8 Questions with Charlotte Willcox

Charlotte Willcox is a body positivity artist based in Oxford. You can find her on instagram at @charlotte.illustrates and on her website, charlotteillustrates.com

What was your first memorable experience with art?

I’ve been drawing my whole life but I think the first time I felt really proud and excited about art was when I won an award for best artist in Year 3 at primary school. My teachers were really supportive and it gave me so much confidence to carry on!

What kind of art did you do before you found your style?

I started posting my art online back in 2011, at the time I mainly drew colourful animals and fun characters for comics. I was really reluctant to draw humans but eager to learn and improve, I started teaching myself basic anatomy and never went back!

At what point in your art career did you first feel comfortable introducing yourself as an artist?

Very early on I think! I’ve have been very lucky and privileged to have such a supportive family and teachers that have pushed me to achieve my dreams of becoming an artist. I’ve never been very bright or good at most academic subjects so they always encouraged me to pursue what I loved doing the most, and I always thrived at creative subjects.

What creation has brought you the most satisfaction to complete and bring into the world?

The first book I illustrated “Let’s Talk About Down There” by Dr. Jennifer Lincoln. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would fully illustrate a published book and hold it in my hands. I still don’t think it has sunk in yet! Creating the illustrations was so much fun, and I learned so much from the experience.

How often do you get to sit down and play around with ideas?

Not so much at the moment. I’m not very good at giving myself time to play around with personal projects and if I do it’s usually on the weekends. But I do think it’s really important for your creativity that you give yourself time to have fun and experiment!

What is your artistic raison d’être, what do you hope will be your legacy?

I would love to always create art that people feel seen and represented in!

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on a few different (secret) projects! Some are a bit out of my comfort zone so I’m really excited to see where they go!

Where do you hope art takes you next?

I would love to explore outside of digital art! I love drawing digitally but I’m also very curious about other mediums and would like to see if I can combine the two.