CONNIE LIM Eternal Springtime comes to town
“I loved drawing the human form and trying to capture emotions through posture, the expression on the faces, and using the clothes to express more of who the character was”. Connie Lim PM - I found you via Instagram and see you are from LA and london. Can you explain your background and your journey through the arts up until today. CL - Growing up, I’ve always drawn women and I am not sure as to why. I think I was just around woman when I was younger but it seems like the female form has been a running theme in my work even up until now. I first started at University in Los Angeles at Art Center College of Design where I studied illustration. I originally wanted to do character design for the video game industry. In the course, it was mandatory to take fashion illustration class to understand garments and styling. I fell in love with this class as I discovered beauty in the character and how clothes could express these attributes. It was our final project where the theme was Deck of Cards and I illustrated the 4 Queens in a fashion context. It was a project I very much enjoyed and after leaving university I aimed to finish the whole deck. I hand illustrated 54 drawings then added them into the card format. I put the project up to be crowdfunded by Kickstarter and was successfully backed! Since the publication of the deck, I have been featured in many magazines and blogs such as Harper’s Bazaar and Dazed and Digital. Since Art Center, I moved onto Central Saint Martins in London to learn fashion design as I wasn’t confident enough to be a full time illustrator. I thought I could get a job in design and just draw as a hobby. But as it turns out, I wasn’t particularly fond of designing but enjoyed the drawing aspect the most. Also, I was in 92
FIDA . The Fashion Art & Drawing Magazine
London, one of the most creative cities and it has most definitely made an impact on my work and influenced my drawing style. I began to do lots of life drawing both fashion and themed sessions. I started to realise I loved drawing the human form and trying to capture emotions through posture, the expression on the faces, and using the clothes to express more of who the character was. Fashion became a major form of illustration that I wanted to express. Thus through my illustration and fashion background, I combined my knowledge on the two subjects. It has spurred me to experiment more with different mediums and combine techniques in the coming years via personal work, industry work, and most importantly life drawing. And it has been something I have been doing ever since! PM - Many artists are quite nomadic due to social media? How has social media assisted your profile. “I started to make a website and upload my work onto MySpace and then later on Facebook” CL - When I was growing up, I didn’t have a phone until I was in high school. The internet was dial up and so when someone picked up the phone you would be cut off from the internet! I find those memories quite funny as it’s a different world now. I think in my generation we acquired a fascination for the world wide web - it was something completely new to the life that pre existed it. It was not long until blogging and tumblr became the ‘it’ thing. I was in university studying illustration and I guess it was good timing. I started to make a website and upload my work onto MySpace and then later on Facebook. I also started to e-mail trend websites like Trendland, Dazed and Digital, I <3 Illustration. I got picked up by lots of these websites who started to feature my
