Meghan Hedrick - Graphic Designer and Illustrator
I was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to art; while I have always loved art, I didn’t really have enough interest in the styles I was exposed to or natural artistic talent to push me to pursue it as a child. (I was, and am, wholly obsessed with story, and that took up nearly all my focus growing up.) It wasn’t until I was sixteen and discovered Japanese animation/manga as art forms that I realized I had stories I wanted to tell that could be told with just the written word.
From that point, it’s been a very slow process of learning how to translate what I see in my mind to paper (or, in most cases, screen.) I ended up going to school for to get a degree in Graphic Design (because neither writing nor illustration are particularly lucrative fields, unless you are among the very lucky) and I am now working locally as a junior graphic designer, while writing and illustrating on the side.
Contact Info:
Email: mhedrickdesign@gmail.com
Instagram: myhedrick
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
Even now, although much of the last decade of my life has been spent growing as an artist, and even though I’m working full time as a graphic designer, I don;t know that I would call myself an “Artist,” but rather a storyteller who sometimes dabbles in the visual realm.
How does your personal story/background influence your work?
I’ve spent the vast majority of my life with my nose stuck in a book (strictly Science Fiction and Fantasy, heavy on the Fantasy). My favorite stories were always those that took things that were familiar and twisted them until they were something weird and new, and that defiantly has bled into what I create.
Which of your works are you most proud of?
My favorite thing I’ve done to date is an illustration of a geometric coffee cup. Besides being the most time consuming project I’ve attempted to date (a whopping 30 hours of button clicking), it is also the first time in a literal decade of learning how to art where the picture I made matched the picture in my head.
What is the hardest part of being a professional artist?
Not comparing my successes to those of others.
