Katharina Sieg

Illustrator

The art of playfulness

Katharina still mostly works analogue
She always looks for interesting surfaces for her frottage technique
Today she uses many of the same techniques that she loved as a child

Entering Katharina Sieg's garden studio near Lüneburg is like entering a happy, heartwarming fantasy world. Her style is consistently playful. For her, childhood is synonymous with lightness, humour, warmth and security. Bringing these memories to life while creating her characters and atmospheric worlds allows her to enter a flow state in which she can be most productive. Even the techniques she uses are further developments of the ones she loved as a child. Katharina rubs different structures through thin paper with objects to create patterns using the frottage technique. She also makes collages using colourful tracing paper – another of her favourite methods inspired by her childhood, a time when she used to make lanterns. Katharina smiles proudly as she ponders over the fact that she earns a living by inventing, painting and creating entertaining fantasy characters.

Interview

Characters in your stories are often animals, why is that?: A style element I like to use is to humanise objects and animals. This is called 'anthropomorphism.' Animal characters are sweet and doubly likeable, and much easier to stylise than human characters. They are great to portray a wide range of emotions.
What is it about your work that people do not suspect?: People often are surprised by how much work it takes. My typical day is the following: I paint and draw for eight hours in a row and sometimes longer. It takes constant effort to develop a book after it has been conceptualised. Being able to reach a flow state quickly helps me a lot.
What tools do you use for your frottage technique?: The objects I need to achieve this technique need to have interesting surface structures and be made of hard materials. A soft coloured pencil is used to transfer it to paper. For years, I have sought objects like this. Flea markets are often filled with beautiful jewellery and boxes suitable for this purpose. There is also the option of 3D printing a template if I need a specific pattern.
Are your illustrations also digitally created?: Analogue is still the way I work most of the time. I enjoy working with watercolours, which require very thick paper. It is necessary for me to use very thin paper for my coloured pencil drawings and frottage technique. For the purpose of bringing the two techniques together, I use the computer.

Katharina Sieg is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2011