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While he once dreamed of flying planes, it’s creatively that Oli Nightingale ended up taking flight.
“Every child has their favourite little dream they talk about,” he explained.
“My granddad was in the Royal Air Force, so I was really into it. I wanted to be a pilot, and then I realised I wasn’t really good at maths.
“I remember seeing a video about one of the Disney animators, I loved cartoons but that’s when it clicked for me that it could be a job. I was about 11 or 12 when I saw that, and it sparked my interest.
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At university, Oli studied animation, focusing on 2D which meant he was drawing “a record amount of hours a day”.
While he has done all sorts of creative things over the years, including painting a Jersey Red-themed gorilla or spray painting with fellow Jersey creatives, drawing is what he always comes back.
“I love drawing, I was really captured by it, and I still am,” Oli said. “You go through stages of interest - different creative projects depend on what your awareness is. My work is predominantly illustration. I have always loved to do it since I was very small.”
In 2009, in between completing university and going travelling, Oli met Cameron McPhail whilst working in a call centre “to save up the pennies” and embarked on another creative path as he got into digital art.
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“Cameron was working in the same building as me,” Oli said. “We were using hot desks and I was doodling all day.
"Over a short bit of time, I did lots of doodles on the back of complaint forms and other documents. Cameron ended up seeing a couple of them and we did a couple of illustrations.
“I produce a ‘Beginners’ Guide’ map of Jersey on tea towels right before I left.”
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About a year after Oli returned from his travels, The Kartoon Factory was born. Over the last decade, this is where most of Oli’s creative energy has been directed.
“I have drawn so much for the Kartoon Factory, all cartoon-based,” Oli said. “The cartoon style is very intuitive and quite fast, a lot of them can be on deadline so you want to get the process going quickly. It has informed the way I produce anything now. My goal is to create the most beautiful thing as fast as I can, so they are bold and beautiful and look as hand made as possible.
"Cameron produces so many ideas and uses me as a vehicle to express his ideas. Sometimes it comes at the weirdest moments in between talking. He is very in touch with currents events, I am a little bit more on the outside, creating the most beautiful thing as fast as I can, so they are bold and beautiful and look as hand made as possible.”
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Nearly five years ago, Oli moved to the south of Spain shortly after his first solo show ‘Oli Nightingale’s Ma(Hoo)ssive Drawings’ at Fort Regent. Now based in the Basque country, he goes swimming every day and was recently reading up about the old masters of the Renaissance.
But after “cruising through covid”, he is now looking forward to finding a dedicated studio space to get his hands dirty.
“I want to keep creating that’s my big thing for the future,” he said.
“It’s a very broad plan, I have had a bit of a break for a month or two, so I really feel I am building up to some fun business. This is what it’s like being creative, it’s ebb and flow. I have been doing a bit more ebbing and I am looking forward to a bit of flowing.”
