Biology, Birds, and Art

                Being an art student can get pretty crazy so it’s nice to have a few friends in the field to help alleviate the craziness. Hilary Elizabeth Musket has been a friend of mine for a while now, but she’s also a fellow artist, currently majoring in illustration. However, she wasn’t always an art major. She started out her college career as a biology major and realized it just wasn’t for her and changed her major to art after 3 semesters. Ever since, she’s been an art making machine!

She’s known for her illustrations, varying from pin-up girls to big-eyed, chuck wearing owls. She also does skateboard deck designs and tattoo designs for family and friends. Hilary and I were talking about the “art making process” and she gets her inspiration from a variety of things. “I like to make my animals that I draw have personality and I tend to be very meticulous with all of my drawings.” Looking at her sketchbook, anyone can see how meticulous she is with her tiny hand writing and research images.

A few of her strengths are pen and ink and graphite, and occasionally she’ll use paint to push herself out of her comfort zone. When I asked her what her inspirations are, she said, “Inspirations usually just come from the world around me. Or books. Definitely books. I tend to make up stories in my head frequently and I feel like this sort of imaginary world is what makes me want to turn the people and animals in my drawings into more than just studies.” Her drawings do have a certain character about them, even if they’re just studies. Lately she’s been experimenting with ink on water color paper with ink pen drawings or squids. She’s has certainly come a long way since her bio major days.