Emotion & color with Celia Jacobs 

In the chaotic world of contemporary illustration, Celia Jacobs stands out with her colorful, emotive work that captures both the intimate and the profound. Hailing from Portland and now based in Los Angeles, Celia’s artistic journey began at a young age, drawing inspiration from the world around her—particularly animals, people, and, more recently, the intricate beauty of Medieval art. Known for her sensitive and thoughtful approach, she blends color, expression, and empathy in a way that resonates deeply with her audience. In this interview, we dive right into Celia’s creative process, her inspirations, and her thoughts on the ever evolving landscape of modern art.

LOREM IPSUM: Let’s start recalling the first time you ever felt attracted or intrigued by illustration, your first memory saying “this sounds interesting, maybe I wanna pursue that”, tell us a little bit about your journey.

Celia Jacobs: Sure! It would be pretty early on in my life actually. My mom does painting and stuff for fun, painting and drawing. So when I was a little kid, she would draw and I would just draw next to her. And that was probably when I was 3 or 4, and since then I’ve just been drawing. And I’ve been most interested in that, more than anything else. I remember learning to read, and I’d make little books and write and draw little stories, and I think, copy kids that I saw. It was a very early decision for me. I was really just a little kid when I decided what I was interested in.

L: Awesome! And do you recall if you were fixated on drawing specific things, or it was just about everything or anything?

C: I think I was a huge animal person so, a lot of cats and dogs and horses. And I remember sitting next to my mom and saying “how do you draw a unicorn?”, and she goes “draw a horse, and put a horn on it”, and for some reason that opened the door. So yeah, a lot of animals.

L: When it comes to right now, inspiration, where do you draw inspiration from? What inspires you? Or do you have a process when it comes to crafting your illustrations, or does it come more naturally?

C: I’m pretty constantly looking, visually looking for inspiration, I do make a Pinterest board that I update, like… Every season has its own Pinterest board just for the newest things I’m into. So, I’m definitely looking around online, always trying to find new stuff. And then outside of it, I do try to, you know, go to museums and shows when I can and get inspiration there. Or get inspiration from daily life, so there’s a lot of sources coming in… or friends or music, that sort of thing also inspires me a lot, too. But visually, yeah, I’d be looking at new artists and illustrators and a lot of new designs. Or right now I’m really into Medieval design, so I’ve been looking at a lot of Medieval art.

L: Would you say that you rely solely on inspiration or do you find yourself having a method for when you have a deadline? Are you able to shift from that or do you rely purely on when you’re inspired for you to craft the work?

C: I pretty well have a method, especially for illustration work, I have to come up with an idea whatever the deadline calls for it, so… I’m pretty focused. I generally, I’d read the article and then I go for a walk and think about it. And when I come back, I’d have ideas for it and it’s pretty methodical from there, the way that I draw everything and get it done. If it’s other stuff, if it’s projects for me or things like that, it’s a lot more freeform but most of the time it’s client work and I’m pretty process-based.

L: Of course, that totally makes sense! You said that music is one of your inspirations, do you have any specific artists or songs or albums that you listen to when you work on any of your pieces?

C: That’s a good question! I’d have to see what I’ve listened to on Spotify. I like a lot of different stuff. It depends, I’m such a seasonal person, so right now with summer it’s like a lot of… I’m always into folk, so I listen to a lot of folk, but now because it’s summer I’m doing a lot more dance music, and more electronic stuff. I love folk music, I love like shoegaze for the winter or sort of punk music all the time… Yeah, just a lot of stuff.

L: The idea of this interview it’s to present your work to a lot of people that maybe aren’t familiar with your portfolio or your Instagram or stuff like that. If we ask you to describe your pieces to them, how would you say they are? Trying to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

C: I’d say I make acrylic paintings, I use a lot of color, and depict a lot of people, a lot of women. And I try to make everything really sensitive and intimate-feeling. But it’s really about people, their expressions and the use of color.

L: You say they’re very intimate, I see that… What emotions are you trying to evoke through your illustrations? If you can expand a little bit on that.

