Jessica Singh’s Illustrations Are a Burst of Color

Australian illustrator Jessica Singh is all about color. According to Singh, it’s her parents’ mixed heritage and cultures (Indian and American) which has influenced her love of color and decoration, but she’s also inspired by textiles, mythology, music, and mysticism.

“I think a lot of what I do is surprisingly unconscious,” she says of her art itself. “I feel like I have a rolodex of images, colors, patterns in my brain.” According to Singh, she either stores these images visually in her memory or collects them literally, by sticking pictures on her wall. “All these images or colors or patterns kind of get absorbed and processed around,” she says.

Then, after some time (and usually triggered by music and caffeine), she gets to work. The result is a happy, vibrant universe, sprinkled with patterns and textures. Having received her BA in Illustration from Central Saint Martins, London, Singh went on to work as a freelance illustrator, collaborating with brands as big as Facebook, Nike, Penguin, Harper Collins, and Samsung.

“I kind of get an idea of what has to go together to create an image,” she says. “What things are associated with each other in my mind and they HAVE to go together. So I get a flash of an image, kind of. Then I will draw a little thumbnail sketch of what all the elements should be. If I think any part needs to be drawn or painted in gouache/scanned I will create those parts first, scan them all. Then I get to work composing the images in Photoshop.” She explains that the linework part is quite fast, but the important part – the coloring that is – can take her several hours.

Take a look at some of the finished results in the gallery below:

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strange/frenzied orchids of western australia

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happy lunar new year! 🌙🐶💥

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cacti/coral

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making rainbows 🌈

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in the flowers.. 🌷🌼🌸 #illustration #flowers

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