Opulent, sleazy and filled with narrative: The illustrated world of Alice Bloomfield keeps on growing

When we first met London-based animator and illustrator Alice Bloomfield, she was a student still fine-tuning her craft and finding the kind of projects which inspire her. Now, she’s become an established artist in her own right, amassing thousands of followers online thanks to her intricate and uncanny aesthetics. More often than not, her pieces stretch across the gap between the arcane and modern girlhood, picking up on otherworldly motifs to hook in viewers and get them questioning all that they see. Recurring ideas are an important part of her work. “I’m a big collector and have always been intrigued by objects, especially how much you can tell about someone by their belongings,” Alice tells It’s Nice That. “I use motifs and objects to build a loose narrative in my work, and give an idea of what kind of people my characters are, while still leaving room for the viewer’s personal interpretation.” Lots of the items Alice draws are things she owns herself, but she’s also constantly turning to 70’s interior design books, extravagant cocktail glasses and retro ashtrays – “anything which gives my work an opulent but slightly sleazy feel,” she says.

The adaptability of Alice’s work is a testament to her drive to be different. One peak at Alice’s Instagram and you’ll constantly find a well of inspiration in her works ­– what she’s doing, how she’s doing it and where. It’s to no surprise that her next animation coming out this autumn is at the Outernet building on Tottenham Court Road in London. “I’m really excited about it because the building has a room of insanely huge 360-degree screens, covering all the walls and ceiling,” she tells us. “I had a lot of fun playing with the space and designing the animation to be as immersive as possible.” As an artist who has always covered as diverse a range of characters in her artistry, the step towards immersive participation for all viewers is exciting to say the least. “For this project I created a lot of 360 panoramic shots where animations flow from one scene to the next,” she explains. “I’ve never worked on anything like that before which resulted in a lot of trial and error, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all comes out.”

The massive scope of the Outernet project is ambitious, but entirely within Alice’s wheelhouse. Yet, as an artist always in commission, it’s hard to imagine she’s had time to carve out creative projects for herself. These incremental but important practices of creating for creating’s sake is a repeated philosophy that artists often stress on. Thankfully, Alice has slowly but surely been working on carving out the space for such a thing. “I’m working on a short film, it’s a passion project,” she says. “I’ve never worked on a big animation project which hasn’t been commissioned, so working without a deadline or any client input has been so refreshing.” By opening back up to the whims of her own artist hand, Alice has found herself back in the arena of experimentation. “There’s a lot of time to really perfect all the experimenting, which is always ideal for me,” she adds.

As she gears up for another exciting year full of promising projects, this young illustrator and animator continues to be an unstoppable force.