Books are my business: graphic designer and illustrator Karen Harte

When I left school, I did a degree in English, media and cultural studies in Dun Laoghaire IADT. Immediately after that I did a diploma in animation, and I graduated from that into the recession. 

So I moved to Canada, and I worked there for a year and then when I came back I got a graphic design job, and I’ve worked at that for the last 12 or so years.

I’ve always drawn and obviously, doing animation, I did lots of storyboards and character design. I started an Instagram page a few years ago and I put my drawings up on it and a lot of the illustration work I’ve done so far has come from that.

What does your job involve?

At the moment, I’m still working full-time as a graphic designer, but I’m going to be finishing up next year and I will be a freelance full-time illustrator. 

It’s scary but I’m looking forward to it. Clients come to me and give me a brief or an idea and I try and express it in a way I think will bring it to life, giving it my energy and input. 

I love experimenting and I start off doing sketches with pen and paper. I work digitally mostly, on my iPad with Procreate and then I would work in Photoshop and Illustrator.

The ‘Milly McCarthy’ books have been a big success, what has it been like working on them?

It had been a dream of mine to do children’s book illustration, then the publishers, Gill, contacted me as they had found a comic book I did online and they liked my Instagram. 

I did a test for them and they gave me the first rough manuscript — I didn’t actually speak to Leona until the launch in Cork. 

The hard part was getting the 'Milly McCarthy' character right. I read the book, did a few sketches and put together a mood board that was sent over to Leona, photographs of young girls as well as some illustrations I found and then she sent me back her ideas. 

It was exciting to have the freedom to play with the 'Milly McCarthy' universe and come up with different characters and thankfully every time I sent stuff back, Leona was delighted with it. 

Her storytelling is amazing, it’s so clever and funny.

What do you like most about your job?

When I’m illustrating, I feel I’m being true to myself — I don’t have as much self-doubt when I draw. 

When I’m doing it, my inner child is really happy. It is something I do for pleasure and that feeling is something I never want to lose.

What do you like least about it?

Like everybody doing something that they care about, fear of failure — that’s probably one of the reasons I haven’t pursued it full-time, because I’ve been afraid. 

But I’ve had a few challenging years personally and professionally and I feel like life is so short and if you don’t follow something you’re passionate about and just give it a try, then what’s the point? 

If it works out, great, and if it doesn’t, I’ll just do something else or figure it out.

Three desert island books

I love graphic novels because I obviously love illustration. They are also great when you are stuck for time and you’re tired or you can’t really get into a book.

 One of the books I’ve loved this year is Alison, by Lizzy Stewart. She’s an illustrator and writer, and I actually had a book by her that my son loves called There’s a Tiger in the Garden. 

Then a friend of mine gave me Alison, it’s a gorgeous, poetic and moving graphic novel about love and loss. It’s the story of a woman called Alison, it’s about her finding herself and becoming an artist. 

Then there’s Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, which I read years ago — it’s obviously such an amazing memoir and the storytelling and the visuals are incredible. I saw the musical version in the Gate theatre last summer and it was so good. It reminded me how much the book affected me when I read it.

The third one I would recommend is Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, an artist and graphic novelist. It’s a collection of really creepy short stories. I love horror and I love her illustration style.

• www.karenharte.com