Today we’d like to introduce you to Kara Hemsworth.
Hi Kara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I started drawing as a small child and never stopped. I took several children’s art classes where I thrived. In high school, I had an excellent art education due to a very good art director. It was there where I took my art more seriously, as I knew art was my career path. Our art teacher would take us to the Fort Worth Modern Museum of Art once a week for lecture night from different professional artists. We also had extensive education in modern art in our classwork, as well as weekly life drawing classes. We worked on set design for the Drama Department and much more. I designed the new medical symbol logo for the anatomy club and was the t-shirt designer for all our school events.
My first freelance gig was in high school painting a mural for a friend of the family in his backyard on his 40ft x 10 ft cement wall. I also did a few paintings that still remain inside his home.
I received a Bachelors in Fine Art majoring in Art and Technology at The Ohio State University. Here I received my first trained classes in digital art and loved it. While I was there for attaining a 3D animation education because that was the direction movies were going in, I learned I couldn’t commit to it with my heart because I was too in love with 2D animation and illustration. I experimented with software and equipment for the rest of my time in college.
When I graduated in 2009, I moved to Austin, Texas, and decided to go after a 2D animation education. I attended Austin Community College, which I cannot rave enough about. They had fabulous teachers who were in the industry and had worked on big-name movies I had looked up to. After that, I started freelancing art anywhere and everywhere! I took online classes, bought software and drawing tablets, a Cintiq, and finally an iPad Pro. I’ve always started my career within my community, offering commissions or help on projects. It’s really built me into the Jack-of-all-trades that I am today in my art. My career titles vary from character designer, illustrator, house/venue portrait artist, and watercolor artist. Doing a little bit of everything becomes all of everything in the genre of art.
My friend from high school started a stationery business for brides around 2015 which has since launched into a boutique design firm. Earlier on in the business, she asked me to come on as a contract artist for fine art requests. Now, 3 years later, I’m the Lead Illustrator at Pink Champagne Designs. We produce everything ranging from creating custom artworks, logos, and designs for weddings, corporate events, and more.
I specialize as a pet portrait and venue drawings artist but you never know what a client wants. I’ve had requests for watercolor peonies on a mirror for wedding decor, an adventure pirate-themed vendor map for a corporate event, a custom illustrated and designed bandana, and much more creative endeavors.
In 2017 I finally started my own business as a year-round freelance artist, Kara Hemsworth Art & Design, and started getting the word out that I was open for commissions. I posted on Instagram the works I was doing on my own time and kept up with people that ended up landing me holiday commissions for their significant others, friends, and family. This grew and grew, while also, Pink Champagne Designs was growing. I take personal commissions usually around holidays and birthdays of house portraits in pencil to character portraits with your loved ones as digital cartoons. I have a lot of returning clients which is awesome! I love that connection that gets built through art and discussing ideas with the client and making it happen!
Lastly, I work in the advertisement industry with commercials for character design and art direction on animations. Our work for the Humane Society won a national award and was played at the busiest time of the year, Christmas, before the number one movie in America at the time, Star Wars. The production company I contract with has had multiple returning clients for our work as well.
I love doing a little bit of everything. I grew up thinking every choice in life was either black or white. I learned to carve my own path, filled with all the things I love, instead of feeling trapped into picking just one art path. It makes me feel super grateful and fortunate to have followed my heart. I’m onto breaking into being an illustrator for the children’s book industry, which is my absolute dream. I’m looking for an agent and representation while working on some dummie book spreads for a portfolio. I can’t wait to dive into this next adventure! Meanwhile, let me know if you need any type of art and design work done! KaraHemsworth@gmail.com or my Instagram handle @KaraHemsworthArt
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I grew up wanting to be “a character designer for Disney”, as I would say for 15 years. I got so used to stating that dream over and over, that I didn’t even take time to consider what the adult me thought or felt. The epiphany of looking at what I was doing, which was a little bit of it all, versus doing one straight-lined thing forever, is what woke me up to embrace and take advantage of the fact that my long-sought-after dream didn’t come true the way I thought. Being a freelance artist doesn’t provide a steady paycheck. Selling art, pricing art, accumulating work, are also natural struggles. I feel like every freelance artist feels these obstacles too. Pricing and self-worth become very intertwined if you don’t step into your business shoes!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am truly an illustrator. I specialize in manifesting and illustrating people’s visions and evoking a connection with people through my images. This comes through in my specialized practice of character design, pet watercolors, and house portraits. There is so much life held in these images that I like to capture. I love design work, as well, because it counters the finality of these portrait genre works and gives me room to explore different styles bringing a nice balance to all the work I do. I specialize in telling a story through action poses with my characters and evoking emotion from the line and movement of the drawing. I can tell a story through my images. I’d love to work with storytellers illustrating their beautiful words!
I studied a little film in college. They were tough classes but gave me enough knowledge to really understand camera work, pose, color and lighting, and storytelling. I’m really grateful for those classes because I still refer to the lessons I learned in them.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
To me, maintaining the practice of creating work and producing art is a success. That dedicated practice of doing art whilst enduring the struggles of art is also a success. Believing in yourself enough to follow your intuition to where art takes you is a must as well as being confident enough in yourself and what you represent to say no to projects. One must be good at effective communication with clients. Success simply looks like ‘returning clients’ to me!
Contact Info:
- Email: Info@Karahemsworth.com
- Website: www.KaraHemsworth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karahemsworthart/?hl=en
Image Credits
Flat Lays: Pink Champagne Designs, Photographer: @thecrakes Draw This In Your Style : Pernille Orum, girl
