Today we’d like to introduce you to Britt.
Hi Britt, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I was in my mid-teens, a friend of mine had given me an Etch-A-Sketch for my birthday. I would sketch something roughly once a year and knew I was decent on it, but didn’t extend my skills beyond that for a while.
One year, my sister was going in for a minor surgery and had asked me if I would wait for her and drive her home. I racked my brain on how to spend my time in the waiting room whether it was 20 minutes or a few hours. I remembered the Etch-A-Sketch, so I ran to Walmart to get one and then headed to the hospital. While waiting, I had sketched a quick octopus. I ended up posting it on social media, and the next thing I knew, I was getting request after request and things took off from there. I started doing ComicCon events and various art shows in the county.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have struggled significantly with imposter syndrome and burnout. I went through a few-year hiatus in the sense that I went from posting often to a couple of times a year, sometimes only creating some pieces during Inktober challenges.
I also found that once I started charging for my art, I slowly lost interest in doing it. I was previously creating art as gifts for my friends and family or would overhear an acquaintance talking about a passion of theirs and would surprise them with a piece of art revolving around that interest a few days later. The money was nice, but it took the fun out of it as I was no longer doing them as surprise gifts. I also was more interested in getting my art in others’ hands than I was in getting paid what my art was worth. I ended up shooting myself in the foot and creating such a deep backlog of commissions during the holidays which greatly added to the burnout because I was stressed with deadlines and I wasn’t charging what my art was worth to make this hobby worth it. It took me a very long time to get past this and am barely re-emerging online.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Not only is my art medium unique as it is (being that my art is on a very old and classic toy), I also discovered a way to preserve the units to sell which took my hobby to a whole new level. Etch-A-Sketches are easily reusable due to being able to shake and erase them so I do not go through products often. If I don’t sell one I’ve pre-made? I shake it and use it for something else. However, when I do commissions, I remove the components that aid in erasing. Without the components that re-coat the screen (therefore erasing it), you’ve got a preserved piece of art ready to display!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
You’d be surprised how many there are out there that aren’t just the classic red frame. I have a collection of roughly 100+ UNIQUE units ranging from ones like Hello Kitty, Shrek, Homer Simpson, Stan Lee, R2D2, SpongeBob, just to name a few. I also have different variations of the toy from around the world (such as the Telecran from France, the IQEQ from Korea, Telesketch from Spain, etc). There’s only a small handful of ones I actually have a couple of and I have no idea what all the different ones out there are, but I am continuously surprised by the new ones that pop up online that I add to my collection.
I also often receive statements that because I’m great on an Etch-A-Sketch, that I must be amazing on paper. But contrary to popular belief, I am not an artistic person otherwise and my artistic abilities most certainly do not translate to any other medium.
Contact Info:
- Email: Sketchy.Britt@gmail.com
- Website: https://sketchybritt.tumblr.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sketchybritt/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/SketchyBritt/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/sketchybritt
