Shillo Stories: Rebecca Stewart
Date
Apr 10, 2025
Hello I’m Rebecca a designer and illustrator. Since disembarking from Shillington I’ve been pretty busy on freelance design work, and have been responding to all sorts of weird and wonderful briefs! I’ve also managed to sneak in trips to Indonesia and Japan this year, which provided plenty of visual fodder for the eyes and soul.
Inspiring me
As a lover of animation and pretty much any artform where you can see and feel the presence of the maker, I am so excited to see practical effects making a comeback in the movies, particularly in horror. Phil Tippett’s (30 years in the making) Mad God made a splash a few years ago, and more recently Coralie Fargeat’s visceral gore-fest The Substance reminded me of all the hand-made greats of the 80s: Basketcase, The Thing, and Bad Taste. I’m crossing my fingers that this wave isn’t just a fad and would love to see a more personal, authentic and craft-based approach to design and movies in general.
On reflection
In the words of Steve Martin in The Three Amigos, Illustrator was my own personal El Guapo. As a staunchly traditional pen-and-ink artist I just never ‘got’ what the program was for, or how the all-important pen tool worked. With the patient help of my Shillington mentors it finally clicked into place. Illustrator is now my go-to program for pretty much everything, and I was able to create an autobiographical comic as an alternative cover letter for prospective clients or employers to get to know me.
With my new design arsenal, I was lucky to create a full suite of visual goodies for The Offtopics’ upcoming album launch. I created vinyl and CD covers, new band logo, merch and tees, a massive outdoor poster, and a cast of local characters. It was the first project where I was able to bring together my illustration skills with my new design knowledge to create something really fresh and exciting that also had the look and feel of a professional production.
What's cooking?
After completing an artist’s residency at Point Nepean National Park this June, it’s now time to get on with the next graphic novel in my Infernal Regions series. Research, visual development, plotting, thumbnails, it’s all happening simultaneously! I also had a chance to present a talk on ‘sketchbooking your comic’ at a local library, which posited a more visual, experimental approach to making sequential art.
