In Maddie Fischer’s motif, you’ll see “little creatures having a delightful time”

Maddie Fischer first found illustration while performing comedy in New York. “Comedians can easily keep an illustrator in work with the endless stream of promo posters,” she says. And because of this, she decided to kick off her freelance career, and soon preferred creating the posters to actually performing in the shows. “Now I get to draw everyday without wincing at my jokes that tanked the night before,” she tells us. Inspired by illustrators such as P.D. Eastman and Richard Scarry, there’s a certain busyness to her work, but with a mythical edge, where rabbits play the guitar, clowns hold a conference call and turtles garment sew, making it clear that she hasn’t lost her knack for storytelling and energetic expression.

Starting many of her illustrations on paper, she finishes them digitally, creating an “irregular, inky, nib-like line in a really satisfying way,” with digital brushes. “I need a digital pen to have some grittiness and unpredictability to resemble the way an inked up nib hits the page.” Referring to the motifs in her work as “little creatures having a delightful time,” she has this flock or herd-like theme throughout her works. Flower families march on; oak trees rehearse; and frogs also make a friendship bracelet. This has become so prevalent throughout her work that the instance of humans eating yoghurts on the beach feels out of the ordinary.