Meet Heather Farrington | Cartoonist and freelance illustrator

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

Hi Heather, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
It’s definitely been a challenge. I’ve been working in various retail jobs for almost two decades now, and somehow have been able to get a comic up most of the time. Of course, there have been life situations here and there that have affected my work schedule to the point where I have to skip a comic week here or there, but I really do try to minimize it as much as possible. The last few years have been the hardest – physically and mentally – to keep things up and running. But I’ve finally reached the point where I can go down to part-time, so that means I can put a lot more effort into my business and work toward making art my full-time job.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve had a lot of challenges along the way. When I started out doing Juvenile Diversion, I didn’t have my own computer or even a scanner, and I had to do a lot of the first chapter at my college. I would draw the comic on computer paper and scan it in at the computer lab, and do a bunch of printing in the library – which I’m still to this day not sure if that was even allowed! I would also draw a bunch of thumbnails and sketches for comics in class. Over time, I started out with a tiny Bamboo tablet, then got a bigger Wacom tablet, and now I’m working on a decent-sized XP-Pen graphics tablet. It’s been a slow process. Even though it’s made progress a little slower than I’d like by working a day job, it’s been vital for helping me fund my art.

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.
Vermont’s pretty small, and we could probably hit up all the hotspots in a week. We would definitely be going to a movie or two! We could go out to eat at some of my favorite restaurants (I really like Japanese, Mexican, and pizza!). I also really like bowling and laser tag. There’s also the VT Teddy Bear Factory and the Ben & Jerry’s factory which tourists really like to check out. And if it’s the right time of the year, the Champlain Valley Fair has a ton of things to do and see and I usually show at the art gallery there. I’d also really like to do what my friend wants to do! If there’s a place I haven’t visited, I’d definitely be willing to check it out!

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?
The biggest shoutout I can possibly give is to the fantastic group I’m a part of – The Vermont Comic Creators group. It’s a collective of amazing comic creators from around my tiny state of Vermont of various skill levels, from beginners to working for big-name publishers. In particular, the two main leaders of the group, Greg Giordano and Mike Waggoner have been amazingly helpful in getting me off my butt and getting my comic self-published. I have no idea if I’d even have four self-published comics if it weren’t for them.

Website: jdcomic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hrfarrington/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hrfarringtonart

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HRFarringtonArt

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0WdOFghk-KG4pCxZjRQjQ

Other: https://linktr.ee/hrfarrington