London-based illustrator Taylor Dasbach spends his days directing his own imaginary Saturday morning cartoon. Working under the moniker My Sunbeam, his work overflows with joyous characters who exist to fill the world with music, warm you up on a gloomy day, and have a good old-fashioned boogie.

In this conversation, Taylor talks us through the tightrope walk of keeping those characters playful without losing their emotional weight, how Monomania made a convert of him the moment he saw it, and why his dog Pickle counts as essential studio equipment when the well runs dry.

What's your creative background Taylor?

I'm a London-based illustrator & graphic designer, creating under the moniker My Sunbeam. Everyday feels like I'm the director of my own Saturday morning cartoon. I'm simply obsessed with drawing playful characters, who often either carry a hopeful message or just love a good boogie.

I've been designing full time since 2020. I've basically always been drawing and still always am — as a kid, at home I'd watch in awe as my sister would sketch these incredible flowers and hyper-realistic eyes. In grade school I'd draw Dragon Ball Z, Invader Zim, or whatever my favorite cartoon was at the time on lined looseleaf paper. I even went on a stint of selling the cartoon drawings to my classmates, a quarter a pop if I recall correctly. I remember my mom being so bewildered when I came home with pockets full of change. I think she found it hilarious, she has had unwavering support for me at every step.

Cut to 2019: while teaching English in Shenzhen, I met my now-fiancée, a British gal who stole my heart within weeks. When my contract ended, and the pandemic hit, I moved back to Michigan and began freelancing as an illustrator for a sticker company run by former classmates. That freelance gig became a full-time in-house illustration role, and two years later I really stretched the meaning of "working from home" by moving to London to be with the woman who'd stolen my heart.

I think that sense of cherishing something fleeting or not guaranteed drives a lot of the bubbly nature in my work.

Pursuing art has quite literally changed my life. Around the same time, the My Sunbeam project was born. My day job has me working in countless styles, but in 2022 I kept gravitating toward more distinctive characters and stranger concepts. My boss encouraged me to create a separate outlet where I could explore those ideas more freely.

I feel incredibly lucky to have always had such a strong support system; from my family, my fiancée, and my colleagues to the art community itself.

You grew up in Michigan and now work out of London. How much of that Midwest upbringing still shows up in your work, if at all?

I love London so much, the arts, the music... the transportation system! But the friendly and unpretentious nature of the Midwestern people is unmatched. It's as simple as a genuine "Hi, how are ya?" and really meaning it. I'd say it's that kind of energy that still finds its way into my work.

At the end of the day a lot of my posters are just that, simple messages or reminders. Often to myself, if I'm honest!

Something that I find true for both Michigan & England is the appreciation of a nice sunny day. They are just so rare in both places. I think that sense of cherishing something fleeting or not guaranteed drives a lot of the bubbly nature in my work. I'm just stoked to be able to spend my days drawing silly stuff and to be able to share it with people who resonate with it.

Where did the name My Sunbeam come from?

It came from a probably misheard song lyric! The brand I design for during my day job really champions themes of positivity and mental health in our briefs, we even partner with Active Minds, an incredible mental health awareness organization. So that became something that I in turn really valued and resonated with. I wanted my personal work to feel like that as well.

So I had this world of characters developing, a core theme, but I had been looking for a name that could encapsulate that for ages. It was just one of those things that as soon as I stopped trying so hard, a snippet of a song that I had never heard before caught my attention, "something something.... be my sunbeam" or "was my sunbeam." I think it was a love song of sorts. I've never been able to track it down! But as soon as I heard it, everything clicked. It was simple though, this world and these characters are just here to warm you up after a rainy day, your own personal sunbeam. At the end of the day a lot of my posters are just that, simple messages or reminders. Often to myself, if I'm honest!

Do you work digitally, traditionally, or some mix of both to get that texture and line work?

