• Site stats:
  • Total number of broadcasts: 240
  • Total number of interviews: 21
  • About us
  • An interview with: Matthew Hawkins
  • At college someone told me that illustration would allow me to draw and paint and get paid for it.
  • The Design View: How did you first get into illustration?
  • Matthew Hawkins: I listened to some advice at college many years ago that illustration would allow me to draw and paint and get paid for it, at the time this seemed like a more responsible route than fine art.
  • The Design View: How do you normally start work on a project?
  • Matthew Hawkins: For me all projects start with the word(s), whether this is a commercial brief or a more personally driven project. I start by making notes and these naturally progress to thumbnails and then roughs. I've built up quite a large library of my own images and picture research and the next step is to look through these for inspiration/reference.
  • The Design View: How would you best describe your style of illustration?
  • Matthew Hawkins: Drawing based worlds that bring the past to life in future landscapes of vibrant colour, populated by magical characters dancing to a soundtrack of cinematic beauty.
  • The Design View: Do you get a lot of creative freedom when working with clients?
  • Matthew Hawkins: I seem to either get complete freedom or very little, understandably this is normally reflective of the fee.
  • The Design View: Please tell us a bit about your personal studio and your setup?
  • Matthew Hawkins: In the last couple of months I have just moved from a studio I shared with 10 other illustrators and have started working at home. It was fantastic working with others seeing what everyone was getting up to but in the end I felt it just ended up affecting my own personal approach, not in a bad way but I seem to generate more original work when I am left to my own devices.
  • The Design View: If you ever get stuck for ideas, how do you overcome your creative block?
  • Matthew Hawkins: I take some time out and do something unrelated to my practice, listen to music and let my mind wander.
  • The Design View: What do you love most about illustration?
  • Matthew Hawkins: I teach illustration at Camberwell and I love that there are so many new and different approaches, ideas, styles, languages, philosophies and interests waiting to burst out.
  • The Design View: Favorite website(s) you would recommend?
  • Matthew Hawkins: Where do you start? I've come across artwork recently by a guy Called Harsh Patel, I am really intrigued by what he does and like the ambiguity and clarity of his website. I love going to good lectures and leaving with the feeling that you now know something or look at the world in a different way than you did before. The DO LECTURES website is great and in particular the amazing talk by Geoff McFetridge.
  • The Design View: Any words of wisdom you would like to share with us?
  • Matthew Hawkins: Measure twice cut once.
Please note: The Design View would like to thank Matthew Hawkins for this interview. All work featured within this interview is copyrighted by Matthew Hawkins. The Design View has written permission from Matthew Hawkins to use the selected pieces for this interview. You may NOT copy or redistribute any of images within this interview without the written permission from Matthew Hawkins. For more information please contact: Matthew Hawkins
Next page
Back to interviews
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • Click on an image to enlarge. Use your mouse wheel or arrow keys to navigate.
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
  • The work of Matthew Hawkins
© Copyright 2012 The Design View. All Rights Reserved. Expand footer