Patrick Hruby

Patrick Hruby is a freelance illustrator and designer from sunny Los Angeles, CA. He has a BA in illustration from Art Center College of Design, and an insatiable appetite for color!

Kid Made Modern: How did you first start making art?

Patrick Hruby: I was lucky because my mom is a painter. I thought everyone made art. I thought it was just part of being a person.

KMM: Do you have any siblings that caught the art bug, too?

PH: My youngest sister is a writer and a really good painter and drawer. My second youngest sister is autistic and her life is just art. She dances all the time and she’s the happiest person I know. I had another sister, but she passed away. That was a big part of me deciding to go to art school; when that happened I thought ‘I can’t live in fear of anything. I just have to go for it.’ It sounds so crazy, but it was like her last gift to me.

KMM: Now you design ads, animation, illustrations, kids books, coloring books, paintings, prints, murals, and product labels. It’s a lot!

PH: I like anything new. The scariest thing for me is to be doing the same thing over and over.

KMM: What’s your favorite time of day to do your work?

PH: I am a nighttime doodler. I start everything in the day and then I go home later and think, ‘Oh I want to mess with it a little bit more,’ and then hours go by!

KMM: Do you ever dream ideas?

PH: Yes! I love dreams. Mostly I wake up with a sense of my dreams, not always a visual idea; it can be just a feeling or a story that becomes part of my art.

KMM: How do you feel about pushing yourself to do new things?

PH: Some of my favorite drawings are the ones where I first thought, ‘I don’t know how to draw that.’ But then on the flip side, there are things I will always like to draw. I always like to draw flowers. I can do that all day.

KMM: What is something you want to do more of?

PH: I’ve been wanting to paint really big paintings. I did a mural only once and it had to be created in 2 days, so at one point I was painting for 26 hours straight. I thought ‘Wow this is really hard and a little bit stressful but ... why am I not doing this every day!’ Making something with your hands is so great.

KMM: Do you make other things with your hands?

PH: Silkscreens. When I pulled my first silkscreen—a flower I designed—it was like magic! I always feel like I went to Hogwarts instead of art school.

KMM: Has your work changed over time?

PH: When I started out, my portfolio was all watercolors. It was so different. That was fine, but I learned finally to make what made me happy.

KMM: Your art is about conveying what makes you happy?

PH: Yeah, in a nutshell. That’s what I like to do.