Take a peek into Angela Kirkwood’s world where a cat is a more sophisticated smoker than you’ll ever be.
Escape down the rabbit hole with Angela Kirkwood, the Scottish animator and illustrator, whose magical art is the ‘je ne sai quois’ behind our latest collaboration. Her playful and topsy turvy exploration through still and moving mediums encompasses dream-like colour palettes filled with bold character design. We think we could quite happily live amongst the dapper fish and creepy cats, maybe she’ll draw up a home for us? Her world was so captivating, we’ve worked together over the last year to capture it onto a 5 piece-collection of signature Lazy Oaf styles for all.
We’ve sat down with Angela to pick her brain about the inner workings of her hypnotic world from where it all began to how it’s grown.
MEET THE ARTIST: ANGELA KIRKWOOD
Hey Angela, How are you?
Great thank you!!
Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you; where are you from, and what sort of art you make?
I’m a Scottish illustrator and animator based in Edinburgh. I like to make art that feels joyful and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Your work is so vibrant, and makes us feel like we’re transported into a whole new world when we see it; how did you go about finding your style?
I would draw all the time when I was younger, but through university and then my job as a graphic designer I had totally stopped. I was starting to feel a bit creatively unfulfilled in my job, and so I started drawing again to gain some relief from that. My aim was just to make work that made me feel happy and content!
I felt like I had a lot of ideas for characters and situations, and it was super satisfying to just draw them as quickly as I could think of them. This meant my drawings had a very squiggly rough line quality, and as I learned to animate it just kind of stuck because animation can be so time-consuming and laborious. I just needed to draw as fast as I could to get on to the animation - and this is the result!!
What drew you to animation?
I love animation because of the endless opportunities it presents. There are no limits to what is possible or any rules that you need to follow and I find that very freeing.
Something wonderful about your work is your colour palettes, could you tell us a little bit about what inspires the colour combinations?
It’s hard to say where my colour inspiration comes from. It depends on the project - I usually just go with the flow and see what feels right at the time. I love bright pink so use it a lot, and usually experiment with building a colour palette around that.
Are there any TV shows/films or people that inspire you to create? What are some of your faves?
A lot of my characters are based around situations or feelings I’ve had myself. But other people/characters I take great inspiration from are: David Shrigley, Limmy, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and Summer Heights High, to name a few. I find the work of other animators like: Sally Cruikshank, Priit Parn and Vince Collins very inspiring too!
We love to deep dive into the Instagram explore page when in a creative rut - What accounts are must-follows for inspiration?
@24memespersecond - The best meme page for experimental animation!!
@lagunavintage - A reference for amazing iconic vintage kids book illustrations
@peanuts.clips - Snoopy!!
Let’s talk about the collection - do you have a favourite piece from the collaboration?
The collection features lots of cats and dogs, which I love to draw. My favourite piece in the collection is the sleeveless sweater with the blue smoking cat. I love the colours and the irreverent expression of the cat!
How do you feel about working with Lazy Oaf?
When I started working as an illustrator I always had Lazy Oaf as a dream collaborator/client. And so now to have a collection coming out with them feels pretty surreal!!
Outside of this collaboration, we see you’ve done an incredible window for Selfridges - have you got any exciting projects in the future that we should keep our eye out for?
Thank you! I have a couple of animation projects coming out soon but I would definitely love to work on something of that physical size again!
If people would like to support you and your work, where can they find you? (Social Media, Website, etc)
My Instagram is: @angelakirkwood and my Website: angelakirkwood.com
