Stephanie Molnàr • Fall 2022
For our Fall 2022 menu we had the good fortunes of working with Stephanie Molnàr. Her nature inspired artwork for our menu perfectly captures the rich warmth of autumn weather and majestic beauty of Canadian wildlife.
Stephanie draws inspiration from collage, cyanotypes, photography, fauna and flora. She is also an avid collector of art supplies. Stephanie’s bright personality lights up any room that she walks into. Read on to learn more about Stephanie’s journey so far.
Hi Stephanie, tell us a bit about yourself and your art journey so far.
I have parents who have been very supportive of art. Both of my parents are immigrants and they're from Peru and Hungary. They met and taught at a tennis club when they came to Canada. Because of that I was raised in a very sporty athletic manner.
They've always supported me in art because my dad went to OCAD and is also an artist. He creates a lot of digital art right now. He has gotten into AI recently - the type where you input artwork into the system and it transforms it in crazy ways.
My mom loves to work with her hands and makes desserts and delicacies. I think that influenced me to work with physical material and art materials. I’m almost an art material collector at this point!
I think both of my parents have influenced me in my art journey.
What sparked your interest in illustration?
Well, honestly in school I wasn't great at math and I wasn't loving science. People have always really encouraged me and complimented my art. So art was something that brought a lot of joy to me.
I never felt stressed or anxious about art the way I did sitting at home trying to learn math. That never made sense to me, but art did. I took double art in high school and then went on to study art at Sheridan College for four years. Now in addition to freelance work, I also work full time at an art supply store called Midoco where I get free range to have fun with art supplies!
How would you describe your art style?
I would say it’s controlled chaos. It’s hectic but beautiful, and strange sometimes. I really like strong, heavy detail, and also incorporating some larger, bigger shapes to balance it out. I like sinking my teeth in and going in depth on certain parts of the drawing and then leaving other parts blank so it can breathe a little bit. I really like color and like high contrast as well.
Select artwork by Stephanie
How long did it take you to develop your current style? Was it something that you had already established when you started school?
I definitely didn’t have my style established when I started school. I started art school straight from high school. The first two years were learning art foundation and the last two years had more emphasis on developing and cultivating my art style.
In all honesty, I had a lot of catching up to do coming straight from high school. Many other students in my program were older and had more experienced. It was intimidating going into a college where other people had a head start on drawing, but by fourth year I felt like I could finally keep up.
I would say that I developed my style through painting classes. I had no idea that I love painting so much until I started painting still lifes. I really like a painterly approach. And once I got better at painting my style developed naturally.
Something else that I’m currently working on improving right now is my handwriting. I’m practicing my hand lettering to get better at it!
Stephanie shared some of her notebooks containing her hand lettering practices
What are the important tools you use in your daily work?
I have an ongoing problem with buying too much ink. So I have so much ink for my fountain pens. I especially love the ink from Ferris Wheel Press which is a Canadian based company that makes their inks in Markham. They make such beautiful inks that are based off of places in Toronto [Down the Don Valley is a vibrant green, Spadina Rose captures the spirit of the historic fashion district].
The ink here is “Edwards Gardens”. The ink contains many colours, including red, teal and gold. You get so much depth of colour with just one pen with ink.
Ferris Wheel Press ink in Edward Gardens
I also use my linoleum cutter and stamps. I carve out the stamps based on my drawings. I used this leaf stamp throughout the entire menu.
I also really like paint markers. I use Tombows, Poscas and Microns mainly.
Recently I have also gotten into oil painting. I have plenty of oil paints at home but I haven’t had too many chances to work with them yet because oil painting needs proper ventilation. I’ll have to bring them outside and paint in the open air which I’m really looking forward to.
And for digital art, Procreate on my iPad is the most important tool I use.
How did you make the artwork for the Demetres Fall Menu?
I first started brainstorming on my iPad with rough sketches, and then I did some quick drawings on Procreate. I work on the major sections of the art separately, so the background, foreground and middleground would each have their own file. And then I put together the components for the final art.
One reason that I have to create each component separately is because the detail in the art contains more layers than the program’s limit. I also sometimes lose track of which layer I’m working on.
Stamps and prints created by Stephanie
Have you ever run into an artist’s block? If so, where do you turn to for inspiration?
I run into artists' blocks all the time. But just like anything else in life, you just have to put the time and the effort into it, and it will turn out. Artists’ block was very tough in college with frequent deadlines. So I feel like the pressure of needing to have something on the page has forced me to get good at getting over artist’s block quickly.
What's your dream client or project?
I'd really like to paint something on a very large scale one day. For example, a whole wall mural. I’d also really like to hold a market stand for selling my prints and cyanotypes. Another project I’d love to work on is art for a children’s book or magazine spread. I’m excited to try anything!
Cyanotype by Stephanie
Who is your biggest inspiration or illustration idol?
I have a couple inspirations and idols - René Magritte and Rob Gonsalves for their surrealism and magical realism, and a whole bunch of painters on Instagram who inspire me daily with their abstract art.
My family and my coworkers also help inspire a lot of my art that I do!
René Magritte
Rob Gonsalves
Which of your artwork is your favourite so far?
It’s hard to pick because I fall in love with each piece as I’m working on it. My favourite so far has been the Prowl Series.
The Demetres Fall Menu was also very fun as I had a lot of free rein to do what I love. I had a lot of fun painting nature and animals.
Can you tell us more about your inspiration behind the 2022 Fall Menu art and what messages you wanted to convey?
For the fall menu, I was very inspired by warm brown tones. Thinking of Canadian nature, I was thinking of different Canadian animals and I landed on beavers because they hold a close spot in my heart. I went for a nature walk around Edwards Gardens and went down a trail where we came across a beaver dam.
Later on, when I was brainstorming the art for the menu with my family, I came across the idea of beavers creating a dam for ice cream. The words “Beaver Dam Split” came to my mind and I worked off of that.
When you’re not working, what do you enjoy doing most in your spare time?
Right now I really enjoy hiking and paddleboarding. We have two paddle boards that we like to take out on the lake and go for morning paddles when it’s very calm on the water. I also really enjoy taking photographs with my boyfriend’s camera while we’re out on hikes. My friends and I really enjoy going nature walks and trying to identify plants, animals and different mushrooms.
I also really love collecting ink, I want to collect colors from every medium. My dream would be to have every single paint color, every single pencil crayon colour, every single paint marker. I’m definitely not a minimalist - I love having a lot of tools and colours to work with.
What's your ideal creative environment? Do you listen to anything in the background - music, podcasts, movies? Do you have favorites that you recommend?
I really like working with friends, although sometimes it can be distracting. We mostly listen to a very broad range of music. It ranges from Pop Smoke all the way to classical. I love soul music like Sam Cooke but also have an appreciation for good rap music and Doja Cat or Nicki Minaj.
I really like true crime shows and courtroom procedurals. I hate to admit it, but I love mindless movies, border patrol or zombie movies.
Something that I can watch all day is fountain pen reviews on Youtube. One of my favourite is The Goulet Pen Company’s channel.
I do a lot of my drawing in bed, so I like anything that is funny, thrilling or entertaining to keep my heart beating faster and keep me awake.
If you can give a piece of advice to anyone new in the industry what would it be?
Don’t get discouraged. Keep a sketchbook. Stay humble. Be hungry for doing better. Document your process and be able to step back and see how you could do better next time.
Thank you Stephanie for the great conversation and beautiful artwork!
Here’s our Fall 2022 menu cover
And the bill cards
