Sit Down With Our #090 Featured Artist

Laura Basova

Featured Artist / #124 ScrawlrBox 

My name is Laura, online I go by Tomato illustrates and I am a mixed media artist. I have always had a love and deep interest for art, as a kid I always dreamt of studying and completing university and getting a degree, which I have done, I graduated in Graphic Design and Illustration in 2022, which was the biggest achievement that I am so proud of completing! I have always gravitated towards art and really poured my all into it, even though it’s not how I make a living, it truly is the only thing I think about when I’m not doing something creative! I always strive to get better at my craft, I’m always investing time and energy into learning new techniques and always trying to progress at the ones I already think I know, this way it’s hard to get bored because I’m in a way at competition with myself, I strive for the feeling of “wow I can’t believe I made that” and that is something that keeps me going! I challenge myself a lot, I always try and paint things that I have doubt about especially bringing myself out of the comfort zone, which is why my work is constantly improving.

To gain confidence online I started streaming art on Twitch, this taught me a lot about communication, which I then took to YouTube, I love long form content and I love the art community so I am always so excited to contribute.

Your animal illustrations are cute and quirky. Do you have a particular emotional or symbolic significance behind the animals you draw?

The animals that I draw don’t always have a specific dedicated emotion or symbolism behind it, sometimes I just like the overall feel or composition to explore, I do sometimes delve into more research about the specific species just because I’m a huge animal lover and I’ve drawn animals ever since I can remember!

Who or what inspires your work the most, other illustrators, nature, music, memories?

I get inspired a lot by the media and imagery I see online, Pinterest is the pinnacle of a lot of my colour palettes, which are closely linked to my ideas, sometimes I see a nice colour palette and then later I will put together a image in my head when doing mundane everyday tasks. Nature is a huge influence within everything I do, especially during spring and summer, I’ve made many artworks influenced from my own garden! 

When you’re layering what’s your process like? Do you sketch first, then paint, or do you sometimes paint intuitively?

When I make a piece I will opt for a coloured pencil sketch first and then either cover with a fluorescent pink ink or just fill in the areas step by step, however I do often do a super loose sketch which I will paint with intuition for the most part, for nature scenes I will be okay without a initial sketch and just focus on the shapes.

What helps you get through the dreaded art block?

Aaah... yes the dreaded art block! I think taking care of your mental health is the most important thing you can do to nurture your creativity! For myself I have gone through so many stages and sometimes you can’t force it, I went almost 2 years without being able to make a thing, but if you want to make art but can’t, it’s okay, you are still an artist and it just might take a little longer to get to a point where your mind frees up a little space for art again! However I do go through low motivation stages and during those I just do other things like edit, until something influences me to draw again!