Meet Charlot Kristensen | Illustrator and Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Charlot Kristensen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charlot, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
When I started out I was working a full time job while managing a full time freelance career, and as you can imagine it only led to burn out. I had no time for anything else and my health also suffered, so I decided to quit my full time job to focus on my Illustration work. At first it was really tough, I needed a lot of work to make income and that meant saying yes to anything even jobs that didn’t pay well. I ended up overworking myself for very little. I decided to get a part time job to balance things out and over time I learned that it’s better to value yourself and not be afraid to demand a higher fee. This meant I could focus on projects that felt fulfilling while also not stressing about making enough and ultimately creating a better life/work balance. Having said that I don’t always get it right. Sometimes work collides, things get delayed and it can be tough to always have time for your hobbies, or just spending time with your loved ones, but I think over time I’ve been able to improve it bit by bit. An important advice that has helped me a lot is that it’s okay to say no. Most of the time the opportunity will come around again. When you’re new in the industry it feels like you have to accept every job that comes your way, there’s an understandable anxiety that you won’t make enough but it will end up impacting your health, both physically and mentally, so it’s important to listen to your body, know when you have enough on your plate, and trust that work will come again.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is very colorful, I love using complimentary colors, especially vibrant blues, pinks & oranges. It’s more on the cartoony with a hint of anime flair side and of course it’s full of Black joy. I think my choice of centering Black representation with a focus on empowering narratives is what sets me apart.

To date I would say the proudest project I have contributed to is “Hey You!” written by Dapo Adeola. It’s a picture book created by 19 Black illustrators, celebrating growing up Black. It also won the British Book Awards in 2022.

I spent many years working on my craft, all the way back to when I was 9, it was initially Disney that made me want to pursue cartooning, and then manga that made me fall in love with comics. Since then I studied an art and design diploma and went on to do an Illustration bachelor’s degree, while studying art gave me time to improve my skills it was really networking with other illustrators/comic creators that helped me get work. Back then I was very active on Twitter, it proofed to be a great networking platform and had amazing hashtags such as #DrawingwhileBlack created by Abelle Hayford which helped me get my work seen by a lot of people. It wasn’t for that I don’t think I would have landed all the opportunities I’ve gotten since. Sadly those twitter days are over, platforms change constantly, what once got you work no longer does. But still I’m grateful I was part of that period.

I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, when I wrote my debut book I was pretty much broke that year and ended up having to rely on government support. since then I’ve been joggling part times jobs along side my career, let’s just say some years are better and some are rough. But in the end I could never stop making art. I think my passion for it always means I’ll find any way to keep doing it.

Some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way is to never rely on one source of income, the creative industries change a lot, and so does the sectors we get work from, and you never know when the sector you rely on the most might get impacted, so I think it’s important to always have different streams of income.
Never feel ashamed of relying on a part time job, or a full time job to support your creative work. There’s no wrong or right way to be an artist, and we all often have to go back to different jobs to make it work.
And lastly draw what you love, there’s no point drawings things you don’t want to do. If you’re excited it will shine through your work and that’s what will get you the type of jobs you’ll enjoy

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First we would grab a delicious coffee from McDonough, (a cute cottage cafe with a thatched roof) then we would head down to the beach, which is only a 5mins walk from where I live. It’s honestly one of the most stunning beaches in the east coast of Ireland, 5km long with a view of the mountains in the distance, there’s also a brand new library I would show them, Ireland’s only beach library! Sonairte ecological centre would be the next stop, it’s a beautiful organic farm, that has an eco shop, preloved shop, cafe and a forest trail alongside the Nanny river. For food I would travel to Skerries a small harbour town north of Dublin for some delicious tapas at the Red Brick House. We would then go for a walk along the coast before heading to Dublin central, here I would show them Trinity university, my favourite place to just hang in the city, then we would go to my favorite shops, Om Diva a vintage and art shop, the Irish Design shop (loads of local Irish crafts and Little Deer Comics – the best comic shop in town!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First of I’ll have to say my good friend Alex Moore, whom I met back in my Uni days, it’s thanks to them that I became part of of Drawn Chorus Collective, a group of artists who would create art anthologies and exhibitions together. It helped me stay involved and committed to illustration when I left uni and before work came along, The next person is Dian Holten, who was the first person to offer me regular editorial work for the online magazine AARP Sisters Letters, if it wasn’t for her I would never have taken the leap to go full time freelancing. And lastly Avery Hill Publishing, who gave me a chance to write and draw my debut graphic novel “What We Don’t Talk About”, it’s pretty much thanks to that, that I got a foot into the publishing world and met my fantastic literary agent Thao Lee.

Website: https://charlotk.myportfolio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zolwia/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlot-kristensen-837a6ab9

Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zolwia.bsky.social

Image Credits
All images are my own.