Creating stylized character illustrations that reflect her spunky personality, Courtney Reagor is putting together an impressive portfolio of work. She recently exhibited a selection of her pictures at “fully blown”, a group illustration show in Riverside, California. I’m so excited to get a glimpse of the desk and materials she uses to put together her artwork. She took time from her busy schedule to share her thoughts on her illustrations, her workspace, and her materials:

“I’m currently working on maintaining my sanity working retail, scribbling in my many notebooks, and getting overly excited about small freelance jobs.”

“The tools that I rely the most heavily on are: mechanical pencils, any paper surface, my scanner, my iMac, and my water brushes, ( the base is a vessel that holds water, ink, etc). Mechanical pencils are my favorite, not even the fancy ones, just because I can never keep track of my erasers and pencil sharpener. Part of me wishes that I didn’t need my computer so much.”

“My home studio is nestled in the downtown part of Savannah, Georgia, so I’m constantly being peeped on by tourists floating around the area gawking at the architecture. My computer sits in a pretty high traffic area of the house that I share with two of my closest mates. In my corner of the studio, I have a collection of ceramic masks and a print by Joe Sorren. I store most of my materials for sculpting and painting in an old white medicine cabinet that I found in my late grandparents garage. Often times I travel up to my bedroom where I keep my laptop if I need to escape from chit chats and our dogs that use the studio as their personal wrestling ring.”

“I love getting paint everywhere and creating things by accident with different messy materials. But I learned that I can create those accidents without the mess, which allows my turnaround time to be much faster. I hate that it keeps me inside on sunny days, which is why I prefer to work at night.”

“Part of the style that I have grown accustomed to is reusing found textures that I like to subtly incorporate into my drawings. Also, I collect jars to keep collections of brushes and use for water containers when I paint.”

“If I had access to any materials, I would want to have my own kiln in a ceramics studio. I would create busts of characters I’ve drawn, and a slew of mini figurines. I’ve always wanted to stock my cabinets with dishes and mugs that I’ve hand made. But my ultimate dream project would include having my own printing studio. I would die to be able to pull prints all day for the rest of my life. I wish I had more practice with screen printing, etching, and lithography. If I had a printing studio, I would create posters and limited editions of my silly drawings… But i would love most to print and bind my own books. I keep telling myself, it’ll happen one day, even if I’m old and grey.”

{Courtney writes more about her adventures in illustration on her blog, and many more of her fabulous illustrations are posted on her website.}

April 24th, 2007