{"id":3078,"date":"2019-11-02T05:01:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T05:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eu.shop.wacom.eu\/us\/?p=3078"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:24:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:24:04","slug":"an-interview-with-lavender-towne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/an-interview-with-lavender-towne\/","title":{"rendered":"Art, inspiration, and gingerbread disasters: an interview with Lavender Towne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Haley Newsome is an unusual success story.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defying the popular image of the hype Youtuber who\u2019s always trying to go bigger, louder, and more extra, she takes a Bob Rossian approach, making her content low-key and relaxing, but always delivering solid, actionable advice. She didn\u2019t chase fame, she\u2019s still surprised when she\u2019s recognized in public, and although I can\u2019t claim to know her, it seems her Youtube persona is essentially her real self: In conversation, she\u2019s soft-spoken, analytical, and somewhat reserved, just as she is in her videos.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She's also the story of a weeb artist who persisted and matured.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started drawing comics as a toddler, and webcomics in her teens. Her first work as a kindergartner was about a rhinoceros whose horn was too big. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how comics work,\u201d she says, \u201cso I drew the pictures on the front and wrote the dialogue on the back.\u201d She got into digital art at 14 on receiving a Wacom Intuos 4 for Christmas, doing a lot of <\/span>Invader Zim, South Park,<\/span><\/i> and anime fanart. <\/span>Her high school webcomic, <\/span>[REDACTED]<\/span>, which can still be found on <\/span>[REDACTED]<\/span>,* was drawn in a much more \u201cnormal\u201d anime style, but one with a distinctive twist that shows the beginnings of what she does now.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*I wouldn\u2019t do this to someone.<\/span><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She went north to study at Alberta College of Art + Design (now <\/span>Alberta University of the Arts<\/span><\/a>) where she majored in storyboarding and character design with hopes of getting into the industry. She ended up taking a different path, but character is still her passion and the basis of what draws people to her videos.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, she started the brief gag comic <\/span>Disasterpiece<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>which goofed around with many of the same themes about art school and artist life that she now covers more seriously in her videos, and her ongoing passion project <\/span>Unfamiliar<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>which follows <\/span>kitchen witch<\/span><\/a> Planchette and her rabbit familiar Winston as they move into a haunted house and have to enlist the help of the town\u2019s other magic users to exorcise it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Her sister introduced her to Youtubing, and she started making videos under the name Lavender Towne<\/a> in 2016, with a mix of tutorials, let\u2019s plays, and the occasional speedpaint. But she found the most helpful videos were the ones that drew people in. Since then, she\u2019s amassed a million subscribers, a number she says \u201cstill doesn\u2019t seem real,\u201d and <\/span>over 121 million views<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Haley with her Youtube platinum award in September.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also breaks the art-tube tradition of focusing on technical skill, preferring instead to work in a simplified but instantly recognizable style. It\u2019s characterized by fantastic color palettes and striking character designs but, in her words, \u201cnoodle arms\u201d and \u201csquiggles\u201d for hands, drawing occasional criticism from people who think it\u2019s unprofessional. But as we\u2019ll get into, it\u2019s fully intentional, and in fact, not as easy as it looks.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, she\u2019s also a Twitch streamer: She kicked it off in October with a week of streaming daily, then moved to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3-6 PST. She works on her Youtube content and comic, draws other people\u2019s characters, and plays Jackbox games with the audience. I\u2019ve been watching them for the past couple weeks, and I can confirm that they\u2019re a lot of fun.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spoke to her shortly after the first week. Our interview ran almost an hour late due to a computer failure on my end, putting me in a pretty appalling mood, but she was gracious and generous with her time.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, icebreaker question: Who\u2019s the best birdie, and why is it <\/b>Ryouta<\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know what I\u2019m talking about?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

...No?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hatoful Boyfriend<\/i><\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh my God, oh wow. [Laughs] Wait, where did you see that I played that game?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, look, I personally like the doctor the best.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For anyone confused,<\/span><\/i> Hatoful Boyfriend is a dating sim where you romance talking birds, as symbolized by anime boys<\/em>.<\/span> Image from the <\/span><\/i>Hatoful Boyfriend Wiki<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really? Interesting choice.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] I\u2019ve just never encountered a yandere route. Well, with a bird. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s such a terrible perso- ...bird, though.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little bit, sure. I suppose.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, he does cook and feed you one of your other dating options.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look, nobody\u2019s perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, first real question: Would you say your path to being a professional artist was fairly straightforward?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways it was, but my destination was a little different. I expected it to go another way: I pictured I would be doing internships, then moving into the industry. So, as far as becoming a social media artist, that ended up being a surprise. But it happened straight out of art school, so in some ways, I went straight from school to an art job.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you always know that being an artist was what you wanted to do?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was really little, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and then a herpetologist. But after a while, I got into writing, and after some time of being really into writing novels and stuff, I decided I wanted to start adding art.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did studying storyboarding in art school change your style, or help you loosen up and draw faster?