Attending Adobe MAX this year was my first time visiting the U.S, and also attending a 12,000 visitor conference !  It was whirlwind of new and exciting things to take in – you can read some snippets in my earlier post, here.

One encounter that stood out was meeting fellow Aussie, Sha’an d’Anthes. Sha’an has a huge following under the guise of her Furry Little Peach blog and social media accounts. She was a joy to spend some time with, among the busy seminars and bright lights in Vegas!

The 25-year-old illustrator, designer and exhibiting artist recently released her first book ‘Zoom’ teaching kids about the solar system. We recently caught up with her back on home soil for a tour of her cute Sydney studio. 

How did you find your way into illustration and art?

I knew I wanted to be an artist from a super early age, but in high school I decided that art was too impractical, so I discovered design and fell in love with it. I decided to study Graphic Design.

When I started uni, I was also doing freelance art collaborations for General Pants (murals, live art, and more branding rather than actual product) as well as some other commercial brands. in this way, uni wasn’t really as much of a learning experience for me as all the real life stuff I was doing; I went there, got a piece of paper and it was great, but then I did an internship at a big digital agency, which was a turning point. Following this, I finally got a job as a digital designer doing apps and websites.

About one year ago, I realised that I was getting enough freelance work, and I was able to quit my full-time job and focus on illustration… and now I’m just loving drawing for a living!

Your Blog Furry Little Peach is hugely popular, with the Instagram having amassed more than 143,000 followers. What motivated you to start it, and the unique name?

It started from when I made my tumblr in high school in Year 11. I built it to procrastinate, because I didn’t want to study for my HSC! I was trying to come up with a URL for that, and I just liked the word peach – it was cute and fun. Originally, I was tossing up between ‘We Are Little Peaches’ and ‘Furry Little Peach’ and just went with the latter!

There’s no real meaning, and it’s a fluke that it kind of works with the work that I create now.

Where do you find inspiration?

It’s a hard question to answer because we (artists) all like other artists and different music and interests, but these don’t necessarily translate to our work.  

I think my true inspiration comes randomly, at the weirdest time, like on the bus! It’s just like this magic that you can’t manifest. The most authentic ideas come when you least expect it!

I’m a late adopter of Pinterest, but I try NOT to search for things before starting a project, and instead start them based on an idea that I have in my head.

Your output spans artwork, painterly illustrations, pins and linen collaborations to name a sample. How would you describe your style, and do you have a prefered media?

It’s vibrant, joyful and nostalgic – a mix between the world I want to live in and my experiences, things that I like, and the things I like to listen to. In my work I focus on everything that makes me happy, and I think people can see that joy, which perhaps resonates with them too.

Watercolour is my favourite medium for sure. It is like a wild animal; you put it down, it just does whatever it wants and you just have to try to tame it on the page. I love it. In visual art at uni they taught us how to do oil painting, and drawing… Water colour was really something that I saw other people doing on Tumblr and was inspired from there!

Do you have a favourite project so far?

My book, ‘Zoom’, is a big monument in my career so far.

I also recently designed some bed sheets, which was really fun because it was for a big Kickstarter project. I was just so amazing to do something so large scale, and that would be so practically useful to people’s lives. This made me fall in love with homewares, so I’d love to collaborate with ceramicists or textile designers to bring my work into everyday lives more in the future. 

Can you tell us more about ‘Zoom’ and how it came about?

When I was five I told my Mum that I wanted to write and draw my own books! It’s now happened 19 years later! I really didn’t expect it to happen this early, because I left my full-time job thinking a book would be a long term life goal. But then, somehow, my publisher ended up emailing me and asking if I had ever thought about doing a children’s book. I pitched some ideas, they loved them, and we got started!

The book follows a child character named ‘Scout’ and a rocket ‘Beadie’. I wanted to teach kids about the Solar System. I was a really visual learner at school, and I feel that I never really picked up maths or science because of this. I thought that an illustrated book could be a really visual way to teach kids about the size and order of the planets, in particular through each planet being a different animal, and driver of the narrative.

What do you think is the most exciting thing about being a creative in Sydney today?

Sydney has a really close-knit creative community; it never feels competitive and I’ve always felt like we celebrate each others’ achievements and lift each other up, which is really nice.

A huge challenge of living and working here is cost of real-estate – the rental prices here can be extortionate, and as a full-time freelancer where your income fluctuates, that can be really scary!

What did you take away from Adobe MAX?

I attended as an influencer, so I guess my job is to be the ‘eyes on the ground’ and to share the experience with my creative audience.

The thing I liked the most about Adobe MAX was the people that we got to meet – I went to really good talks by Bonnie Seagood, Aaron Draplin, and Tad Carpenter. And then you had an opportunity to form connections with people who weren’t necessarily speaking, but in a similar stage of their career as you, with the same insecurities and challenges to face. I was hanging out with filmmakers, photographers, other illustrators/watercolourists.  I found it really cool to compare everything.

Coming from this conference, I’ve seen the importance of making – for ‘just making sake’ and not being so concerned if you’re being paid for it or not. I am very project driven and I will often book too many projects at once. A big goal for me in the future is to just have a play and push my ideas further and actually create projects for myself, because that’s when you learn things and that’s when you’re most creative!

Christmas is just around the corner, so it’s been a busy time for many creative freelancers. Have you been doing any holidays themed work, and how will you be spending the break?

I’ve actually just finished a Christmas Campaign with The Streets of Barangaroo, of which I’m really proud. I created the hero artwork for their catalogues, window decals for all their stores and three sets of wrapping paper. All the artwork is centred around ‘Leisure’ as a theme. It was important for me to create something inclusive that everyone can get on board with at this time of year.

I love the holiday season! My plans include getting my online store ready for next year, wrapping up this year’s projects, watching an obnoxious number of christmas movies, and eating lots and lots!

Keep up-to-date with Sha’an d’Anthes’ work on her blog Furry Little Peach.

Annie Portelli was a guest of Adobe for the Adobe MAX conference.