Courtney Reagor is a Chicago-based illustrator and designer. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, she’s developed a unique and impressive resume in a short amount of time. Her characters emit a perfect awkwardness, misshapen and goofy, but so sharply realized that they seem warm and real. Courtney was nice enough to answer a few questions for us.
How much do you dig Chicago? What influences has the city had on your art?
I dig Chicago a lot. I grew up in the northern suburbs of the city and feel like its the right place for me to be right now. all of my people are in Brooklyn and i like the idea of that place, but Chicago is more livable and more my pace. as far as the city’s influences, I guess being around a more diverse amount of people on a daily basis has had an effect. There is a good group of art kids from the School of the Art Institute that are doing some really great things and its nice to have that sense of community in a big city. I thought when i left Savannah I was going to have to throw elbows to find my spot here, but I think creative types tend to gravitate towards each other.
How did you hone your art at SCAD and do you feel that art school improved you in the long run? Did you ever think of dropping out and joining the circus?
Hmm. When i got to school, all i knew was that i liked to draw. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. my parents are both artists and they pretty much prepared me to go to an art school rather than a traditional big 10 college like the rest of my high school friends. i was totally fine with that, but i didn’t have much of an opinion honestly. sometimes i wish i had waited a few years after i graduated high school to go to art school, so i could have had a more refined idea of what i wanted to get out of it. don’t get me wrong, i loved it, but looking back on it, i think the standards could have been set a little higher for illustration students. i certainly wouldn’t be where i am now had i not gotten the little formal training i had… but there were times when i wanted to transfer for sure. i hadn’t put that much thought in to where i wanted to go when i first left home, so i was curious about what other schools were out there. I’m glad i stayed because i made some great relationships with some incredibly talented people. but almost two years ago i went down to the Ringling school to do the Illustration Academy with some pretty important illustrators teaching, and a lot of the other people at the workshop were Ringling students and they were light years ahead of me as far as classical rendering goes. They had a lot of figure painting and life drawing under their belts that I was envious of.
There is such a variety to the faces you draw that it seems you use visual references of family and friends? Is this the case? If so, Do they find it weird?
I do use my own photo reference, i try to, most of the time anyway. but i have a lot of picture books too that i like to draw from. although i feel like its important to make your own reference, so you’re not ripping anyone else off and to create something original. no one has told me they thought it was weird if i use an image of them. i think people like it actually. but nothing i draw ever looks very much like the photo anyway. the faces sort of tend to take on their own personality in the end. the photos are merely a jumping off point.
There is a precious quality to the faces you draw, with their elvish red noses and somewhat confused expressions. Are there illustrators whose drawings of faces you credit as an influence? Are there people whose flush red nostrils you credit as an influence? or is it that cold where you are.
About the noses. man, there are probably a lot of reasons for this, but i like to credit my mom mostly, she always had a cold red nose. and yes, it is bitterly cold where i am. but i think i started doing it when i started to play with digital color. i was working with a lot of flat shapes, and that seemed like a natural place to try and create some dimension…and there is a fellow illustrator friend that was a year ahead of me in school named Britt Spencer, and he was the star of the department and always did these shiny honkers that everyone LOVED. i guess i wanted to see how to use the same exaggerated characteristic in my own way, with out ripping him off, because everyone tried to at some point…poor guy.
There is a quality to your scenes I can only describe as “coziness”. If I don’t want to live in some of your illustrations, I feel as though I have already lived in them. How aware are you of trying to create a sense of place and a mood? And is that an idealized place or just an expression of where you are now?
As far as creating a sense of place and mood, i think i rely heavily on my color palette to do those things. composing the image just sort of happens, in a way that if it looks right, i thank the lucky stars. I’m not using any kind of formula for picture making other than the general rules of design (size relationships, repetition, etc). but I’ve experimented with a few kinds of layering to make a space feel a certain way on the picture plane. I collaged things for a while, but got sick of it and wanted to start relying on my drawing to provide that information. i think its all an expression of where i am now as far as trying new things with my work. I’m generally unsatisfied with doing the same thing for too long. but its also daunting trying to force things to evolve because it usually doesn’t happen when i want it to. so i try to just appreciate what comes out when i get something on paper.
What music have you been listening to lately, and has it seeped into your art?
My music taste fluctuates. i am mostly motivated by old stuff. i think I’m a little too all-over-the-place actually. if i find something i like i feel like its best to dig to the root of where that sound came from… I’m constantly on the hunt for new/old things. i am going through a Wanda Jackson/gritty rockabilly phase, but also catching up on the good clash, Iggy pop, and Metallica records. plus I’ll always have a spot for Lil Wayne and things coming out of the dirty south. I’m a little nostalgic for the 90’s too. I’m all over the place, i told you.
What is something that fills you with joy?
I like getting caught up in putting my pencil to the paper. It’s what I’ve always loved doing, but since its become my “job” i struggle with viewing it as a chore. but the brief moments where it all clicks and something really great gets down on the page, its like a huge sigh of relief… that this IS what I’m supposed to be doing…
Here’s something i wrote down once about my process: “sometimes when i start to properly brainstorm and come up with a morsel of a good idea, i like to sit on it, partially because of anxiety, but more so because of an overwhelming urge to build a nest around it, to protect it, and wait for it to be born”
