a New York-based illustrator known by the pseudonym Palesile on social media. Majoring in illustration, I graduated with an AA from the Academy of Art University, and a BFA from the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design with honors.

Having always been fascinated by the various forms of storytelling, I can often be found with my nose in a book or wiping my eyes after a great film. With an especially enthusiastic appreciation for technology in art, my primary medium is digital painting. I take pride in my large collection of books (there aren’t enough shelves in the world,) and have recently begun a career in book art/cover design.

I really want my art to express the tenderness of my heart, so I try to make every illustration a combination of soft blends and hard edges in a precarious balance that organizes the chaos of my own emotions. The reverence I hold for big feelings, I want to share with others who might recognize them and find solace in the emotive characters and stories that I tell through strokes of vibrancy and flowing forms. My aim is to create bodies both with strong substance and ethereal weightlessness, as well as stories that strike a balance between familiar and dreamlike. I hope the whimsy of romance, friendship, and self-love as shown in my art appears as though being viewed from behind a rose-colored film, from my heart to yours.

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

So far, the most rewarding part of being an artist has been making things that people deeply connect with. I think social media inherently comes with this pressure to grow and have a large audience. But I find that whether or not my art achieves a certain reach on social media could never compare to the feeling of the meaningful comments or messages I receive when a piece really means something to the viewer or had an effect on them. My art has always been something very personal to my heart, so when it connects with even just one person that’s a very special feeling.

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

Social media is a real tough space. There are a lot of platforms with a lot of opportunities for growth and exposure, but there’s also a lot of pressure, rules, and competition. I’m still in the process of building an audience, but it takes an immense amount of time, dedication, and consistency (which I know you hear everywhere.) The most success I’ve had is with TikTok which helped me boost my Instagram quite a bit, Though I haven’t completely figured out the algorithm the best advice I can give is to 1. Find a niche 2. Post consistently (I’m terrible at this) and 3. Make content that people want to see. I know there’s some push-back on this take, artists want to make the art that they want to make without constraints or “selling out”. With any industry, product, or service there’s supply and demand and with such a saturated market, your best bet is to figure out what that demand is. Artists tend to want to be the trendsetters, not followers so it might seem counterintuitive to follow trends or even delve into “fanart” which some people tend to look down on. But the reality is, I started gaining real traction when I started making stuff just for fun for fandoms that I enjoyed personally. That support showed me that I could find a way to make creations that I was excited about and that other people were excited about too! It helped me build an audience that both supports my original ideas and the fan work. It also led me to the book communities on several social media platforms where my fanart started turning into requests and commissions for new and original book art. Now I work with a publishing company and frequently get commissioned by authors to make original work for their books. So using the tools at my disposal, I’ve been able to turn creating for fun into real professional work. There’s no one way to succeed on social media, and you most certainly don’t have to follow the path that I did, but I do encourage everyone to think outside the box about the many different ways you could potentially use social media to advance your career!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.palesile.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palesile/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/palesileart/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/palesile