24-year-old Melly Em Clark is an full time illustrator from Lincoln, UK. We chatted to Melly about her art based around themes of feminism, fashion and body positivity…
Inspired by Things&Ink Melly created a tattooed babe just for us…
Do you have a background in art? How and when did you start drawing? It’s hard to remember when I started drawing as it feels like something I’ve always done! I was encouraged from an early age to be creative by both my parents and my schools-school provided great projects and my parents always took me to creative activities outside of school, so I’ve always been motivated to make things. While I struggled in other subjects, art always felt fun and something I was confident doing- it was only when I was nearing my GCSEs that it occurred to me that I could make art for a living. I studied Illustration at the University of Lincoln and graduated in 2013, and last May I took the plunge into full time self employment! While at times, I feel limited by Art being my only strength, my love for drawing is still strong and I still find it incredibly fun!
What inspires you? Content-wise, I am inspired by inter-sectional feminism and pop culture. There are many feminist artists, writers and creatives that I look up to, and strive to be like-this is always a drive of mine when creating new work. Like most people, I’m constantly devouring films, books, television and social media, and can find inspiration from any and all of these. Style wise, I love 20th century fashion illustration by artists such as Rene Gruau and Lucia Lerner. While I don’t agree with a lot of the messages portrayed in mid century advertising, the vivid colour schemes and sense of playfulness are always something I try to recreate in my work. Contemporary artists I admire are Jon Klassen, Grayson Perry, Johnny Hannah and Meg Hunt.
What medium do you use? How do you create each piece? My work is predominantly digital-I start by hand drawing each piece, taking time to draw each section separately and arranging them together in Photoshop. Then comes the process of colouring in the piece digitally. I used to paint every piece by hand and simply edit in Photoshop, and while now I work in digital techniques, I still like to keep the texture of paintings, and include a lot of hand painted textures in each piece. As I have a tiny studio, working digitally works better for me, but I still like to crack out the paintbrushes once in a while and I love supporting artists that continue to work in traditional mediums.
What kinds of things do you draw? This can really vary- most of my work focuses on themes of body positivity, but I’ve also made pieces based around themes like baking, fashion trends and inspirational quotes. I try to keep my work feeling positive and playful, whatever the content. I design prints to sell in my Etsy store, but my ‘bread and butter’ comes from custom artwork, which can vary from family portraits to logo design, so my drawings can differ daily!
Your illustrations focus on body positivity is this something you like to advocate? Body positivity is something very close to heart. Like many people, I’ve spent many years hating my appearance, and my general outlook on life has improved since learning to love myself. As I can struggle to articulate my thoughts into words, I started to create artwork that expressed a body positive theme-my first ‘bo po’ illustration was a piece entitled You Don’t Need Abs To Be Fab. Once made, I posted it online and the reaction was bigger than I could have expected. Since then. I’ve aimed to make art that helps people feel better about themselves, even if only in a tiny way. I know so many wonderful people who advocate a body positive lifestyle, and I’m definitely inspired by them. I think we all deserve to feel great about ourselves and love our bodies, and it’s important to me to get that onto paper.
Can you tell us about your tattoos? What was your first, do you still love it? How do they make you feel? I have eleven tattoos in total, my first was just before I turned 21. To symbolise my Irish heritage, I got a small claddagh design on the inside of my wrist. Since then, I’ve embraced the idea that tattoos don’t have to have a story behind them, and have covered myself in tattoos with no tale or theory behind them. Over three years, the quality of my first tattoo isn’t great and I would love to have it reworked-it’s a simple line drawing and I would love for it to be more intricate and colourful. My biggest tattoos are floral designs, but I have a few other pieces, including a kraken taking down a ship, heart finger tattoos, a stag, a fox, a kewpie, and an Adventure Time inspired tattoo, all of which I’m still head over heels with!
Do you do commissions? Where can people buy your art? Most of my custom artwork operates via my Etsy store where I have listings for personalised portraits, business design packages and invitation design, as well as my pre-made art prints. Alternatively, I can be reached at mellyemclark@gmail.com for commission enquiries!
Follow Melly on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr for body positive art work…
