Interviews
Rachal Duggan
Rachal Duggan lends her magical drawing talents to celebrity portraits, her fan-favorite illustrations of poop horror stories, and everything in between. Funny, compelling, and energetic, Rachal’s work is all for big causes like body positivity and feminism and has won her clients that include the Guardian, PBS, and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls.
Your style is so deceptively simple and straightforward. It’s always reminded us of an updated Quentin Blake. What’s your most-used tool or tools?
That is quite a compliment! My tools are super basic: cheap inky pens, Pentel makers, and printer paper. The idea is to be as low-key as possible so I allow myself to draw and make mistakes. Mistakes are usually what makes something interesting. If I finalize an illustration, like a custom portrait order, I do the final on bristol vellum paper so it feels more substantial.
Is it tricky to create portraits of real people or their pets? [Rachal accepts commissions for custom portraits of you, your loved ones, or your pets, if anyone wants to get us a Christmas present this year.] Seems like a lot of pressure!
It’s challenging but also really fun. I like that people feel comfortable with me and I get to illustrate important people and pets in their lives. I give myself more time to complete those and that takes some of the pressure off.
What’s your favorite thing to draw? Butts? Dogs? Portraits? You excel at all!
My favorite thing to draw is probably when I get asked to illustrate a really good period or poop story. Since I crowd-source stories from people, it’s awesome hearing insane stories and making people feel comfortable enough to share them with me. I love drawing butts too. My goal is to promote body positivity and make people feel confident about what they got! I’ve had some people strip down or send nudes (they ask permission first) and it’s a pretty unique feeling having complete strangers ask you if they can moon you from 2 feet away.
“My goal is to promote body positivity and make people feel confident about what they got!”
We loved your project for Hey Girls UK. Do you think you might want to create more products, or what do you dream about doing someday soon?
Hey Girls UK found me through my period related posts (#radperiodstory) and I love their misson. I hope to publish a book full of period stories. I think it’d be a great book to have for young people when they get their periods and for everyone else in between. It’s important to humanize periods and normalize talking about it. And, hopefully get to a place where you can laugh about the nightmare situations you’ve been in.
