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 September, it’s Illustrator and Filmmaker, Eleanor Hughes. This fund launches at the beginning of every month, you can apply to be Young Creative of the Month for October here.
Please can you tell us about your creative practice?
My creative practice started as a theatre student in my undergraduate at Sussex university. I discovered that I loved haunting performances using interesting lighting and creepy lurking figures, the type that you would find in the dark shadows in your bedroom. Me and my classmates experimented a lot with these types of characters and created our final performance based around things that go bump in the night. Alongside this, as my theatre style developed, so did my illustrations. I had been drawing fantasy/fairytale illustrations my whole life but never felt it quite suited me, and I got bored easily with how long it took to draw and how overdone it was. I wanted something a bit weirder and creepier with some 1920s film noir inspiration, and slowly developed Nora, my main character. She sports a 1920s black bob, weird long fingers and an ambiguous look that suggests that you never quite know what she is thinking. From there, I never wanted to draw anything else and continued to world-build around this character.
What or who are your biggest sources of inspiration?
My biggest inspirations are the old 60’s children’s television shows such as The Herbs, and Willow the Wisp. These shows aimed to be soothing and comforting for children and were that way for me, but they definitely give off a creepy vibe. The character’s eyes are black and beady, and they seem to have some bizarre quirky qualities like manic energy or slow moving, elongated bodies. I think a lot of people including myself find this oddly comforting, perhaps because they take you away to another worldly dimension. The pacing of the shows is also a lot slower than it is now, and I desperately want to bring that back in my own work.
Other inspirations I take from are 1920s posters, and contemporary artists such as Kazland (@kazland on Instagram). I love the colour schemes of the posters, often quite muted and bold, and I take a lot of inspiration from how Kaz layers their paintings with other materials, characters and drawing styles. Sometimes they will just crayon in a stick figure onto a beautifully painted house! It really taps into that childish imagination.
Do you have any upcoming projects you are particularly excited about?
I am very excited to take on a Filmmaking Masters with the hopes of bringing Nightnight Nora to life through interesting filmmaking techniques. I have already started renovating a doll’s house to stage the character in, and I want to experiment with stop motion to bring the world to life. I want to make short TikToks (similar to @Chloe Besinger’s ‘moth friends’) of the characters doing things like pouring a cup of tea, or welcoming in ghostly guests. All of this will be set at night with the intention of bringing to life the odd creatures that roam after dark.
Where can people find your work if they’d like to support you?
If you’d like to see more of my work, I post all of it on Instagram @nightnightnora. I am still getting used to marketing myself on social media, but in time I hope to upload more and post some videos!
