Ah, Meggs the queen of the kaiju and a most spectacular artist. What’s not to love about her?
She’s a phenomenal artist and an OG member of the GunplaGirlGang, which is where I met her years back. Meggs does everything from painting pokemon card customs to Kaiju artwork! I believe she did Shin Godzilla prints this week! Her style is unique and refreshing to look at.
Please enjoy the following interview with her!
Q: Where are you from and how does that affect your work?
A: I’m from the Northeast, near NYC! So I’ve always been surrounded by a lot of different visuals, and I’ve been going to art shows since I was a kid. It’s both good and bad I feel, there’s no shortage of really cool inspiration, but at the same time, it’s almost overwhelming being in an area so dense with talent that I have a hard time fully processing all the cool opportunities to see cool things. There are also tons and tons of museums to visit, so there are lots of good references for dinosaurs to draw. It’s the same with Gunpla- I’ve met a really cool group of people that have been nothing but helpful to teach me proper techniques, so I’m always learning new things and improving.
Q: Tell me about your favorite medium.
A: Oh gosh this is such a hard question! I personally love markers, it’s like paint but not? Very malleable and moldable of a medium, but requires less blending than acrylic and oils. I use Copics for their huge range of colors and they’re refillable!!! I also really love acrylic painting, but that’s more of a pleasure- than a medium I’m strong in.
Q: What tools are crucial to you?
A: Hmmmm, I think my most important tools are mechanical pencils and good-quality paper. Paper quality really makes or breaks how things look- you can have the best watercolors and markers in the world but if you have a crap paper that won’t take to it you won’t get good results. Mechanical pencils are the only thing I’ll use for sketching though, no sharpening is needed and the thinness of the lead is perfect. I sketch with very thin light lines- so the less clean up the better. A solid foundation is important. For models, I’d die without those little red sandpaper nubs. That’s my favorite grit (I think it’s 240???) OH, and coffee, if I don’t drink like 4 cups a day you can consider me a corpse, and nothing will get done.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
A: Hrmmm I like to draw inspiration from all over, the shitty vague answer I know… But I think it’s important to draw influence from within your communities- local artists, local builders – seeing how people do things in a tangible state that you can talk to and bounce ideas off of is incredibly valuable to my creative process. Art of all kinds is very social for me, so it’s only natural to want to learn and interact with what others are making. I’ve also started to collect art books- all kinds. It’s really refreshing to see nice concise collections of different people’s work, I’ve recently gotten a book of Honojiro Towoji’s illustrations- it’s all so clean and crisp and gives me ideas to incorporate into my own process, but it’s also really fun in general to be able to just SEE art- it keeps me from stagnating. Same for books from video games and media, I’ve always loved sci-fi movies, books everything – especially Godzilla, pacific rim, and alien (this surprises literally no one) So having books I can flip through is a lot easier than pausing stills off the movies. Plus all the illustrations leading up to the movies and games I like just makes me giddy lol.
I try to absorb as many different kinds of media as I can in general, movies, music, you never know what’ll give you cool ideas, or things that’ll resonate with you.
OOOOOH, I also draw a lot of my inspirations from nature and science, I personally love natural science and medical illustration, and from learning from existing creatures I feel gives a really good foundation to making fictional monsters- having things anatomically make sense makes it easier to create stronger designs.
Q: What does your artwork represent? Are there themes or messages?
A: Some of it has messages some of it doesn’t – a lot of my art is very personal and is like a geyser of all my pent-up emotions. Some of it is just because I think things look cool, and some of it is because I like to personally test my abilities and my technical skills.
I’ve done quite a few small series of feminine demons, and I enjoy motifs of strong feral women, whether that’s a reflection of my raccoon-like personality or a notion of how I think women should be more feral in society is up to whoever is looking at it.
I think at the end of the day if someone draws something from what I make is what’s important- I like when people feel- so I tend to keep things a little vague when I get to my fine arty farty work so that someone can draw their own conclusions, I want people to have fun with art and wanna look at and enjoy the stuff I create.
Q: How do you think art is important to society?
