BRIGIT LAMBERT is a 27-year-old illustrator from Melbourne. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a degree in Fine Arts; since graduating her illustrations have been published in various literary magazines and been a part of several exhibitions. Her work is observational, often exploring the themes of the bizarre, anxiety and the everyday.
Our Layout Editor, Mikayla Bamford, talks to Brigit about her artwork ‘Bread and Butter Pickles’, published in #21: Salt.
Your drawing ‘Bread and Butter Pickles’, published in #21 SALT, was composed digitally. What are the differences and advantages when it comes to digital drawing compared to hand-to-paper drawing?
I actually work in both mediums to create a finished illustration, initially sketching ideas or compositions, which I then re-line and clean up digitally.
I hate making mistakes so working digitally definitely gives you much more room to correct any of those. It also makes it easier to play around with composition within the illustration, having elements on different layers. That can be much harder to visualise when sketching, but I find the process of getting ideas down is much easier and feels more organic when being put down on paper.
So they both have their place and I guess the downsides are balanced out by the benefits of the other.
You studied fine arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, this is something our readers would find interesting! What can you tell us about your experience studying art in an academic environment? How does studying a degree in art influence your practise?
I studied fine art photography at VCA, but by final year I was working in several different mediums. These days I mainly focus on illustration and photography.
My experience at VCA had its good and bad points. Going to any arts school comes with the pressures of comparison and criticism, and VCA was no exception. You feel both built up and broken down and it’s a disorienting experience, but in the years since I’ve put a lot of work into developing my own style. It’s something I’m still working on, but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. That being said, I’m grateful for my time there and I did learn a lot from it.
I was hoping you could talk about what works or events you have on the horizon? Where can our readers find your work?
I don’t have any events or group shows planned in the coming months, but I’m always trying to work on new stuff.