Last month, we brought you a profile of Josh Cook, one of the first artists to join our Fresh Talent programme, an initiative promoting and supporting visual creatives and illustrators through the facilities of our Fresh Merch merchandise division. This week, it’s the turn of Suzie B, the second of our debut creative line-up, and a thoroughly excellent talent, inspired by…

Well actually no, that’s spoiler territory right there. The whole point of this series of articles is to allow the artists of Fresh Talent to tell you all about what they do - and why and how they do it - in their own words. Creativity is a very personal and expressive matter, and Fresh Talent exists to facilitate that without friction. So we’ll just let Suzie take over, and talk you through the good stuff herself.

In a nutshell, who are you, what do you do, and how long have you been doing it?

I'm Suzie B, an illustrator currently haunting Bristol. I've always been a keen drawer/creator, and found myself taking as many creative subjects as possible in school. Since graduating uni, I've really started to find my way, and getting plenty of commissions coming through helps develop my drawings further.

Which piece of art first really switched you on to this as a vocation?

My earliest memory of art that made me think ‘That's what I want to do’ was probably when I bought In Love and Death, an album by a band called The Used. The cover was designed by Alex Pardee and I absolutely loved it! I was a teenager in that whole scene, and his work kept cropping up on album covers for the likes of In Flames and Aiden. Wanting to design album covers is what spurred me on, though by the time I had developed as an artist no one bought albums any more. But music was and still is a massive influence on my work.

What's the first piece you created that you felt really nailed your style and future direction?

After three years of being rather confused at uni, I don't know how, but it all came together for my final show. I hadn't created anything like those pieces before and at the time I thought I'd nailed it - something I was finally proud of that I had created alone. I have come so far since then, but those two pieces mean a lot to me. Both influenced by songs of course.

What are the themes and ideas informing your art at the moment?

If you hadn't guessed already, music, lyrics and poems always inform my personal art. I could be anywhere, and just think "I love that line". I feel it, visuals happen in my head, and I want to record it all down. Alongside that, more recently with the way the world’s going, I'm backing into a comfort of spells and witchcraft. There's a potion to stop this madness. I'll let you know when I've got it worked out. A little magic can help, I'm sure.

What are the key steps to your creative process, start to finish?

An overwhelming emotion, a scribbling, a terrible version, a couple of hand drawn layers, and a light board. I love my light board. Fineliners, Promarkers, ‘You shouldn't have done that’, ‘Actually that looks great’, and a bad back.

How do you feel about the current digital ecosystem as an environment for artists? What's the best and worst thing?

It's great being able to connect with artists all over the world. There are creatives, whose work I would probably have otherwise missed out on completely. There's also a great sense of community, and I like that. I try not to spend more time on the digital side of things than actually creating, though this can prove difficult while trying to push your work.

Algorithms on social media are a nightmare though. Having available platforms to sell your work is very encouraging, but at the same time, with artists' work being so accessible, I've seen some money-making giants rip off designs from small independent creators. That's not cool. I guess there are pros and cons to everything though.

What's the direction of the work you're doing with Fresh Talent?

I'm trying something new. Simple designs are really hard for me. I always want to add, add, add. I'm having a go at reigning this in, in part because it wouldn't work well with the products I want to create, but also because I want to challenge myself. I'm headed in a simply spooky direction.

Suzie’s fantastic first collection for Fresh Talent is live and available right now at her artist page. So check it out. Go on.

And don’t forget, the Fresh Talent programme is forever growing. Stay tuned to this very blog for our next slice of news and artist insight. And if you’re interested in finding out more, maybe with a view to joining us, why don’t you just drop us a line?