Field Art: Lucie Blaževská
In this series, we shine a spotlight on the incredible artists contributing to our 2020 Field Guide.
Today we hear from Lucie blaževská
How would you describe your illustration/artwork style?
Vibrant, dynamic and playful digital illustrations.
Is illustration your full-time gig or how does it fit around the other mix of work you do?
I wish it was my full-time gig (together with painting)! At the moment I work as a freelance graphic designer from my home studio. These days I’m focused on my skateboard brand and workshops developments. I also love volunteering so currently I’m being trained at Auckland Women’s Center.
What attracted you to illustration over other creative mediums?
Illustration to me is a way to express my inner life, my visions, dreams, philosophy or opinions. I love illustration but I also love to paint. Both are totally different practices. The digital illustration gives me an opportunity to control my visual outcomes, conversely, during painting, I try not to focus too much on the visual outcome and just let shapes and colours come out as they need to.
How do you feel like your practice has evolved since you started out?
First illustrations I did commercially was around 8 years ago and I didn’t do many illustrations since then until last year when I started my Born to Create skate collection where I portray inspirational women from all around the world. Each illustration is somehow better than the one before. It’s a learning and discovering in process. I think the illustration I did for the Field Guide 2020: Growing the future designer is closest to style I want to develop.
What does your dream project or commission look like?
A client who tells me ‘’I love your style’’, here is the topic and you do you. Also, my dream is to illustrate children’s book. I also would love to collaborate with a fashion brand on fabric designs or fashion illustrations where I could use my digital collage skills.
We are so grateful of the work you are doing on DA’s field guide – Could you give us some behind the scenes into your process for the field guide artwork. What aesthetic or conceptual decisions did you make?
The theme I illustrated was quite a serious one so I wanted to approach it with playfulness and humour to brighten up the discussion about our future. The idea is that whatever you put into the soil, how you care of the seed, how you feed it will have an impact on the person’s/designer’s development. I think it also reflects my positive outlook to the future and my belief in humanity hence the bright and uplifting colour palette.
What else are you working on right now?
Currently, I’m working on branding for a chocolate company. There are a few projects that I’m proud of. One of my artworks was selected to represent Kotahitanga through Creativity, a contest organized by Creative Waikato. Some of my skateboards are currently on display in Brussels at Custom Skate Expo which I’m really proud of. Another project that I would say kick-started my illustrative career is Love: Wellbeing Journal where I did 8 illustrations based on Hindu mythology. It was challenging and fun too.
How does your workload compare to before the COVID-19 Lockdown?
Well, I don’t have much commercial work to do but I have time to read, expand my art practice, work on Lucie Blaze skateboards, think about books I want to illustrate.
Given the Field Guide series is putting a lens on our post COVID practice… what do you hope for the future?
I hope that we as humans and as designers will be more considerate toward our mother nature and each other. I think caring for something that sustains your life is necessary for global change.
Finally, where can we see more of your work?
https://www.lucieblaze-borntocreate.com/
https://lucie-blazevska.com/
https://www.lucie-blaze.com/
You can also see my artwork at kotahitangagallery.co.nz from 13th of July.
