This week I had the honour of interviewing the very talented illustrator, Chrisri du Toit. Thank you so much for the oppertunity and for allowing me to share your art.
Q : What inspired you to become an artist/illustrator?
A : I’ve always been into drawing. For as long as I can remember I’ve carried pens and paper around with me, everywhere I go. It never really occurred to me that I could do it for a living, so I’m sure you can imagine that, in high school, finding out that being an illustrator was a real thing I was beyond excited and knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I ended up studying graphic design after school and decided to filter it down to illustration as a career path.
Q : Who is Christi du Toit and what do you do?
A : I was born in ’91, which makes me 24 at the time of this interview, and I draw pictures for a living. I’m currently working as an illustrator for a studio in Cape Town called Radio, but still try and do some personal projects on the side just to ‘scratch the itch’. I love music, guitar, cats, coffee, and afternoon naps. Also, I spend more time than I should convincing people online that I am, despite the name Christi (which is actually just a nickname), a guy and not a lady.
Q : How would you describe your artistic style?
A : I guess I would describe my personal work as intricate, imaginative, and fun. The tone can vary from cute and quirky, to dark and ominous. The work I do for clients can be quite diverse depending on the specifications of the brief, but I do try and push my style and the look and feel of my work as much as I can afford to.
Q : What type of mediums do you prefer working with?
A : I love working with ink and brush, and fineliners, but my primary medium is digital. Most of my work is done using a Wacom tablet in Photoshop, although the early planning and rough sketches are usually done with pencil in a sketchbook.
Q : What inspires you in your work?
A : I’d like to think my personal work is driven by music to a large extent, but inspiration can come form anywhere as long as you are looking out for it (this has become second nature, so it mostly happens subconsciously).
Q : What artists do you look up to?
A :There are so many, but more recently I have started looking towards different areas of the creative world for inspiration. Instead of falling in love with another illustrator’s work, I’ve been looking at a lot of poster designers from the Art Deco era recently, as well as patriotic work that emerged doing the world wars, and also architecture and a lot of photography (the true masters of composition).
Q : What projects are you currently working on?
A : I can’t say too much about them at the moment, as most of them are awaiting approval, but I can say that there are shirts, an exhibition, and some posters in the pipeline.
Q : What advise can you give future artists/illustrators looking to do what you do?
A : Work hard, love what you do, take criticism with a pinch of salt, and practice, practice, practice!
Q : What has been some of the best moments is your career so far?
A : I designed some beer labels for the studio that I work for and, even though I’d do them a lot differently if I had another go at them, I really loved the process so much and I secretly always wanted to do beer labels. Other than that I get super excited every time I get to work with a band, because they have a tendency to be as passionate about the visual image that represents their music as I am about creating that visual image.
Q : Where can the readers learn more about your work or follow your work?
A : My Instagram is probably the most up to date as I post progress photos of my work as I go along (instagram.com/christidutoit), but you can also see some stuff on Facebook (facebook.com/christiart), Behance (behance.net/christidutoit), and my slightly out dated website (christidutoit.co.za).