A: I think in its simplest sense art is one of the things that defines us as a species and separates us from other animals. There’s something undeniably human about creating art and wanting to create and wanting to just enjoy pretty things that are…I guess hopeful? I often go back to these documentaries about cave paintings (A favorite is called “Cave of forgotten dreams”) and it’s something remarkable that since the dawn of our time- there’s been our depictions of the world around us. Perhaps, one of the sappiest parts of why I like to make art, in general, is that it’s just… human. There are so many awful things that happen and exist, art can be used to create conversation, and it can be used to cause impacts. Historically many social revolutions have all been tied with music, visual work, and theatre- it ties into people having a voice and using it.
Q: What motivates you to create? What burns you out?
A: Restlessness honestly, If I’m not constantly working on some kind of project, I think I’ll explode- like my brain will just leak out of my ears. And when I see other people making cool things I ALSO want to make cool things. Honestly, I like making art, and I like pushing my previous achievements to improve. That being said a lot of things kill that vibe, I used to work for a really uber-demanding retail game store- so after working 13 hours a day dealing with the general public I’d have no energy for fun things, like Gunpla or painting minis, and even less energy for things like portfolio work and commissions and artwork. I also get burnt out when I plateau. I don’t really experience art block because I never really come to a full dead halt, it’s more like a slow crawl upwards and then flat for a while. To break out of that I either start something new, or come back to my projects with fresh eyes (this is also why I have about 40 incomplete things lol oops)- I take a break, play video games, go to the gym, or read.
Q: How do you define success as an artist?
A: Success is measured in a few ways to me like at the end of the day I go to sleep happily knowing someone likes what I make, someone was inspired, or it made someone think. That makes me feel fulfilled as an artist.
But also money is nice, lol so it’s a different kind of successful feeling getting commissions, being accepted to a show, and working towards an overall career in the arts.
Both are nice in different ways, but overall – it’s a good day when people enjoy what I make.
Q: Does art help you in other areas of your life?
A: Keeps me from becoming a serial killer and committing war crimes. My mind is very busy, always buzzing with things, I’m constantly looking up different facts, and I always have questions and all sorts of mental clutter. If I didn’t grow up channeling that energy into paper and now models, I would’ve 100% drop-kicked someone into orbit by now- from restlessness or lack of patience. It’s soothing, and winds you down back to basics- yourself! It’s become what I consider my safest of mental sanctuaries when I can come home from things that stress me out and sit at my desk and sand my current projects,- those things are never gone – but the loudness of the stress of the outside world is quieted when I’m at work on projects.
Q: How do you develop your art skills?
A: Practice, and repetition. Art is a lot of muscle memory, so it’s important to teach yourself that sort of control. When I was in college, one of my favorite professors had us draw paperclips over and over again, thin delicate little lines all on a sheet of 18×24 paper in pen- no mistakes! As much as I agonized over that perfection then, now I’m grateful- doing that and projects as it taught me control and patience lol which turned out I need a ton of.
A favorite exercise of mine is drawing and shading eggs- it’s masochistic and objectively a pain in the ass- but you never realize how hard it is to really focus on shape, light, and how it reacts with the damn eggshell- if you try it you’ll find it a lot more difficult then it seems from just reading it. Once you do it every now and then though it’s pretty cool how easily other things become once you deal with shading something like that.
For my models, I just keep making things? And force myself to be more careful with each project- if I’m too sloppy I gotta stop and go back and fix it. Eventually, things work out and the next time it’s a little easier.
:Q: Do you have a network of other artists, and how do they support you?
A: Yeah! Although, I had it a little easy developing that by going to art school. There I met some of the people that are dearest to me now. But I try to make friends with artsy people wherever I can. The support of other artists is immeasurable though, I take a lot of opinions on my work from just about anyone- but when it comes to actually actioning those changes it’s useful to be able to bounce that off people who have similar abilities to me to see how like reasonable my changes are or if I’m just wound up over nothing. On a less, I guess professional sense. It’s great to be able to have a group of people I can call upon no matter what and feel like my voice is heard, they humor both my barrage of 3,000 projects I start in a day but also my weird ruminating thoughts and keep me from sticking my fingers into electrical outlets.
I’ve also made friends with wonderful groups of different kinds of model builders too in the past few years. The lovely ladies of the GunplaGirlGang have always been super supportive and really cool! And I’m always picking the brains of some seasoned painters for recovery whenever I manage to stick my hands in my paint jobs and chip chunks off my resin (Thanks for everyone being so patient lol <333)
Q: Do you have tips for other artists looking to connect with their local art scene?
