Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Larrabee.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi there everyone! I’m Emily, a character/costume designer, visual development artist and illustrator. I’ve loved drawing and watching animation since I was old enough to hold a pencil properly, and I knew I wanted to pursue art as a career since I saw it was an actually possible avenue in high school. Prior to college, I had every intention of going into an animator career, and while animation is still my biggest passion, I realized I enjoyed the design aspect of animation more than actually animating and pivoted into illustration. The change in trajectory opened the door to so many fun and more diverse projects and styles. I love getting the opportunity to tell a story through my designs and have recently used the free time from a lighter career market to fine-tune a story idea and create designs for it. It’s been so fun to write, envision how I would frame/animate shots, and get to know each character well enough to infuse back story into designing the things they own and wear. So, I’m currently freelancing on a multitude of different project types and still trying to learn and improve as much as I can, so I’m ready for the next challenge to come my way.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There’s been plenty of issues along the way. I’ve been biding my time and freelancing for a few years now, but after that time, I still feel like I’m not able to break through into the field in a sustainable way. Is it the quality of my work? The fact I’m only able to work remotely? The oversaturation of available artists in a downtime for the industry? Maybe a little of all? The uncertainty of my ability to “make it” and the burnout from trying to balance steadier part-time work with less reliable, portfolio-building work has been hard to overcome. I love creating art and use the free time I have to improve my work. When I was spending said free time creating work solely to try to find more work and not for fun made me consider leaving art behind. The feeling of creating joyless work and spinning my wheels while getting nowhere sucked all the enjoyment from it, and I’ve been trying to find that again. I definitely can’t say I’ve had the toughest time; I have a great family and friends who have been there for me and supported me in so many ways, whereas without them, I would’ve left art behind a long time ago.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
So, I guess my specialty would be character and costume design, but I like having a jack-of-all-trades vibe to my work. I’ve done mostly character and costume design but also children’s book illustration, cleanup work, greeting card illustrations, commissions and gallery/convention work. I have been trying to expand more into color design after being told I might be a good fit for that sort of work and into visual development. My favorite stage of design is the blue sky, just trying things out phase, which is sometimes put under the visual development umbrella, so I want to expand my abilities to fit that a little more moving forward. The variety of my work has helped quite a bit in the project I’m proudest of, which is the story I’m writing and designing. It’s pushed me so much further than I have been in any other project. I’ve improved my character designs so much in that time, learned costume and prop design techniques, and have started making small color keys and BG/Location designs, which I’ve never done for a project before. I’ve not only learned a lot about new aspects of animation design but also have been really proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish. I really had written off that I wouldn’t be able to do locations and perspective-heavy work well as it’s not something I do often, but I’ve been happy with what I came up with and can’t wait to continue.
What matters most to you?
Two things: the first is being happy with the art I’m making. Whether it’s my writing or design work, any time I make something I’m proud of, it reminds me that it’s one thing that makes me truly happy. The job market is tough and competitive, and while that’s hard to mentally overcome, as long as I’m happy with the work I’m creating, I can keep moving forward. It makes up for the more difficult parts of trying to be an artist. The second is trying to find new ways to take breaks when needed from my work. Art has been my main hobby as well as a job for so long that it’s easy to fall into burnout if I’m only creating work for career purposes. But I’m trying to travel when I can, carving out more time to go to the movies or go on longer walks with my dog and finding new small hobbies like crocheting and caring for plants. Anything that gives me a bit of a mental break when I need that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emilylarrabeeillustration.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilysketch_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-larrabee-1493b8171/
