Illustrator: Ollie Hoff
For our series of interviews with the artists behind Counterpoint, we spoke to Nowich-based Ollie Hoff about illustrating landscapes, the arts scene in his city and going freelance.
What do you like drawing the most?
It definitely always comes back to landscapes, I don’t know why but whenever I get some free time I always gravitate towards illustrating them. I’m still not hugely confident drawing characters so I’m now slowly trying to incorporate them into my landscape work. I’m getting there bit by bit!
Any illustration heroes?
So many! There are a couple that have definitely inspired me in the last few years; Owen Davey is an amazing illustrator, his work is always spot on and he works so well with colour. Another favourite of mine is Dan Matutina, his texture work is insanely good and he’s worked on some amazing projects. Both massive inspirations.
How do you approach your illustration process?
I normally start by sketching some quick doodles on my iPad, colour is always super important to me so I’ll spend time picking out a colour palette and planning out how the illustration will work with those colours. Once I’m happy with that I’ll jump into Illustrator; create the main shapes and then bring them into photoshop to order them and add in any textures. It’s definitely not the quickest process but works quite well for me.
What's your day job?
My day job is now full-time freelance! I have been full-time for about a year now and I couldn’t be happier with it. Over the years I have tried freelancing part-time while working other jobs but I’ve been very lucky to now focus fully on illustration :)
You're based in Norwich - what's the illustration scene there like?
The illustration scene is Norwich is brilliant and definitely seems to be getting better. We have the Norwich Arts University here right in the centre of the city so theres always been a really great design scene around there. There feels lately that a lot of designers are now setting up shop in Norwich rather then making the journey to London which is great to see too.