A: It’s easier said than done, it’s ALWAYS easier said than done. But honestly, bc internet is well….the internet- a lot of it is at your disposal. There’s a discord and Reddit thread for literally everything. In-person- looking for calls for artists online is a great place to start- that way you can enter things if you want, but it’ll also give you a handful of events happening in the future….pick a few go show up, eat some free snacks and drink wine- free wine is great. Little mom-and-pop coffee shops are pretty great for artists. Most artsy people have coffee instead of blood and most coffee shop owners are also artists or art enthusiasts- so they go hand in hand. A lot of the ones by me are always circulating local work in and out and it’s really cool to just go enjoy that kind of atmosphere. This is a lot easier for me I feel, bc I live somewhere so densely populated- so a lot more of these kinds of things are going on.
Q: Which art trends inspire your work?
A: I really like art nouveau, the detail and rich colors within that movement UGH makes me so happy. My lines end up really wavey and my detail work ends up ornate, whether I want to or not I’m prolly always subconsciously drawing from this kind of style in particular. It’s one of the first movements that really stuck out to me as I started to develop my own style outside of “weird goth kid that draws animes”
Q: How has your style changed over time?
A: I used to only want to draw anime- like every edgy teenager ever- so that’s an obvious one. Over time I learned to appreciate realism to an extent. Lately, I’ve been on a few-year roll of doing portrait-style things- suspended in a colorful background, but now I’m going back to fully fleshed-out ideas. It hasn’t really changed as much as it’s evolved- and it’s constantly evolving like some kind of mutated monster that won’t die lol. I don’t really do the HERES MY ANIMES thing anymore- but my use of color has always remained constant- and then I learned how color theory works- and it keeps going from there. My lines got more expressive, and now I just want to continue branching out wherever I can, learning new techniques, and concepts and exploring new mediums.
Q: Is there a specific environment or material that’s crucial to your work?
A: Not really, I keep sketchbooks in just about all of my bags for different things and purposes – some are just for pink drawings, some are for my chicken scratch ideas that I’ll scribble while I’m traveling, and some are for more refined drawings. I just need a mechanical pencil and some kind of paper or my iPad with me always or my ideas will literally fly out of my brain never to be seen again. For final work I can’t use crappy paper like I gotta fondle all the sketchbooks and single sheets I buy – BFK Rives is a favorite of mine, but if the paper isn’t good enough it ain’t happening.
Q: Who are your biggest artistic influences?
A: That’s a secret 🙂 But I’m sure they know who they are.
On a grand scale I worship the ground HR Giger would’ve walked on and would prolly beat someone to death with their own arms to even pick at his brain. I also really like Del Toro and Hideo Kojima. Both of them have such a chaotic approach to their work and a remarkable amount of ideas. Del Toro has some of the most vibrant character and creature designs I’ve ever seen. And Kojima is a ballistic missile of uncontrollable concepts.
Q: What do you listen to when working?
A: HOOOO BOY, my music tastes are a garbage festival. All over the place – my playlist is 2000 songs of just…. Stuff set to shuffle. I lack the patience to put everything into separate playlists and little categories.
Depends on what I’m doing- Mostly heavy metal, some classical music, German industrial, Russian Hardbass, and rap…. But if I need a steady hand I can’t listen to anything too exciting or I’ll Fuck everything up.
For what it’s worth my most played song last year was Running in the 90s and the year before that I think was Cyka Blyat (awful and loud hahaha) ….Some of my favorite musicians are Rammstein, Mayhem, KMFDM, Combi Christ, The Aquabats!, ManMan, Electric Callboy, Queen Herby and Ski Mask the Slump God.
Q: When people view your art, what do you want them to experience or feel?
A: Entertained and impactful 🙂 I want people to feel something from it I guess, we’re not here for a long time- look at stuff that makes you happy, that makes you think, I’d like people to see my work and take something away from it that they liked. This one is actually the hardest question- I genuinely just want my art to be enjoyed hahaha
Find Meggs at:
Keep an eye out for her shop soon!
Hope you all enjoyed this post! Thank you for reading it! If you have any questions, drop them below.
Happy Monday!
-J
Creeping for Scale Models 