Meet Katey Arlowa Rene de Cotret | Illustrator, Animator and Animation Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katey Arlowa Rene de Cotret and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katey Arlowa, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Something I have always wanted to do is be an illustrator for myself. It’s scary to start but I keep telling myself the time is going to pass anyway, so I might as well start now and do it scared. Everyone has to start somewhere, and why not me, and why not now? So I keep going and keep going and see where it puts me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a digital artist and animator for the most part, but I like to create the ILLUSION of it being traditionally done. My illustrations are inspired by oil paintings, and my animations are sketchy and loose to invoke the feeling of traditional animation.

I am really proud of how well I can replicate a traditional style in digital work and do it QUICKLY! That’s the key, a lot of people don’t understand how I can do it so quickly, but really by leaving brush work as messy as I do, I don’t have to get it super clean and perfect to do it fast. I get to just throw colour at the page and have a good time.

It wasn’t easy to get here, though. I spent ten years in the animation industry and put a lot of time and effort in my work there until it burnt me out.

I learned that I don’t want to keep working on someone else’s products that I’m not invested it. Constantly working hard is great and all, but if I don’t care about the actual content then I’m just burning out over nothing of consequence.

In my opinion, art is so so so important to the world, and all over the place artists are becoming devalued. It takes time to get good at any kind of creative field, but executives would rather not acknowledge that hard work, because art is “fun.” And you shouldn’t get paid for things that are *fun* right?

Anyway, support your local artists. They work just as hard as anyone else to get where they are.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Here in Ottawa, I love how many museums we have. We would absolutely need to go to at least one or two of those! There’s also high tea at the Fairmont Château Laurier. Delicious little snacks and amazing selections of tea. Dinner at the National Arts Center along the Canal. Down in the Glebe, there’s usually some kind of event going on like 613 Flea, which is a fun open market style craft show. Might even be able to get tickets to a hockey game at the new Lansdowne stadium—the new Women’s Hockey League plays there!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to shoutout my friend Sweet. Her website can be found at https://storiesbysweet.com/

She’s a self published author and one of my very best friends. Without her support, I definitely would have given up by now. Also? Her books are incredible. Give them a read!

Website: https://www.arlowa.art/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katey-rene-de-cotret-33312894/

Twitter: https://x.com/ArlowArts

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@arlowa