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a lot of different classes, and a lot of them were not oriented that way: You were expected to refine and refine and refine\u2014but whenever we had an assignment that was more about getting ideas out, I always really did a lot better with those. I think it was sort of a natural thing that ended up being nurtured by those classes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what was it about character design that spoke to you more than other types of art?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liked thinking about how somebody\u2019s past and their story would change them visually. It\u2019s an emotional sort of logic, where you\u2019re trying to make sure that people can get to know them just by looking at them. It felt like a fun puzzle to solve, almost.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, story is the primary thing you\u2019re thinking of when you\u2019re drawing characters?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Story has always been my biggest thing. Weirdly enough, art is always a tool for me. I know a lot of people love art first and story second, but I think I\u2019m the other way around.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it seems like your actual drawing process is fairly simple? To confirm: You do a fast undersketch on one layer, then ink over it in the next one, then flats in the next one, and then hard shading on the last one? <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, pretty much. It depends on what I\u2019m doing, but that\u2019s usually my thing. I never do two sketches; it\u2019s always extremely loose so that I still feel like I\u2019m drawing when I\u2019m doing the inking part. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And is there anything about the process that doesn\u2019t make it onto video?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oftentimes, I\u2019ll do thumbnail sketches to feel out the idea and see if it\u2019s something that\u2019s actually going to work. Because I noticed that when I didn\u2019t do that, sometimes I\u2019d realize that I hate the idea midway through doing it. But other than that, you\u2019re seeing the whole process from start to finish.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does your art style being less realistically proportioned also make it easier to work off the top of your head?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways it does. Weirdly, at times the stuff that looks the laziest ends up being the hardest work. I\u2019m kind of notorious for my spaghetti arms and stuff: A lot of people think I do them because it\u2019s easier, but I actually think that drawing out a normal arm is simpler because you\u2019re not trying to make perfectly parallel curved lines \u2026 But it does make things a lot faster. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Disasterpiece<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s largely a digital problem though.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] Yeah, when I\u2019m drawing by hand, it\u2019s not that bad.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it seems like you\u2019ve incorporated what I always thought was Photoshop\u2019s most frustrating aspect into your art style: the lack of line stabilization.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s true. People said my style changed when they released the smoothing, because it was the first time in years that I\u2019d had access to that feature. The wobbliness really has become part of my style now.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way you do backgrounds is also very wiggly and stylized almost to the point of abstraction. Like, some people have pointed out that Planchette lives in a loaf of bread. What inspired that?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty much. [Laughs] That comes from Unfamiliar<\/em> being something that was therapeutic for me. Trying to make the backgrounds a character is the only way I could do them without hating them. And because I wasn\u2019t planning <\/span>Unfamiliar <\/span><\/i>as a professional product, I was doing it to deal with the stress of art school in my free time, which I had barely any of, I didn\u2019t put in the work. And now, canonically, her house is all wobbly. [Laughs]<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, it\u2019s supposed to look like a skull\u2026 But it kind of looks like a loaf of bread.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a pre-prepared palette when you go into a drawing?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I basically don\u2019t prepare much of anything before I start drawing. This is partially because lately, it\u2019s been all about speed and getting things done as quickly as possible, so for stuff like palettes and references, if I feel like I need them, I\u2019ll grab them while I\u2019m working, but I usually try it without first.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is color theory something you ever have to think about, or is it just second nature?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always felt like it was second nature. Usually, I have a pretty basic strategy, which is, \u201cWhat color do I want to be the one that people notice first?\u201d That one\u2019s allowed to be the most saturated, and everything else I just try to cool down. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all intuitive. Weirdly, when I was learning about theory, that was the first time I\u2019d ever had trouble with color. I had a conflict about how things should go\u2014I was trying to do everything \u201cright\u201d with all the different color schemes, and it just looked weird to me. I drew a lot of black and white stuff after my first color theory class because it was so difficult. [Laughs]<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just scared you away from color altogether.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] Isn\u2019t it obnoxious? I must\u2019ve been a terrible student!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But would you say your art style\u2019s accessibility is part of what makes you popular as a teacher?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think so. When I first came into the Youtube art space, [tutorial videos] had sort of a negative reputation. A lot of people would come to these artists like, \u201cHey, how do I make my art better,\u201d and a lot of their reaction was like, \u201cYou\u2019ve just gotta practice!\u201d I remember thinking, \u201cThat\u2019s such obvious advice, it would be cool to be able to make tutorials that help people in a bit of a more direct way.\u201d And my art\u2019s not very intimidating, so it does make it easier for people to approach it. ...I mean, I hope so!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know what made your channel take off, though? Because it seems like you had a pretty meteoric rise from 2016 to 2017.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know specifically what happened, but my \u201c<\/span>Do This, Not That<\/span><\/a>\u201d series seemed to walk the line \u2026 It seems controversial and then, when you click on it, it\u2019s just me trying to be helpful, and I think that was a recipe for success in some way. Those videos really popped off. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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