Meet Hilary A. Rinaldi
Creator of A Dinky World
Hilary’s Note to You:
Hi – I’m so glad you stopped by!
You probably don’t know this, but I’m a bit reluctant to talk about myself; I’d rather talk through my artwork and characters.
Because they are, after all, extensions of myself. I mean, if you haven’t noticed, Filbert and I even wear the same shirt!
But come on in, so we can have some fun, and I can share a few stories with you!
The Basics
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved to draw and especially – to color.
In fact the summer our family went to Yellowstone Park, I was about 6 or 7, and to be honest, I don’t really remember the trip very well. That’s because I was in the very way back of the station wagon flat on my stomach (which wouldn’t be allowed today) totally absorbed in my coloring books! I don’t think I looked up more than a few times.
I draw, paint, and color because taking an idea from my head and actualizing it onto paper is the most awesome and fulfilling thing I know to do.
Art School
Nope! I never went to art school. There were a series of events that led me away from it, which at first I regretted.
However, I moved forward on my own, and taught myself as much as one would learn in art school, and probably more. And in fact, I’m still learning and experimenting all the time, and loving every bit of it.
The huge benefit of going my own artistic way, was that I was able to do what I wanted without having to conform to an art teacher’s vision and art styles, which has stifled many a budding artist.
So now I’m happy I never went to art school and just did my own thing. In fact, I’ve never looked back or doubted myself again.
The bottom line is: I can’t think of doing anything else that gives me so much pleasure and true happiness. And the good news is: this is something anyone can find, with or without going through formal schooling.
Lots Happened, But Art Was Always In my Heart
For years I bounced around, first earning a BS in Horticulture, then:
- I became a Tour Guide at Hearst Castle and also worked in the Public Affairs Office
- Did live television doing gardening shows and weather on NBC Affiliate KSBY
- And on to International Marketing for a few years in the corporate world for a multi-million dollar seed breeding company
I finally settled down to running my own graphic design, marketing and SEO business, and to doing more science-oriented work on the side.
However, I was Always Cartooning
Because, for me, it never mattered how busy my schedule was, through all that I was doing with my other jobs – my total absorption was always in drawing comic strips!
In fact “A Dinky World” started out as a comic strip and it had more characters (whom I will work in again over time).
Interestingly, the newspaper syndicates that reviewed my strips for possible syndication, had odd feedback. Even though they loved my adorable characters and gags, they felt that the current market would not like my strip – Why?
Because it was too kind and the characters too cute. Ha!
Not wanting to give up ( I’m very much like a honey badger in that regard), I turned my adorable characters into my own brand creating:
… and any other fun stuff I can think of.
Basically, if it entails drawing and working with my main A Dinky World Friends:
- Filbert
- Hazil
- Basil
- Leo
- Mr. Biscuits
Well then….. I’m All In!
Now…..
My one and only desire is to bring joy and a smile to anyone’s face who sees my artwork, and reads my stories, because that just makes my day.
My Process
In case you want to know, I start with just a pad of paper and work in pencil until I get the feel of what I want to convey.
In the old days I would then ink and watercolor my artwork.
In the last decade however, I taught myself to paint digitally, so now I move my pencil on paper sketches to the computer and finish inking and coloring in Photoshop.
Sometimes I need to use Illustrator, or more often Inkscape, to set text that is cleaner, but 99% of my work is started by hand and finished in Photoshop.
And yes, I still do the occasional watercolor by hand, simply because that’s how I learned. It’s also because I still love the feel of the paper, and how the brush and watercolor flow across a page.
That’s it – Pretty simple!