C: I think because I draw & paint a lot of people, I’m always thinking of that in an empathetic way, hopefully, aiming for that. They can have a lot of different emotions, especially client work, it always has to be based on the article that’s sent. But I try to think sort of what it feels like to even be in a pose or to have the emotion that I’m trying to evoke, so I think it can go a lot of ways. It’s not usually too serious, more thoughtful I’d say it’s the emotion.

L: When it comes to client work, how do you manage to fulfill the commission and what they’re asking you to do, and also to make sure that your POV as an artist is present? How do you manage to balance that when it comes to illustration?

C: That’s a good question. Let me think. I’ve always sort of, I’m not a great copier, or working on other people’s style, so usually I’m pretty lucky in that it feels like me pretty quickly because I’m not very good at doing anything else. But a lot of it is trying to make the idea work for the client and then how that idea is translated visually, it’s up to me and I try to make it compositionally, color-wise, the way it’s drawn, relate to me more. So if an idea is, you know, doing a snake or something, that’s what the article calls for, it’s still gonna be the way that I wanna draw it. I’m still gonna look at my references for inspiration and compose things in a way that feels honest to me, so hopefully conceptually it works for the client, and then from there it’s like “well, you hired me, so I’m gonna make this the way I wanna make it”.

L: Checking the work you have done and the brands you have worked with, we saw The New Yorker, we saw Google… Do you enjoy collaborating with big brands or do you enjoy the little commissions you may find along the way?

C: I’d say both. Obviously it feels nice to work with a big company, but really the thing that makes the difference for me is if I’m drawn to the concept, if I like it already, and it helps to have a nice Art Director too. I really don’t mind that, but yeah, a lot of it is: I feel pretty whatever about who the work is for if it’s something I’m attracted to, a concept I like, that’s probably what I have the most fun with.

L: Do you have a dream commission you’re still waiting for?

C: Well, yeah, I do have some. I really wanna do a beer or wine label, that’s one of them. And doing more music stuff would be great, and… What’s last? More murals. No specific clients really, but I think those are places that it would be fun to have illustration live.

L: When you say more music stuff, do you mean album covers or flyers? Have you done that in the past? Tell us a bit more.

C: Yeah, I’ve done a little bit of flyers, album covers, branding… Mostly for smaller, like smaller midsize artists right now. But really, I really enjoy doing that just because music like I was talking about is such an inspiration of mine, and I think people are looking for something really creative. So I’d love to do more album covers or work like that.

L: You talked about your identity as an artist, do you feel you were influenced by other artists? Some people have inspiration sources that end up being part of their language as an artist, is that the case for you? Do you have any favorite artists that you want to talk to us about?

C: Yeah, I do, and I think I have kind of a basic answer. But David Hockney has always been, for years, a big inspiration. Which obviously, he’s a lot of people’s favorite but he definitely comes to the top of my mind. Just the way that he uses colors or the way that he translated his life as he was living it into art, I think is so beautiful. His ideas about looking at something and trying to make a painting that is, feels truer than a photograph. Whether it’s like the photographic work of going through different perspectives, or things that are depicting people and it feels emotionally true, I just I’ve always loved that. And when I was deciding to move to LA, I think I was inspired by him because I wasn’t 100% sure about this city, but the way that he paints and draws it is so beautiful that it is like “well, I guess there’s something there”. I’ve always kinda tried to see it through his lens.

L: Do you reference yourself in your work? Do you portray your life in your pieces just like him?

C: Yeah, I know I keep saying this but especially with client work you can really depend on what they want, but generally it is. A lot of times I’m just inspired by the people around me, so I’ll take bits and pieces of what they look like and I’ll put them in (my) work, or things that I find interesting. You know, whatever’s around me will kinda worm its way in or, you know, nature, I’m really interested in, I’d take a lot of details of things that I see around me, whether it’s people or the you know, world, the environment that I’m in and just add those in to fill things out.

L: There’s a lot of controversy regarding AI-generated art in the media. As an artist, what’s your stance on that subject?