I'd say it's 80/20. I'm more often than not beginning a project completely digitally in Procreate. I love getting stuck into a sketch book on a slow morning, but I've really assembled a set of digital tools that I find incredibly easy to work with and get ideas down quickly. I'm more technical on the iPad but more expressive in the sketchbook. So if the project calls for a looser more hand drawn feel, I'm working through more iterations on paper before going into Procreate. I'm currently working on this visual identity for a Cassette Player brand (analogue revival for the win!) and the idea is to have a set of characters that feel raw and with a looser energy. For that, everything is getting fleshed out in the notebook and then line for line translated to digital (with some heavy ink TGTS brushes of course).

I think the pursuit of consistency became a part of the style itself. I started only using a specific set of brushes and textures, a certain level of shading and detail. Too much and the world breaks, too little, and it's boring.

Your characters read as playful on the surface but carry a lot of emotional weight underneath. How do you strike that balance without tipping into either territory too far?

That is absolutely a tight rope walk I'm doing every day. I think each character has a playful, cuteness, & emotional dial that I'm finely attenuating depending on the project or client. It is SO easy to go too far one way.

I have these structural boundaries or rules for my characters so I have limited myself to showing expression only through a couple lines/shapes — pupils & the curvature of the mouth which is often a single line. It is pretty wild how much of a difference in emotion you can get from changing so little. I think if I've done it right, there is a juxtaposition between the character's body position and facial expression. It feels like I rarely actually allow a character to be completely jumping for joy and at the same time have an overly cheerful face. The leap is balanced with a wistful look to the distance, the dance move is paired with closed eyes & a soft smile. It makes it feel like their joy is so much more personal and of the moment.

Has your style shifted much since you started working as My Sunbeam, or has it stayed fairly consistent?

The messaging, themes & characters have all essentially remained the same since the start, but the style went through a lot of refinement in the beginning. It was always cartoonish, but leaned more storybook, like Where The Wild Things Are, for a bit. Then for a while abandoned linework and adopted a more painterly style for the characters. It was pastel and delicate, highly emotive and there were a lot more full on complex backgrounds and settings. I'd end up spending like two months on an illustration, which was gratifying, but often I'd just lose the intention.

I got to a point where I was like, okay... what if I break this down to its core — character + message — and rebuild from there. Just say the thing and lean more into some graphic design elements, lean into some typography, which had been much more of an afterthought at that point.

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So my characters were refined and I set rules in place for them, something I hadn't done before — "a bare bones face, eyes always overlap, chunky features, one or two necessary accessories" eventually became some of the loose rules. During that stage I tapped into the looney tunes and rubber hose style as a guide for setting further character rules. I think the pursuit of consistency became a part of the style itself. I started only using a specific set of brushes and textures, a certain level of shading and detail. Too much and the world breaks, too little, and it's boring.

What does a dream brief look like for you right now?

The goal post keeps moving, honestly. Up until just a couple years ago, I didn't think I'd be able to fully support myself off of illustration & design, let alone the type of cartoonish style I've got going on. So I mean last year it was creating the artwork for a physical vinyl release… and I did it, it was so much fun and a wonderful experience. The inside of the vinyl even opens to be like a three tiered pop out style book, insanity — check out Born Funky from Bellaire! Now, the dream brief is basically, "Big Music Festival Poster" and all the accompanying graphics. I did something very close to this at the beginning of this year but for a Cannabis festival in Prague. Loved it, and I learned a lot about creating a cohesive vision. Now, I want to do that for a proper music festival with artists that I love. Without giving too much away… I think it might be happening, cross your fingers.

Do you remember your first True Grit encounter? How did you find our tools?

I started using the iPad to draw in 2020 and pretty quickly started searching for digital brushes to help me get a more organic touch. In that search I probably got a few different sampler sets of brushes, including one from TGTS. Then, once I started committing to more retro-styled cartoons, I sought out the best brush kits specifically for halftones (Beat Tones), which led me back to True Grit. However, it was when I saw the Monomania kit that I became a true convert. My illustrations are all done with mono linework, it's a pretty essential part of my visual world, so to see a whole kit dedicated to ink bleed mono liners was exactly what I needed. I also just loved the featured artwork from YONIL. That sold me as well and let me know True Grit champions some really talented and unique artists. Now that I'm thinking about it, that kit also totally changed how I do highlights and "gritty" shading.

