For this month’s focus on a local creative, Liana Sutherland speaks to Sheffield-based street artist and mural painter Faunagraphic.
When did you start making art?
I’ve been doing art for quite a long time. I’ve always been drawing since I was a kid and I come from quite a creative background. I was influenced by my mum, who has a very creative mind, and my surroundings – I grew up in the countryside so spent a lot of time out on walks. I’ve always drawn, it’s always been my favourite thing to do.
How did your practice develop after moving to Sheffield?
When I got to Sheffield I was studying Graphic Design and started spray painting when I was 19. When I was trying to get through my degree, I was thinking I was going to be a designer and work in a studio, but they were sacking graphic designers at the time because of the recession. I’d just started spray painting anyway; I had an idea of what I wanted to do after seeing some designers that integrated their Photoshop work and the digital stuff they were doing but also were graffitists. To me, that was the perfect fit for what I want to do: I love the idea of large-scale painting and taking art off the computer. As soon as I started spray painting I needed walls to paint on. It was good because Sheffield had a lot of abandoned buildings and it was easy to get into them. We’d go into these buildings and factories and just started getting into the art form more.
Your work is clearly inspired by nature and wildlife settings. Has that always been a prominent theme?
I’ve always been inspired by nature; it’s always been enough for me. I’ve dabbled in sci-fi stuff. I’m into gaming and things. I do have lots of inspirations and would like to explore different themes, but from the beginning, I knew that to integrate my work with my planned job in graphic design, I needed to stick to something I loved the most. If I wanted to brand myself or branch out into products, I knew that I needed one thing. So yeah, I’ve always stuck to nature and within that you can go in any direction.
Are there any artists who particularly influence you and your work?
In Sheffield, everyone is so different and doing different styles. That’s what’s nice about it, I suppose. I used to like a lot of American artists like Tara McPherson and some German artists. But more in the way that they were covering different areas with their art and the way they’ve established themselves – their process, basically. Since I’ve been painting, there are a lot more people I’ve noticed and picked up on because of social media. There are plenty of good artists out there for inspiration.
What’s the process when you approach a mural piece?
It depends. I’ve had different ways of doing it. With a very big wall piece I prefer to have it all pre-designed. I do a lot of stuff on my iPad, as it’s easier to adjust things and I can work faster. I used to use the sketchbook a lot to come up with initial sketches and find reference imagery, but it’s all merged onto the iPad now.
You mentioned about branching out into products. Is this something we’ll be seeing more of with your work?
I always liked to paint murals and now I can pick which ones I want to do. I still very much embrace the love for the murals. But I can imagine in ten years’ time I won’t want to be trekking around too much for mural projects. I am very interested in sustainable products and expanding my brand. I’m not trying to monopolise; I’m trying to do things gradually in a way I’ll enjoy. I can do business to an extent, but I’m more of a creative, more of a daydreamer, and I like doing things that make people happy. That for me is a better route. Even if I end up doing very well with the whole product thing, as long as it doesn’t take me away from who I really am, that’s fine.
faunagraphic.com // @faunagraphic // facebook.com/faunagraphic1
