23-year-old Rosey Jones from the Netherlands creates bright and bold illustrations. We chatted to Rosey about what inspires her, her fashion style and her awesome tattoo collection…
When did you start up your company/big cartel store? I started my store exactly 10 weeks ago! It’s funny to think my intentions were never to make prints of my designs, it was coincidence that I got asked to make one of the designs I handpainted on a tote digital for a band from the UK – then I realised I could do this with more of my designs and eventually the main focus became making designs for prints instead of hand painting them on totes. That’s kinda how this all started!
What kinds of things do you create? My main focus is on making artwork for my prints, besides that I also handpaint tote bags that I sew myself too, but I haven’t got as much time for it at the moment. The designs on my prints vary from teacups to roses and from donuts to daggers, I literally just draw whatever I fancy at that exact moment which could be anything really!
How do you create things, what is the process? I try not to think too much about what I draw so I usually just start sketching up some stuff that comes to mind, which usually happens when listening to music (might explain why half of my designs got lyrics included in them), then when I start seeing it come together as a whole I redraw my sketches with a sharpie, scan the image, and colour it digitally. I love the mix of it being both analogue and digital without it being super obvious how it’s done (if that makes any sense).
Do you have a background in art? After I graduated high school I worked for Vans for three years so I had time to build up a portfolio – my biggest dream was to study photography. I eventually got accepted in the school of the arts in which I’m a third year photography student now!
What inspires you? Literally anything and everything inspires me, I get fascinated by small things really easily which makes it quite easy to stay inspired all the time! Also cool looking people and nice tattoos inspire me a lot, and seeing amazing artwork of others always makes me want to get better at what I’m doing. I’m crazy lucky to be surrounded with passionate people, it’s really hard to be uninspired or unmotivated when the people closest to me are so supportive and hard working themselves.
How would you describe your style? Both fashion and art. I would say my artwork is pretty much the exact opposite of the way I dress, my artwork is all bold and bright while my clothing style is literally all black everything most of the time! I like simplicity, black jeans, black tee, black denim jacket and some sneakers to go with it (ok, maybe some dr martens when I’m feeling adventurous). I think for some strange reason my glasses make my outfit look a lot more fashionable as people keep on asking me where I got them from.
What does the word beauty mean to you? Not much, if there’s one thing I learned over the past few years it’s that beauty is relative.
Can you tell us about your own tattoos? I got quite a few tattoos for a 23 year old but then again, I started getting tattooed at the age of 16. My goal has never been to get covered as quickly as possible and I’ve never been one to get a whole suit planned out on my body either. Lately the main focus is on my legs as I just find that super pretty, finally got my second knee done too woo hoo! Couldn’t be more excited about that. Most of my pieces are done in the traditional style which is what I love most, there’s some very colorful ones and also some black ones but I think they go really well together. When I first started getting tattooed I always made sure I had some story to go with it but now I don’t really care about that anymore. Now I just want to get things tattooed that I find pretty or funny without it having to have a meaning – my latest addition is the donut design I drew myself. I’m super happy with how my legs are looking, all my favourite tattoos are on there.
Which was your first, do you still love it? My first tattoo was Stay True on my wrist, got it done in Germany when I was 16 and knew nothing about tattoos or how they were supposed to be done. This might explain why it’s upside down too, but I don’t really regret it, it’s something I still stand for – wouldn’t say I love it but I wouldn’t get it covered either!