Meet Corinne Newbegin | Comic Artist & Watercolorist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Corinne Newbegin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Corinne, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
The idea of hustle culture or needing to grind and work hard and go 100% every single day. If it works for you, great, but I personally don’t think it’s sustainable and can easily lead into burnout. Like, for art, a common piece of advice is to draw everyday, make art everyday. Certainly the more you draw and practice the sooner you’ll see improvements, but not drawing everyday doesn’t suddenly disqualify you from being a “serious” artist. I definitely don’t draw everyday, and while I personally feel like I could draw more regularly, I also don’t think my skills have stalled and I try not to feel badly about myself. There’s a lot of merit to observing and studying art, even passively, as well. Or, maybe you don’t feel like drawing, but you decide to take up painting or ceramics or embroidery for fun. Those skills you develop in another medium will translate into your drawing as well, and vice versa. I definitely saw that within my own practice with plein air. I did watercolor landscape sketches as a hobby, and now in my comic art I see a huge improvement in my backgrounds even though I wasn’t “actively” studying it, so to speak.

Rest and play is honestly just as important as work. Whenever I feel my brain fuzz up, I take the time to either do nothing or step away from my projects. It can be hard to trust that you’ll come back, especially if that rest period takes several days, but I find that eventually my brain recovers and the motivation and energy and focus comes back and I return to whatever I was working on and feel way better about it. And one of the best ways to prevent burnout is to rest regularly. Just like you need rest days when you’re working out, you need them with creativity too!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think what sets my art apart from others is that I don’t stick to just one thing. I have a wide variety of interests, and I want to make pretty much anything and everything my brain takes a liking too haha. I get a lot of comments when I’m tabling asking if I’m the artist for all of it, and that seems to surprise people because the style varies from more realistic duck watercolors to very simple and cutesy cartoons, and everything in between. I’ll also say, as an artist I really value looseness and efficiency. Not so much that my workflow is efficient (it’s not haha) but more that I’m someone who draws fast and I tend to have a more simple style . It’s something I used to feel poorly about, that I wasn’t really someone who could devote hours, days, weeks on one piece, rendering every painstaking detail, but this past year I’ve really come to embrace it and realize that for some people simplicity is actually very challenging! I resonate a lot with Bob Ross’s claim of being a “lazy artist” as well as the sentiment that art doesn’t need to be super realistic, otherwise you could “just take a photo.” Obviously that’s not a knock on people whose style is realism! It’s just not my forte, and it’s taken a long time for me to embrace that. For me, as long as the art looks good to me and feels done to me, that’s good enough. I’m also very proud of my expressions and emotiveness of my characters, and lately have begun appreciating the writing aspect of my work with regards to my comics. I love layered storytelling, extended metaphors, and dropping hints to what my intent is while leaving things ambiguous and open-ended.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Funny enough, my best friend is visiting the area very soon haha. In general though, there are a few highlights in LA that stand out as must-see. For starters, the Griffith Observatory. I like doing the hike, exploring the museum and grounds, and seeing pretty much all of LA. I’m also a big fan of Point Dume beach, so that’s a must. Santa Monica is a little crowded, but! I love the Japadog stand on the boardwalk so I’d probably drag someone there and then take a walk along 3rd street Promenade. Point Vicente and the Korean Friendship Bell are other places I’d want to stop by. In terms of eating: SK Donuts for the cronuts, Fat Sals (I almost always get the cheeseburger fries), Ume tea for the mochi boba, The Sweet Secret for the ube crepes, Eureka for the burgers, Kitchen Sooda for the Korean fried chicken, and More than Waffles for brunch. Also, we’d obviously stop by In-n-Out. Depending on comfort level, I’d try to bring them to Wi Spa. And we’d need to stop by one of the many AYCE KBBQ and karaoke places in K-town. I’m probably missing a bunch of other places, but those are at least the places I missed when I wasn’t living in LA haha

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Definitely my friends and family. I find a lot of inspiration from my family, whether that’s being the oldest of 4, being half-Korean on my mom’s side, all the traveling we did because of the military, or my dad’s love of ducks. I have to give a specific shout out to my Mom who always supported my decision to pursue art in college, both for undergrad and graduate school. A lot of my creativity and artistic talent stems from her.

My friends are also just so supportive, especially my partner who’s like my #1 cheerleader. My core friend group is all creative people, so I think we encourage and hype each other up.

Finally, my past year of taking the plunge into tabling and selling my art and comics wouldn’t have happened without the support of my grad program and cohort at CCA (California College of the Arts).

Website: ciem-art-studio.com

Instagram: @corinneiskorean, @ciem.art.studio

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ciem.art.studio

Other: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ciemartstudio