Alice Bloomfield
Working across both traditional and digital mediums, London based Alice Bloomfield’s art embraces human emotion, sex and love through illustrated and animated works. Describing her art as ‘opulent, perturbing and sleazy’, Alice’s visual identity lends its hand to a style reminiscent of Manga with exaggerated body features and cool hues. As an artist, Alice believes exploring as many mediums as possible is important which is why she hopes to experiment with 3D animation in the future: just another medium to add to her extensive list of painting, music video sets, digital projections and more. For Alice, the journey is what really matters; she says stepping out of her comfort zone is a step in the right direction.
If you could describe your work in 3 words, what would they be?
Opulent, perturbing and sleazy.
What is your favourite piece of work you’ve created?
My music video for Puma Blue’s song ‘As Is’ will always have a special place in my heart, as it was one of the first big commissions I got after leaving Uni. Working on it with Jacob (Puma Blue) was great as well, we both had very similar visions for what it should be and were influenced by the same movies - big one being Chungking Express! It’s quite rare to work with a musician one on one, without the label being involved and also to be on the same wavelength, there were practically no compromises.
You’re both an illustrator and animator, how did you fall into those mediums?
It’s so important to explore as many possible mediums as you can when you’re an artist. The more you can do, the more opportunities you’ll get really. The progression from drawing to animation was pretty straightforward. I’ve always loved cartoons growing up and was basically brought up on Studio Ghibli films so even though I didn’t know much about the technical side of animation I knew what it should look like. So I started by literally drawing all the frames on paper, I didn’t own a lightbox so I was using the light from my laptop screen to trace from the previous frame. Obviously that all took ages so thanks to a lot of YouTube tutorials, I eventually moved on to doing it all digitally with a graphics tablet.
Does your approach and process differ between your two main mediums or do you feel it is more of a continuation from one to other?
Choosing the right medium depends so much on the project, some ideas work as drawings whereas for some, animation is the only way to get the message across. I find drawings are best for really detailed ideas where I just want to show off one gal in a stunning pose, for example. Whereas, for some, I just can’t resist showing off all the different angles and animated movement. Also, it's usually so much easier to show a narrative or progression of time with animation in a concise way.
You studied illustration at University; do you feel you have carried any of these teachings in your work? If so, which?
The most useful thing I was taught for the industry was how to value my art. Before Uni I would feel really flattered to get a commission and see it almost as a favour and because of that I would work for free or for very little. University definitely gave us a bit more of a cutthroat mentality that if a client comes to us then they should expect to pay whatever our rate is! They also drilled into us that if we work for less it devalues the whole industry, as then all clients will come to expect a lot for a little. Coming out of Uni, I’m a lot more comfortable talking about money and discussing prices with peers, which is so important in the creative industry especially if you’re a freelance to make sure you’re pricing yourself properly.
Your style is quite reminiscent of a Japanese or Asian illustrative style. How did you find your visual identity as an artist?
My style for drawing people mostly came from exaggerating features of the body that I liked - but this process was actually inspired by Anime! I never really got into Manga storylines or anything as a kid but I always really liked the drawings. There are always particular parts of the body that is accentuated; the long legs and big eyes yet the figures remain relatively proportional and you can tell that the artists have a really good understanding of the human body, which I really admire.
What does the future look like for you and your work?
Over the past year I’ve been asked to work on projects that have been really different to what I’m used to like painting huge flowers for a music video set, designing silk scarves and creating animated installations to be projected at the club. Anything that stretches me out of my comfort zone seems like a step in the right direction, as you never really know where you might end up. I’m really driven by process so it’s all about the journey for me. I get so excited when I see artists I love try new things too, it’s cool seeing how people’s styles works across so many mediums. Anyway to answer the question (!), hopefully one day I’ll be doing things which I haven’t even crossed my mind yet but for now I want to move into 3D animation. I just need to find the time to sit down and figure it out.
courtesy ALICE BLOOMFIELD
interview ANISHA KHEMLANI
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