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Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Lydia for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

Lydia NicholsHullo! I’m Lydiaan east coast based illustrator/designer. I love to draw and that’s probably what you’ll find a lot of on my site, as well as some stabs at hand lettering and designy things.

What are you working on?

This summer has proven to be a busier one. I’ve been working on illustrations for animations, web, magazines. Once things settle, I’d like to do some personal pieces based on sketches I did while in Rome last month. It’s good to be busy!

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Why is it a favorite?

I’d probably go with “sangwine: merlot”. It was a really interesting project for me in terms of the merging of illustration, design, and packaging. Working with wine bottles was a definitely a new challenge for me, and it took me many, many attempts and scrapped ideas to get to where I did. It had also been a while since I really focused on drawing animals and drawing these bears was absolutely delightful. I want them to be my neighbors.

sangwine: merlot bears drinking forest illustration label logo packaging picnic basket trees wine

sangwine: merlot

by Lydia Nichols

Here's a partial peek of my Merlot label. Just wrapped up a series of four wine labels (+ logo) for a vineyard, Sangwine, that I made up! Each features something sort of quintessentially Californian, this one being red wood forest inspired. Will photogr...

View on Dribbble

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch, etc.)

My workspace is fairly mobile. I do have a desk surrounded by pencils, markers, charcoal, postcards, magazine clippings, sketchbooks, etc, but since I have a laptop, I often move downstairs to my “dining table” ideally located by three huge windows.

Aside from my sketchbook, click eraser, and pencils (B, 2B, or 3B, preferably–NEVER Hs), I rely heavily on my scanner, Wacom tablet, MacBook Pro (I really push the poor thing), and Illustrator/Photoshop.

OH! Tracing paper is indispensable. I used to draw and redraw and redraw, feeling frustrated that I liked a hand there and a mouth there and so on. Once I discovered the awesomeness of tracing paper, I found my work sped up a whole lot and I was generally happier with how my sketching went. I think it ultimately made me a better sketcher–which seems counterintuitive, but I find I use it less now.

Choose a favorite shot from another Player. Why do you dig it?

Going back and looking at what I’ve favorited, it’s super hard to pick just one! Don’t make me! Out of the many amazing Dribbblers I’m tempted to choose from, I’ll go with Jared Chapman. He’s always an inspiration and I particularly like his shot, “Charles”. Jared really has a way with his tools–both ink/watercolor and digitally. All of his work has such distinct character and exciting line work.

Find more Interviews stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.


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