Practice, Relentless Optimism, and pursuing your creative dreams
An inspiring interview with Illustrator, Graphic Designer & Storyteller Becky Carlyle ALLEN
Back in 2019 I attended a Tuesdays Together networking event and this is where I first met Becky. I felt like we instantly connected over how much we value creativity. Since then I’ve gotten to know Becky through her illustrations, staying in touch online, workshops, working with her through coaching and painting in the park together last summer. Becky is a talented and imaginative artist and storyteller and believes deeply that artists are here to help change the world.
About Becky
Rebecca or Becky Carlyle Allen is an Illustrator, Graphic Designer, and Storyteller from London, Ontario Canada, with 10+ years of experience working in design and marketing. Her business is called Tigerlily Graphics and she specializes in branding, print design, infographics, and illustration. She’s been lucky to consult on design work for several companies across Canada including the University of Toronto, the South West LHIN, and the town of Port Hardy. She has a passion for working with other artists and teaching workshops on the side.
If you haven’t connected with Becky before, I’m so excited for you to get to know her and I hope you leave feeling inspired by her story (I know I was and continue to be) of being a relentless optimist in the face of fear and imposter syndrome and pursuing her creative dreams.
What’s the story behind the Tigerlily name?
I've always been that kid that wanted to be different and never wanted to follow anyone else. We used to have a field of tiger lilies that grew wild, they were bright orange and I used to love seeing them and picking them. I decided when I was young that this is going to be my favorite flower, something no one else would pick. Over the years, this wonderful analogy and metaphor for my life kind of emerged from those flowers. Tigerlilies are a bit of an oxymoron. Tigers are fierce but lilies are sweet. I love the juxtaposition of those opposing energies but somehow together they work. That's become a metaphor for my business and for myself.
What do you think it is about illustration that captured your imagination and drew you in?
I think it started at a very young age, but evolved over the years. My mom is a big animation and illustration geek as well. She watched a lot of Disney with us as kids. I have very fond memories of dancing around the house with my mom and my sister and singing along to all the Disney songs and after we’d draw together. My mom always wanted to be an artist and my grandpa (her dad) thought it wasn't practical and discouraged her from pursuing it. My mom instilled that love of art in me. Being an artist has been my dream since I was a kid, but I’m glad my mom can live through me a bit as well too. I’m lucky that my mom understood first hand how important it was to have someone believe in you and believe in your art.
I've always had a very active imagination and I remember as a kid living in the middle of nowhere, being bored and I could daydream for hours. I would make up so many stories and characters in my head. I was also that kid that read a ton, and I was at the library everyday. My local librarian was my hero. When I read, I’d picture things in my mind almost like a movie.
It's that storytelling piece that links all of this together. I've started to realize storytelling is what I love the most, art can really help tell that story. I’m trying to own the storytelling part a bit more and lean into that, since that is ultimately what I think resonates with people.
I’m really excited to ask you about this very special project. Let’s talk about your creative dream of illustrating books and how it’s recently come to fruition…can you tell us more about this creative dream of yours being realized and what the experience was like for you?
About five years ago, I started to get more serious about the idea of illustrating. I didn’t immediately land on a children's book style but as I started to discover my voice, and my style, I began to think about maybe picture books and kids books being a good fit specifically. I started collaborating with my sister on one, which is still in progress. That collaboration got me started on this journey and I started working on a portfolio and sharing illustrations on my Instagram not really knowing where I was going. Amazingly, Katie Toney found me on Instagram and sent me a message. At first I thought it was just spam. I did some Google sleuthing and realized this was a a real person who wanted to work with me, so we started emailing back and forth.
This was both our first experiences with self-publishing. It felt like we were taking a chance on each other, a leap of faith with each other's abilities. Neither of us really knew 100% what we were getting ourselves into, but we both felt committed to seeing what we could do. A lot of my graphic design knowledge and understanding of how print and production works came in handy and helped us make the process more efficient when it came time to go to the printer.
The cover of the book On the Busy Old Ranch written by Katelyn Toney and Illustrated by Rebecca Allen
I am somebody who does think that sometimes things happen for a reason . My family used to have racehorses when I was a kid and so for me up until the age of 13, all I thought about were horses and art. When Katie, the author, asked me how I felt about drawing horses, I thought, I’ve literally been preparing for this my whole life. Finding out this book was centered around Canadian ranch living and that there was gonna be a lot of horses and other animals in it, I was like oh my gosh this is perfect!
Another special inspiration to this project was my parent’s best friend, Tammy who was like an aunt to me. She passed away when I was about 10. She was the first person close to me in my life that passed away. She taught me how to ride when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time at the barn with her. The book focuses on families and ranch living and on one of the pages is an illustration with eight girls and their auntie. I was able to instil a little bit of my aunt Tammy into that art and it was very special for me to be able to do a little tribute to her within the book.
