Interview with illustrator Sarah McNeil
Get ready to awww and ahhh over some super cute little animals! Sarah McNeil is a traveling artist and illustrator inspired by nature, animals and adventures. She’s a creator of handmade art books, comics, drawings and illustrations.
Sarah’s worked has featured in Frankie, Blanket, Slice and Curvy magazines, and countless group art shows in Melbourne, Oregon, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin and Toronto.
During January and February of this year, Sarah lived as the resident artist at Alphabet City, a letterpress printing studio, community space and zine library in Auckland. There she created new miniature zines of collections of her work and experiences, as well as prints and learned techniques in book binding.
After a three year stint in Wellington, New Zealand, Sarah’s traveled to China and Japan, and has temporarily settled in Hobart, Tasmania. She’s now saving her pennies to move to the UK later this year.
See more of Sarah’s work on her Behance profile, or follow her Instagram.
How have you got to where you are today? Describe a little background on why and how you got started…
I studied fine art at Monash University for three years. After I finished my degree, I had to figure out what kind of job would work for me. I used to be a very shy person as well, so retail work really wasn’t a good fit.
I did a lot of research and nervously asked a bunch of artists, illustrators, and creative people out for coffee and advice.
They were (of course) all great, super nice and helpful. That helped me to find the confidence to get started.
In a few words, describe yourself…
Very small and sometimes quite messy.
What are you spending your time on at the moment?
This past week I’ve been working with an author illustrating projects for a book of craft projects. As far as my personal work and life goes, lately I’ve been making books, small comics and zines, walking a lot and planning my future adventures.
Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?
I try to listen to music only (no podcasts!) when I draw. It helps to have some tea or coffee as well, and if I am having trouble, going for a walk clears my head so I can get back to work.
I like to set a goal for what I want to achieve every day, and cross things of my to do list.
Sleep Without Shelter — Sarah’s new zine about her last few weeks in NZ.
Design Yeah! calendar illustration by Design Assembly, NZ.
What or who inspires you?
When I was in NZ, I stayed in Tongariro National Park, which is amazing volcano land. I climbed one of the volcanoes, but there is another called Ngauruhoe that is really hard to climb (it’s basically a hot, steep, giant mountain of gravel) that I haven’t been able to summit yet, maybe I never will.
What are you most proud of?
I feel that my zines and art books are the best thing that I’ve made. I like small things that can be transported easily (since I move around and travel a lot). There is a drawing of just my head wearing a crown of leaves that I am really happy with as well.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an architect for a long time, then maybe a biologist, writer, or artist. I wish I could be all of these things!
