Aysha Tengiz is a freelance illustrator based in London. Her work is vibrant and colourful, often depicting busy scenes featuring an array of characters.

Can you start by introducing yourself and what you do? Where did you study and how long have you been working professionally?

My name is Aysha Tengiz and I’m a freelance illustrator. I studied at Camberwell College of Arts, graduating in 2016. It’s taken a while to build up my portfolio after graduating as living in London isn’t cheap! I’ve been working freelance for the last three years alongside working part time. I would say I started working full time professionally just over a year ago. As the digital world is evolving I’ve learned how to animate and take my illustrations on to a new level. I generally work digitally but enjoy combining illustration with textiles, print and painting.

How has your style evolved since you started working with animation?

I’ve always loved detail and could spend ages on one drawing adding in as much as possible, but when I animate this isn’t really an option. I’m still very new at learning how to animate and so I work in a very simple way. I’m also a very impatient person! If I wanted to get anything finished I’ve had to break away from that style of drawing and learn to work in a more minimal format.

Why do you think it’s important to experiment with different techniques and ideas?

I find it very easy to sit in a comfortable rut of what I already know. Once I force myself out of that mentality, learning a new skill can be one of the most rewarding feelings. It’s also super beneficial if you’re feeling uninspired or generally doubting your work. Once you learn the technique you never know where it might take you or how it will help evolve your work.

What do you think makes animation such an appealing medium for certain clients?

As an illustrator who has learned to animate I can see it becoming a lot more popular as the digital world grows. Most projects I do are projected in a digital format. This means they’re unlimited in the way they can be presented and having them move makes them even more appealing. GIFS and short videos capture people’s attention, and can sometimes convey an idea more effectively than a still image can.

Have you observed any emerging trends in animation in terms of the type of work you’re approached for? 

As I see a lot of the illustrator side of the animation world I think GIFS are the most popular style of animation that I’m around. Making your work have the simplest movement can change the entire dynamic of the drawing. This makes them really popular to use within online editorial projects.

What’s the most unusual request you’ve had?

In terms of animation I haven’t had many particularly unusual requests. I got approached by a Furry couple for an illustrated portrait of them, but sadly it never ended up happening!

Did you observe any significant changes in 2019 in terms of how animation was commissioned or a shift in the kind of clients who were commissioning it? 

I think it’s becoming more common for animation to be requested because it’s such a flexible format to showcase now. It can accompany articles online, Instagram posts and stories, website icons etc. It can basically be used for any format as almost everything is digital!

Can you give us the lowdown on a specific animation project you’ve produced recently? What was the brief and how did you approach it?

I set myself a project recently to create an animation that was longer than a few seconds. I’ve only ever really made short loops of animation and I wanted to see if I could create something longer.

It made me need to understand so many more aspects of animation that I didn’t need to think about when approaching it from a more static and illustrative view. With illustration you can be wonky or abstract and things don’t have to look or move the way they do in real life, but what I found with animation is you have to understand the mechanical side of things a lot more. The more complex parts (which are still so simple) would take over ten hours to complete, to achieve just a few seconds of movement.

It’s called Dippy Egg and I’ll be releasing it in the next month or so!

What trends or stylistic attributes do you think we’re going to see within animation in 2020?

Animation is becoming so accessible. With new apps and programmes being released all the time, the ability to make simple things move is becoming easier and easier. I think more and more illustrators and designers will be learning to use these, as alongside animation becoming a more popular request from clients it’s also becoming more reachable for those who may have found it too daunting to attempt before.

What’s the biggest change in animation you would like to see this year?

I really struggle to think of a specific change in animation that I’d like to see. Within my own work I’d really like to change being so reliant on my computer and working digitally. It’s so easy to fall into working in this format and you don’t get to benefit from the mistakes you make from drawing things out physically with pens, pencils and paper. I’d love to be able to create an animation or a picture book/comic away from the screen!

What is something you would like your industry to discuss or tackle in 2020?

Free art! So many clients, including huge very rich corporations still don’t pay artists (especially newly emerging artists) fair pay, and it shows no sign of changing. So many expect you to either work for free or offer an extremely low budget because they think promoting your work is a form of payment.

Many new graduates (myself included) have worked for free just to create work that you can use in your portfolio. It would be great if more knowledge and ruling could be created to prevent this from happening.

https://ayshatengiz.com/