C: You can probably guess I’m not very for it. I understand people wanting to use technology to make these tools and I think the very most generous I can be about AI is that it’s maybe useful as a last step in Photoshop to like expand the borders on something because you need it for print, or to clean up something. But I really think people are so far off trying to get AI to come up with ideas, and be there at the first step of the process, or even the middle step of the process. Because it’s just, it’s regurgitating things that have already existed in an average-out way, and I don’t think art should ever be about getting the average of things that have already come before. It should be about representing your human experience in a way that feels true to you or true to other people. You know, it’s so beautiful to be able to be creative and it’s a shame that people think “oh, I’m gonna sell AI as a creative tool”. I don’t think it’s a creative tool, it is just… a flattener, more than anything, and I don’t think anything will be creative as people are.

L: Being a working artist, especially in L.A., what would you say it’s the hardest thing about the business right now?

C: Practically it’s hard to make money as a working artist, obviously. That’s a big part of it, and then I’d say probably… Things can feel so individualistic in our culture in general, not the culture of artists. That sometimes I wish things were more communal and more communicative, it’s just hard with people spread out living in different places and working on their own. And of course, everybody having to work really hard just to get by. I’d love it if things could be more relaxed and a lot more collaborative. I wanna say just chiller, honestly. But that’s always gonna be hard cause financially it’s constraint and place-wise, it’s also difficult. Like, the Internet is great, we can connect, talk right now and do this and I love that. But also sometimes like, I have a community in my neighborhood that I love and I really enjoy being around people like that, I’d love to have more artistic communities.

L: Looking from the outside, it’s very competitive. How’s your relationship with social media? How do you handle being present and showcasing your work and balancing all of that?

C: That’s a good question, I kinda checked out to be honest, not completely but I think I’m grateful. I used Instagram a lot, closer to the beginning of my career or, you know, starting like whatever, 20s-16, I was on Instagram specifically a lot more and sharing and I definitely got a lot of work that way and I’m really happy I had that and still have that… But lately, honestly, since the pandemic I think I just got overwhelmed with everything being online all the time and I just kinda stopped using Instagram the same way. So I still do go on it but I think the way that the algorithms have changed or the demand for video content or constant content, you know, seeing an app punish you for not posting feels a little crazy. And so it’s really turned me off of the whole thing, like I think about it, I wanna post, I wanna do this, be better, I’m really grateful for the work I’ve gotten and the connections I’ve gotten through it, but I don’t really know what’s next because I feel burned out with it and I see other people feeling burned out with it.

L: Do you think it’s possible for artists to leverage social media without feeling burned out by it?

C: I think, you know, not taking it personally or not seeing it as the whole world maybe. I think, sort of thinking about the pandemic, part of the reason it got tiring was because there wasn’t real life balancing things out. You were constantly inside looking on your phone, so I do think just being able to move away from that and just seeing it as a tool. Like I actually enjoy posting now, I just don’t think to do it very often cause I’ve sort of taken away its place in my life. I just don’t think of it that often, but hopefully, you know. I know people are interested in new platforms or sharing things through email newsletters and things that feel a little bit more personal, a little bit more like you’re in control. I think a lot of it is sort of looking and seeing like “oh, all my actions are determined by what Meta wants me to do” and just saying like “yeah, no, I’m just gonna use this as a tool”.

L: We wanted to wrap things up talking about upcoming projects, with you telling us what you’re going to be doing this year and maybe next year. So people can look forward to that, what can you share with us?

C: I don’t have anything huge in the pipeline right now, I’ve been doing Washington Post’s mental health column for them, so every week I do a new illustration for that and that would just be consistent, coming out. Beyond that, I have a few, I have a lot of projects I haven’t shared yet so if anybody’s on social media, I will be showing some really fun stuff I’ve worked on over the past year. I did like an astrology deck of cards that I’m really proud of, that I am just knowing I need to post, that was great. Like, I loved working on that project so I should be sharing that soon and just other illustrations and then, things I haven’t worked on yet. I have more editorial projects always coming down the pipeline, and then a few bigger things I wanna tackle so, if you see me painting on some clothes that’s what that will be.