Lillian LaFemina, third-semester English and English education major from Niantic, Conn.
Disclaimer: Lillian LaFemina is the associate artist editor at The Daily Campus
Tell me about the last time you made yourself proud.
“It was this week. I make drawings for The Daily Campus, and I love to make little guys. My little guys are just cats and stuff. I started drawing them when I was in high school. It was something that I’d do when I was bored in class. I just started drawing squares. I’d draw 3D squares all over my paper to the point where it wasn’t readable. Those squares over time turned into triangles and those triangles turned into cats. And now, if you read any of my comics in the D.C., you’ll notice that the characters are always cats. They started from squares. I started creating a comic a few years ago called the white-collared worker, and it was a whole comic just about these two cats having coffee. This year I kind of upgraded it, and now the comic is just about cats having conversations about anything. This week, I was kind of struggling to come up with an idea for the comic. I had an idea, but I didn’t really know what style I wanted to do for it. The week prior, I had done this really vibrant blue, and it was cool, but it was like hurting the eyes. So, I took inspiration from this one drawing that I saw. It’s the drawing of the ‘Paddington’ bear [where] he’s all cozy in bed. I took that drawing and I took its art style, which is this washy watercolor style, and I implemented it to my drawing. I didn’t really know how it would go. I was kind of nervous at first…
“You know, the style itself is a very childlike drawing… So, I took that style and I implemented it ,and it just looks so warm and vibrant. I realized for the first time this is something I want to do. I have the characters, I have the skills, I can make a child’s book…
“Seeing my work on page and being able to show and be like ‘this is my style,’ I felt like I found a style that I really liked. It’s only been a week, and I haven’t drawn in it since, so there’s going to be so many rocks to overturn and so much to go through with it, but I’m just I’m really excited because I feel like this is a breakthrough in my career as an artist. I guess as an English major, I’ve always wanted to publish my own books. I think that creating these little guys and creating these drawings and knowing that they bring people joy when they read the paper just makes me happy, and I’m really glad that I was finally able to find a style that suited what I wanted to do.”
Where do you think that passion for art sprouted from?
“Competition. This girl posted a photo on her Instagram, and it was of a Vincent van Gogh drawing. I was so jealous of her. I was like, ‘how can she just create these things and why can’t I?’ So that day I was like, ‘hey, mom, get me a sketchbook.’ I filled up so many sketchbooks bro. I filled up sketchbooks for years and years and years, and then I started to go on to Procreate and create those things. That’s really where my art kind of took off for a long time. I knew I wanted to be an artist. But I knew that if I went into a major of art or a minor of art, I would be criticized for my art. I would fall out of love with something I’m so passionate about. So it was kind of like protecting something that I hold close. Art is my child, and I’d rather be happy doing it than just be so burnt out. My happy place comes from making these little guys and these little comics.”
How did you learn to detect those details in art?
“Anyone can do it. I was a little girl, and I loved ‘Steven Universe.’ I loved it. That’s really where my passion for drawing sprouted. If you’re passionate about a show or something, you’ll want to draw it. You’ll want to draw the characters. A lot of artists will agree that they draw more fan art or more about their characters than anything…
“It’s kind of like running a mile. You kind of have to force yourself to get out of bed and do it sometimes, but other times you’re just like ‘I want to run 20 miles and never go home.’ Sometimes you’re just so passionate about it…
“It can be hard sometimes, with getting into art, focus on something you’re passionate about.”
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