Emma Kidd
minicomic.club/2018
Do you keep a sketchbook? What do you fill it up with?
Yes I do, it tends to be sketches of articulated creatures. Sometimes it is just doodles in paint to get the brain moving. The articulated creatures are the main thing I have been compelled to make. I always feel I am not a very perfect drawer, so in the beginning I guess it helped me get over the fear that I can’t draw (after pursuing photography and photographic etching, anything not to paint or draw). Making a piece here and a piece there, putting them together and getting this creature that could be crazy, might be out of proportion or might be fine. I am over my fear of drawing now 14 odd years down the track since I picked up the pencil again. I like making the completely crazy creatures, but make more people happy making animals they recognise, with a twist.
Do you have a sweet studio setup or do you draw on the kitchen table?
I have a stand-up desk that is permanently covered a bit like a hoarders hovel. So working tends to happen on “the table” I get annoyed and clean the desk up occasionally, and work there for about 3 weeks before it turns ugly again. I decided to share it with my son, serves me right.
Tell me about your favourite pen. Or brush. Or pencil.
I like brushes. I have three favourites. But I used to love my dagger paintbrush the most, before I ruined it. Thin lines, thick lines. Should pull the new one out and use it.
What’s a good comic/book you’ve read recently?
Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I get little Ord offerings too occasionally. I love them, but I am biased as I have known her well and fleetingly for a long time.
Do you have any plans for the comic you’re going to make?
I do. I have started. It is usual Emma stuff, it is getting too complicated, perhaps. I have to talk myself down a bit I think, or it will never be done. It is all flat drawings that then evolve into the articulated creature birds and fish with flat drawing dispersed within it as the story goes along.
You can see more of Emma’s work @benconservato on instagram or you can get some of her drawings and paper dolls on her etsy store
Minicomic Club is an annual subscription series of Australian and New Zealand Cartoonists. Subscriptions are open for the 2018 season, you should go ahead and subscribe at minicomic.club/2018.
