Featured Creative: Imogen Whiteley
Imogen Whiteley is an illusrtator and bookseller based in Edinburgh. She also created the Wild Hunt Books logo. She kindly sat down with us recently to kick off the start of our featured creatives interview series.
Interview conducted by Amy Douglas, Digital Marketing for Wild Hunt Books
Firstly, can you tell us a bit more about how you got started in illustration?
I didn't study illustration at university, so for a long time drawing was something that I did for myself, although I was quite regimented about it. Once I made a New Year's resolution to fill a sketchbook every month to force myself to practise drawing from life, and I kept that up for a couple of years. My first 'commissions' were in my late teens, friends buying portraits or needing little drawings for creative projects. I also did illustrations for student magazines a lot, which weren't always very good but got me used to working to deadlines and to briefs, and was how I ended up getting my first 'real' commissions. More recently, I've been selling linocut and reproduction prints on my Etsy shop and taking fewer private commissions, which I'm hoping will give me the time to work on some personal projects I'm interested in - I'd love to get some more book covers and illustrations in my portfolio.
How did you originally get involved with Wild Hunt Books – what drew you to us as a publisher?
I'm always interested in new indie presses - the most exciting things I read are usually from indies. There's also a lot of overlap between what I enjoy as a reader - folk horror, experimental fiction, gothic and surreal elements - and the themes WHB are going to be focusing on. I can't wait to read the first books you publish!
Your artwork appears to be inspired a lot by space (your drawings of Oxford/Edinburgh/Glasgow are beautiful btw!) – why do you think it’s so important to draw upon our surroundings in creative work?
I don't think my work particularly reflects it, but I really like seventeenth century Dutch interior painting. The light is always very beautiful and they have a great sense of narrative and space, hiding and revealing things through doorways and windows. I think I'm probably trying to get at something like that, but on the level of a city rather than a home - I like to create some kind of narrative or mood.
Also, buildings sit very still so you can draw them more easily than people.
You also draw upon Greek design a lot – can you tell us a bit more about this?
I have an undergraduate degree and an MSt in Classics, and that's something that has naturally influenced my work. The stories in Greek myths and tragedies are very powerful and compelling, but I think one of the reasons I'm attracted to them as an artist is the symbolism they've accumulated throughout their use and reuse. These stories and their cultural weight have been used in extremely damaging and harmful ways, which is something that Classics as a field is only really beginning to consider. I hope I'm doing something to approach them in a way that doesn't reproduce that.
Finally, tell us your favourite myth or folklore.
My master's thesis was about the myth of Medea, a witch who murders her two children as revenge for her husband's betrayal. I studied different versions of the myth throughout time and her varying presentation. She's a character who doesn't fit into the typical categories in Greek tragedy, which makes her really interesting to study. Her speech about childbirth and the position of Greek women in relation to men is really interesting since lots of people now would sympathise with her position - but not the extreme she takes her revenge to.
Follow Imogen on Twitter and Instagram, and visit her Etsy shop or check out her online portfolio for more information.