Nikki De Deyn
I am an Antwerp born illustrator living in Mechelen with my amazing wife and our wonderful baby (technically almost a toddler but I’m still trying to work out how I can stop time from moving forward!).
I work at the Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde as a digital communication specialist. I am responsible for building and maintaining the websites for our many projects on road safety and road education. My job also entails a wide range of graphic work like for example designing visuals for our congresses or making a boardgame for high schools to use when learning about safe bicycling.
In my free time I am an illustrator. I used to do commissioned work but since our son was born I only illustrate for my own pleasure and that has been very liberating. Currently I am really trying to find my own visual voice and while doing that I am building my creative universe. Due to the restricted time (we are keeping our son at home and taking turns working/taking care of him during the week) I currently only draw and do digital illustrations. I hope to pick up painting soon.
What inspired you to get into the arts, illustration and graphic design?
Ever since I can remember I was the kid that kept on doodling all over her school books and just couldn’t sit still or concentrate unless I was drawing random things. I need to draw to feel sane and I need to create to be happy.
Did you have any influential role models?
I don’t have a specific role model that stands out, but I am very inspired and in awe of everyone who embraces their creative side and shares their work with the world. That’s a gift to yourself and others.
What is your creative process and what are the most important things you keep in mind when beginning a new project? Are there any recurring themes/issues you like to address within your work?
I draw every day. I carry my notebook around with me wherever I go. I draw when the baby naps. I draw between my lunch breaks. I doodle when I’m waiting in line. I like for things to be random and I want to draw things that come to me whenever they do. I have a new process that I am testing and that I call my “every day flow”. Since the first of January, every evening I scan my drawings of the day, digitalize them and enhance them by coloring them in with Illustrator and finally I photoshop them back into my notebook. My notebooks are sacred to me, they are my companion and carrier. It feels amazing to make them the start and final point of this analog/digital process.
The most recurrent theme in my drawings is a masked figure called MinMin (my son named it that way when he first started talking). Who MinMin truly is is still a mystery, even to me. Is MinMin my alter ego? My true self? A symbol for “the millennial”? Or just an exhausted individual who nevertheless loves life?
What do you enjoy most about your work?
The process. I wasted so many years waiting to make the perfect thing but still not knowing what that exactly entails. Now I embrace the process. I try to create and see where this leads me. This way everything feels like an experiment, a step in a greater scheme. I’m excited to find out where I’ll end up eventually. But the most important lesson that I have learned is: things don’t have to be perfect, but I need the creative process to be happy and feel sane.
What advice would you give to artists starting out or to those artists who are struggling with creative blocks?
Show up. Show up every day, even if it is for 15 minutes. Sit down and take time to sketch, put down a couple of words, think up some chords, ... don’t pressure yourself in wanting to do everything perfect. You’ll see that one thing leads to another. Enjoy the process, your flow will come.
