Every month Brave Island runs a Young Creative of the Month fund, where we spotlight a local young creative with an interview on our blog, and support them with funding of £100. For July, it’s animator Jack Holliday Hughes. This fund launches at the beginning of every month, you can apply to be Young Creative of the Month for August here.
Please can you tell us about your creative practice?
I’m a 2D animator first and foremost: my preference is with traditional hand drawn animation however I try not to limit myself and am always looking at new techniques I can implement into my work. As well as animation I also illustrate a lot, typically doing character designs, backgrounds and scenes. Recently I’ve been focusing on a short story I’ve written.
What projects are you currently excited about?
My current big project is a short story I’ve been writing and illustrating called “Freda and the Troll Court”, about a young girl who, lost in an ancient forest, finds herself face to face with large and terrible trolls after unknowingly committing crimes in their realm. I started this story while in university last year and have been working on and off between modules to try and finish it. Now that I’ve graduated I’m hoping to complete it before the end of summer.
Where do you find influence for your work?
I love looking at old folklore and mythology for inspiration. I believe the best stories ever told are the ones that have been passed down from people to people across centuries, and every re-telling adds something unique. I don’t think there is any part of the world that doesn’t have any mythology around it, so I’m never lacking in inspiration. My other influence is other artists, and trying my best to see the world as they see it. Many of my friends are some of the most talented artists I know, and I’m always fascinated by how they interpret aspects of our world into their own work. Even without them there are still so many incredibly talented people creating things who incorporate their own ideas and experience into every frame of animation or detail of the page that I can’t help but be inspired.
Where can people find your work if they’d like to support you?
You can find most of my work on my instagram at: @jackhollidayhughes. Here I try to upload regular updates on projects that I’m working on and if you are interested in checking out “Freda and the Troll Court” this is the place where I put the pages once they are complete. If you are interested in my animation work I upload everything to my youtube channel at: @jackhughes7733.
