Chrissy Lau

I’ve always loved drawing but decided to pursue a law degree which I found really boring so I kept myself entertained by drawing. When I graduated I decided to challenge myself and see if I could make it as a professional illustrator!

I’m self taught.

I was born in Grimsby then we moved to Hull when I was 4 and I spent all my childhood there. At 18 I moved to Sheffield to study law and since 2007 I’ve lived in Sydney Australia.

When I was about 9 I won a drawing competition held by the council – it was to design a SLOW DOWN road sign. The design is a tortoise and he’s still on road signs around my childhood home and school! Drawing defines my whole childhood – that’s literally what I spent every day doing.

I live in Sydney, Australia. I came for a holiday and met my husband so I stayed.

Do children count?!

From the sun room it’s a view into my garden with a mango tree, passionfruit vine and a little zen garden area with 2 Chinese statues and a wooden wishing well.

My dad because he’s very hardworking.

For a general creative mindset I like to go for walks and listen to music. A great documentary can trigger illustration ideas.

I’m not much of a hoarder of things but I do try to collect things that I have illustrated for. I have a collection of coins and stamps I’ve designed. I do also have a collection of stamps.

I like walking, cooking, gardening and watching Youtubers daily vlogging!

I think it might have been an Eternal album on cassette or some Now compilation.

Packaging design for Johnnie Walker Blue Year of the Pig limited edition bottle and also the Year of the Rat stamps for Guernsey Post.

Illustrating for Apple, McDonald’s, Nike, Coca Cola, Prada, Ikea…the list goes on. I like the idea of a big audience seeing my work. My dream job would be illustrating in-house for a clothing or homewares brand.

It’s conveying a message through visuals without the language barrier. You can evoke emotions.

It’s very intriguing to see illustration combined with photography, I like seeing real life made more interesting with flourishes of illustrations.

Descriptive words to convey their message so I can translate that into a visual and a few examples of my work so I know what style they want. It helps if the brief is clear from the beginning and doesn’t change half way through.

All my work is hand drawn. I invested in the ipad Pro so I have more freedom to create digitally. Sketches are normally hand drawn and it’s a case by case basis whether I outline in pen or digitally as it depends on the client’s technical specifications. I might do a combination of hand drawn and digital drawing. The colour process tends to be digital as it’s easier to edit the colours at the client’s request.

I think we’ll see illustration combined with photography and seeing more hand drawn styles that convey a human connection because we live in such a digital age where everything is pixels. Due to social media I think we’ll see more gifs and short animations to capture people’s short attention spans as they’re having their daily scroll on their phones.

I admire the works of Yayoi Kusama (love the patterns and playfulness of her installations) and Banksy (love the thought provoking works he creates with a side of humour).

I find Shepard Fairey fascinating for his social activism and street art.

I don’t really have one I listen to a mix of music ranging from The Beatles, Sigur Ros to Joji.

I might have carried on in digital marketing as I was a search engine marketing manager or maybe pursued a career in graphic design/art direction.

Yes, that would keep me entertained. Maybe I’d illustrate the most elaborate HELP! in the sand incase a rescue plane was flying over.

This is the advice I gave to myself: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. For every door that closes, a new one will open.

Going for a walk or listening to some good music – they both help to lift the mood.

Japan, especially the 7/11 to try all their delicious convenience food.

I can wiggle my ears and touch my nose with my tongue. I can use a wok and flip fried rice because I used to work/spent my childhood in my parent’s Chinese takeaway.

Creative, reliable and hard working. I asked my husband he said creative, clever and punctual.

I’d love to live in a house overlooking a beach and ocean or somewhere high up looking over a mountain range. I’d love to live in the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney or by the beach in Kiama (South of Sydney).

I’d give some to my parents/siblings and with the rest buy a big piece of land and build lots of little houses (so it looked like a little village) and have a huge veggie patch.

Yes, because it makes me happy!

I’d like to meet my dad’s dad, I never met him and I always wonder how similar my dad is to him.