Jessica Singh

Describe a typical Jessica Singh day.

I'm kind of a night owl, so it means during the day time I like to go outside, grab some air and a coffee and run errands like picking up art supplies, going to the post office etc. I work from home so I find it's pretty important to be outside and still feel connected to the world while it's bright out. In the afternoon I usually reply to emails, try out more experimental craft stuff. When night rolls around I usually begin all my drawing work, website editing, posting and any further emails. My brain works better at night so I find I produce better work and faster in a short amount of time. I find this more productive than forcing myself to draw all day - cause it usually leads to mediocre results. Of course if I have a really tight deadline, I use all my spare time and just focus on getting the job done, and allowing myself the time to experiment and get the best result.

Tell us about you - growing up in Perth and a move to London...

When I was first starting out I think I found Perth to be pretty boring, so it allowed me a lot of time to escape to a fantasy world and just draw, draw, draw. Looking back I would say that Perth definitely inspired my love of color, and forced my reliance on sunshine & blue skies to be inspired. My high school Japanese classes had a big impact on me discovering Japanese animation, street style and so, which I focussed on a lot when I got my first tablet.

My reasons for moving to London was admittedly partly to escape Perth to get new scenery, but also because I was fed up with my uni course in Perth. I tried fine art at first and found it to be too conceptual, so I moved into studying Graphic Design and found that to be too monotonous. I couldn't care less about grids - I just wanted to draw stuff that I thought was rad and intuitively find my way. I remember the final straw was my tutor instructing us to render swiss cheese, and I just found that so far from anything I wanted to do! I think though now it's changed a lot and there are some decent courses in Australia.

So a big part of the reason for the move to London was knowing I wanted to do illustration (that grey area between fine art + graphic design), and also that I wanted the course to challenge me, to be valuable to me. I was also highly interested in doing Fashion illustration as I mainly liked to draw female characters, I thought studying illustration at Central Saint Martins would be the ultimate middle ground between fashion & illustration. I actually couldn't believe I got admitted to the course, but once I was I knew I had to go! London was the perfect place to grow up, be challenged and be inspired!

What were the highlights of your three years in Melbourne?

l love Melbourne! It's one of the best cities ever. I loved hurtling my bike down swanston street, getting coffee and working out of my studio in the Nicholas Building. I love the sense of community among creatives in Melbourne, I found people to be very welcoming and unpretentious and met a lot of artists I admired.

Tell us about your recent exhibitions you've been involved in?

Since I've just moved far from home I haven't been involved in too many exhibitions! The last thing like that I did was late year, where I created a window shop display for Miss Brown Vintage as part of the Perth Fashion Festival. It was so fun because they let me do whatever I wanted. I made a Japanese cherry blossom spring picnic themed window - and won First Prize! (She's being modest - if you need a kick start check out her cv!)