Q & A with artist, designer and illustrator Sophie Foulkes
Sophie, thanks for agreeing to do this. We learned about your work after seeing the recent cover you did for Motif Magazine. It’s an amazing piece of work – drew us right in. Let’s start with your background. Where were you born and raised?
Of course thanks so much for reaching out! The cover for Motif was really fun to make so I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was born in Providence RI and grew up in Amherst Massachusetts. I ended up coming back to Providence for college and graduated from RISD in 2023.
When did you first become interested in art?
Since forever! I’ve been drawing since before I could walk. When I was younger I especially loved drawing scenes with lots of people interacting, sometimes in a park or at an ice cream shop, or even at a funeral. I enjoyed making fashionable characters, experimenting with how to show each character’s personality through a single drawing. Eventually I started making stop motion animations to carry the thread of personalities through time, and experimenting with different mediums, including collage. The opportunities seemed endless, and I was hooked!
Was there a point when you knew it would be your adult profession?
It’s been a gradual trajectory getting to where I am, and I expect my professional aspirations will continue to change and evolve. I think it was probably about a year ago that I realized that I definitely wanted to do freelance, to create my own business, so I could focus my creative energies on the things I care about most.
You graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Tell us about your years there.
RISD was wonderful. I am so grateful for everything I learned, especially how to receive and grow from the insights of my peers and professors. Knowing how to adapt my work based on criticism, while still making it something I want to put out there, is probably one of the most valuable skills to have as a freelance illustrator. I also of course met so many incredible artists, and am enormously grateful for the spectacular community that I still have from RISD.
Any mentors you’d like to mention, at RISD or earlier (or later)?
So many! JooHee Yoon, my senior portfolio professor, is a brilliant teacher and mentor, and her openness helped me to understand what it actually means to be a freelance illustrator. Jeff Stauder and Benjamin Sears, my art teachers at Amherst Regional High School, were also big inspirations. So much of my work stems from the early explorations with color and collage I did in their course, under their guidance and support.
You write on your website that you enjoy “creating fantastical imagery by experimenting with eccentric colors and textures.” Break that down for us.
To me, it’s so important to find joy in my process and experimentation with colors and textures is a huge part of that. Recently, monoprinting has actually become the perfect outlet for this experimentation as I don’t know what the print will look like until I pull it. But I also love playing around with adjustment layers in photoshop because I can get new and surprising color schemes just by overlapping layers and adjusting their blend modes. In the end, I hope the joy that I feel in the process of creating my art will come through in the fantastical imagery.
You also write that your “work is narrative and playful and is often inspired by personal experiences combined with natural phenomena. [My] work strives to capture the emotions and excitement of a moment in order to share with others.” There’s a lot there! Please unpack it for us.
Sure! So for example, one of my pieces, Morning Walk, I made at an artist residency in New Jersey called Peter’s Valley. The artist residency was near the Delaware Water Gap in the autumn, the leaves were turning so beautifully and I spent a lot of time walking around appreciating nature. I was thinking about how cool it is that you can understand the life of a tree each year by its rings. For some reason, that year there were also a huge number of ladybugs! To create the piece I monoprinted with leaves I found and a stamp I made with string for the tree stump. I drew the character and ladybugs with graphite and collaged it together digitally in photoshop. The colors and textures helped me express the emotions I was feeling that fall.
Tell us about the other work you’ve done beyond illustration.
On top of illustration, my freelance work includes work as a graphic designer for book publishing as well as teaching art workshops. In book design, I actually really enjoy sifting through hundreds of type faces until I’ve found the one that perfectly matches the subject matter. Finding subtle ways to make each book uniquely personal to the author’s intent is especially satisfying to me. Small Batch Books, a private publishing house in Western Mass, is one of my favorite clients.
Teaching art is also always a joy– some of my favorite moments have been while working as a drawing and painting instructor at Snow Farm New England Craft’s summer teen program.
We understand you have a store. What can readers find there?
Many of my prints are available, signed and editioned, as well as some fun puzzles that make for nice holiday gifts! I’m also happy to work with clients directly who are interested in commissioned work – I especially love making everything and anything for children’s rooms, as well as creating Rhode Island themed works that emanate a sense of place. The best way to reach me is by email (sgfoulkes@gmail.com) if a reader is interested in talking through a project.
What advice do you have for aspiring – or struggling or established – artists, illustrators and designers?
Be persistent, write out a plan and stick to it, get as much feedback as you can, and really listen to it. I think it’s also important to follow the path of least resistance, make things you enjoy making, because the ease and fun will shine through.
Can you tell us what’s next for Sophie Foulkes?
I wish I knew! Mostly I just want to keep doing what I’m doing because I love it. I recently created a commissioned piece for the Newport Preservation Society’s Wine and Food Festival, which was especially fun because it was all about embodying the essence of an event and a place that people have enjoyed for so many years. I hope to continue with similar work!
