Editor’s note: With ICON9 The Illustration Conference just a month away—four days of art, discussion, performance, and plenty of talk in Austin, TX—the current roster for the Q&A is peopled with many of the exceptional artists making presentations during this biannual artfest. Rebecca Mock gives a gif workshop on Wednesday, July 6, 2:40 pm.

Q: Originally from South Florida, what are some of your favorite things about living and working in Brooklyn, NY? 

A: New York City is a place where I can get around easily went I want to. It's a lively place, so I can be comfortable keeping odd hours, and there are plenty of options if I should seek distraction. In comparison, while I do love South Florida, there was poor public transportation and not many places besides my own bedroom I found interesting. If I were more of an outdoors-lover, I would probably feel differently.

Q: Do you keep a sketchbook? What is the balance between art you create on paper versus in the computer?

A: Instead of a sketchbook I keep a notebook, since most of what I do outside of my work is write notes and keep lists and charts. I create pretty much 100% of my work digitally. I developed a completely digital process to save myself time and resources, and to improve the quality—my freehand drawing is actually pretty messy. There was too much distance between the images I wanted to create and what my hands were capable of. Digital tools have helped me close that gap. 

Q: What is the most important item in your studio?

A: That would probably be my Cintiq—without it I could do very little of the work that's expected of me. Besides that, though, my notebook is also very important. I keep myself on task by seeing my daily to-do list, and I have a place to quickly jot ideas and to doodle when I'm feeling frustrated. 

Q: How do you know when the art is finished?

A: I'll step back from a piece and try to see it with fresh eyes—maybe I'll look at it through a mirror or upside down. If the image holds up to a glance and feels "whole," then I consider it basically done—but my last step is to clean it up. I paint over messy edges and such to ensure the piece has a good quality to it.

Q: What was your favorite book as a child?

A: I liked a lot of different books as a kid, but lately I've been remembering a childhood favorite picture book called Miss Rumphius—it's the story of an eccentric woman who travels the world and searches for her purpose in life. I remember the illustrations being very pretty. I think I remembered it recently because I thought I wouldn't mind my life being a bit more like hers.

Q: What is the best book you’ve recently read?

A: I read a science fiction novel called Ancillary Justice, and I found it very exciting and refreshing! It's basically about a spaceship's AI that gets trapped in the body of a human named Breq. I was clutching the pages by the end!

Q: If you had to choose one medium to work in for an entire year, eliminating all others, what medium would you choose?

A; I think I could survive a year using only Photoshop. It’s practically what I do anyway, heh!

Q: What elements of daily life exert the most influence on your work practice?

A: I enjoy the quiet moments in life, and those of the observer—I like taking walks and just seeing things, noticing light and color, overhearing snippets of conversation, and getting a peek at other peoples' lives. I'm a quiet and solitary person and I think this perspective is reflected in my work—I often think about images in the context of my life and familiar scenery. 

Q: What was the [Thunderbolt] painting or drawing or film or otherwise that most affected your approach to art? 

A: Recently some friends accused me of getting all my inspiration from one single episode of this old TV show “Digimon”—there's one episode (Season 1, episode 21) that takes place entirely in a sun-drenched apartment, one little kid alone with his thoughts. I would say that episode, that small story and its setting, definitely had a strong effect on the images I was drawn to throughout my life and those I try to create now. Is that silly? It was a joke coming from my friends, but actually I don't think they're wrong. From a young age I was captivated by animated television, the characters who lived in painted worlds where everything was hauntingly beautiful. 

Q: Who was the [Thunderbolt] teacher or mentor or visiting artist who most influenced you early in your training or career?

A: I began my training very early—attending an arts magnet middle school. The teachers there continue to be my inspiration. My first middle school art teacher, Mrs. Henderson, handed me a book about Edward Hopper and explained how he used underpainting to create atmosphere and mimic how light contains all the colors of the spectrum. Who would have known that lesson has stuck with me all this time? Another teacher of mine, Jimmy Grashow, comes to mind. Jimmy completely changed how I thought about drawing. He was always yelling at us, "Think about the space! The whole space!", and I have, ever since. 

Q: What would be your last supper?

A: A warm and hearty meal, at a giant table packed with family and friends, everyone yelling over each other. Plentiful amounts of fresh baked bread, good wine, and deafening laughter.

Rebecca Mock is a comic book artist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, and Nautilus, to name a few. She specializes in painterly, illusionistic animated .gif illustrations, and images of ordinary, quiet moments of everyday life. Her comics have been mainly self-published stories about siblings and magic. She has also worked as a background artist for various animations and a concept artist for the independent sci-fi video game Tacoma.  Her first graphic novel, Compass South, written by Hope Larson, will be released in June 2016. 

Website: rebeccamock.com

Tumblr/blog: rebeccamock.tumblr.com

Twitter & Instagram: @rebeccamock

Compass South book tour:

MECAF (June 4th, Portland, ME)
HeroesCon (June 17-19, Charlotte, NC)
Compass South Official Book Release Party, 7PM Books of Wonder, NYC, June 29th