An Illustration by Rebecca Allen from the book On the Busy Old Ranch
Looking back on your experience as an artist personally and professionally, what helped you have the determination and belief in yourself to keep creating and preserving amongst the fear and doubt?
What pushed me to go freelance and quit my job was a toxic corporate work experience. I reached this breaking point on the week of my 30th birthday. I realized I just wasn't very happy with what I was doing and where I was going. I had been wanting to do illustration for a long time and I had a fear - this is gonna sound very morbid, but I could picture myself on my deathbed, having so many regrets that I never tried.
Even if it meant working at a coffee shop or whatever. I definitely took some part time jobs in the beginning because I was scared and I wanted income coming in. But ultimately I began to realize that the thought of not trying at all was more scary to me than the idea of trying and failing.
I see this so often and I'm so guilty of it too, is as artists, creatives or entrepreneurs we reject ourselves before we put ourselves out there. We don't even give other people the chance to reject us. We reject ourselves.
In those moments you’ve got to say what your inner mentor* or inner cheerleader would say to you. Talk to myself, like I would talk to a friend. I started to tell myself that maybe success can take many forms and in this case maybe success was just showing up and trying. While I do believe in the concept of luck, I think a lot of times we can make our own luck. It took me a very long time to realize that because I think sometimes it's easier to just let things happen to us than to realize that we can make stuff happen. It can be really discouraging, the mistakes, the failures, the rejections. I encourage people to take breaks along the way when you need to take a deep breath, do that self care and then get back to it because it is so satisfying and worth it when you finally get there after all that hard work.
I’m really stubborn and I don't know how to give up. When someone tells me that I can’t succeed, I feel like you can respond in a couple of ways. For me, I definitely have a rebellious part inside me that says I'm gonna prove you wrong. I’m definitely competitive which is both a blessing and a curse. I've had my moments of feeling defeated, but I try to lean into the inner fire and use it as motivation. I call it relentless optimism.
*Inner Mentor is a term and practice created by Tara Mohr and is a foundational tool found in her book and courses, Playing Big.
How do you bring play into your art, work and your life?
When you start working professionally as a creative, burnout can happen, you have deadlines and sometimes challenging experiences with clients. It can be easy to live in that place of stress, but when we live in that place of stress and fear, it's very, very hard to be creative. That’s the thing I try to remind myself of all the time. When you’re in that playful mindset, that's the birthplace of creativity, innovation and joy..These are all things I’ve learned from author Brené Brown and it’s helped me tremendously.
Something I found helpful, I actually got from Grey's Anatomy, which is kind of embarrassing. *SPOILER ALERT* There’s an episode, I think it's in season five, where Derek Shepherd, the brain surgeon, is trying to help a friend who has a tumor. Derek doesn't want to perform the surgery because it’s an almost impossible tumor and he doesn't want to kill his friend. But his friend really believes in him and he just says “when you find yourself feeling scared, stop for a moment and instead choose to be inspired.”
I ended up writing that down a little sticky note after that, because sometimes it can be that simple. The hard part is remembering to pause and reflect. It can lead you from feeling alone in the forest, to suddenly seeing a path emerge. I’m a big lover of music and I’ve got tons of different playlists depending on how I’m feeling or what I want to work on. Going for a walk with my music on the earbuds is really helpful. I'll start dancing. I find that really helps get me in a playful mindset. Talking to a good friend and talking about ideas we’re working on. Getting to share and hear other people’s hopes and dreams inspires me as well.
What recommend to anyone wanting to get started with a drawing/illustration practice?
Take it one day at a time. Practice as often as you can. Find some communities, either in person, online or both. Where you can share with one another what you’re working on, it can be really supportive to cheer one another on. Do your best, have fun and eventually you’ll get better. The impostor syndrome might always be there but if you trust in the process you’ll get to where you want to be.
There’s so many physical and mental benefits to being creative. My art has gotten me through a lot of hard times and being able to put a bit of my heart and soul into a tangible art piece helps me just process a lot of those feelings. I'm a big believer in sticky notes and giving myself permission to show up, just try, and have fun. Sometimes we just need the reminder that art really is fun, and that making art for the fun of it can be fulfilling enough of its own without needing to attach a functional purpose to it every time. Ignore the idea of hustle culture and just create what feels fun.
Rebecca or Becky Carlyle Allen is an Illustrator, Graphic Designer, and Storyteller from London, Ontario Canada, with 10+ years of experience working in design and marketing. Her business is called Tigerlily Graphics and she specializes in branding, print design, infographics, and illustration. She’s been lucky to consult on design work for several companies across Canada including the University of Toronto, the South West LHIN, and the town of Port Hardy. She has a passion for working with other artists and teaching workshops on the side.