A lot of your work touches on mental health, positivity, and introspection. Was that always the intention, or did it emerge as you kept making work?

The My Sunbeam project emerged during the thralls of the pandemic. I had just moved back home to Michigan after a year and half of traveling and being pretty free to explore so many facets of life. When I moved back home I was lucky enough to get a job as a Studio Engineer for the music therapy department at a prominent Children's Hospital in Michigan. My degree is in Audio Engineering and I worked a lot of my younger years in a nursing & rehabilitation center, so this was surreal and quite the dream job. My role was to head the creation of a recording studio for the long term patients to use for recreation. Though as it goes, the severity of the pandemic worsened and only after a few months of having the position, the whole program was dissolved.

From that, I turned to the freelance work I had been doing for Big Moods, a sticker brand founded by classmates of mine from school. Being on my last leg, I pitched them on me becoming the full-time "In House" Illustrator & graphic designer. It was a go-for-broke move, a last-ditch attempt to not get a regular 9-5, which turned out to pay off immensely. They said yes, and it's a role which I still have today! From the start, Big Moods always championed mental health awareness and positivity. Both through their work with organizations like Active Minds and with the themes of their products. I really absorbed those themes, and when I started My Sunbeam, those were top of mind as essential to the project. That, paired with the notion that I had been lucky enough to get my dream job, twice, made me feel like this project should be about looking to the bright side and that out of every dark cloud there truly is a silver lining if you look for it.

Your creatures are described as benevolent. Why does kindness feel like the right emotional register for these characters?

To quote Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once: he says something to the effect of — we're all fighting because we're scared and confused, and even he doesn't know what's going on, so please, be kind, especially when we don't know what's going on. I'll always be the first one to admit that I'm just not the smartest or wisest person in the room. In the face of such divergent and confrontational times, I can't offer any answers, but what I can offer is a bit of understanding and kindness. So it just makes sense to me that my characters are an extension of myself and should offer the same.

My secret sauce is the Monomania Grainy Shaders. Even just a light touch here and there can go a long way.

Has making work about mental health and introspection changed how you think about your own?

If someone is seeing one of my illustrations and it says something about a helpful mental health reminder or "Getting out of your own way," just know that these are essentially notes to myself as well. I think the act of creating work about mental health helps me, or rather requires me, to sit in these thoughts more than I would previously. I always want to make sure I'm also "walking the walk" and not just "talking the talk." As in, I need to make sure I am taking my own advice which is so much easier said than done sometimes. But it really has turned into a self fulfilling prophecy type of thing where I think I have become more grateful and appreciative of everything around me and everything I've accomplished because I talk about how important that introspection is.

Which True Grit tools are basically on speed dial for you? Any ride or die brushes you reach for without thinking?

Oh yeah. I've got a curated My Sunbeam brush set in Procreate that has all my ride or dies! My go-to to start every sketch is the Super Smooth Inker. For liner I'm going with either Monomania Classic Felt or, more often right now, Stipple Studio Round Liner. If I'm feeling really wild, I'll go with the Rough Liner. Of course anything from the Beat Tones kit may show up in my work but I've actually been leaning more towards the Stipple Studio Pressure brushes for detail lately. Then like I mentioned earlier, my secret sauce is the Monomania Grainy Shaders. Even just a light touch here and there can go a long way.

London has a strong illustration and print scene. How has being based there shaped your work or opened doors?

My work is so tied up in the digital and online world so being in London and being able to get around other creatives has been game changing. Being here definitely pushed me to always be thinking of how I can keep my work fresh and to really not be afraid to try out new ways of approaching ideas/characters. Without London I wouldn't have been able to see my work in print at showcases or attend events (that are just always going on) like Nicer Tuesdays and learn more about the unreal artists leading the industry. I work primarily with musicians and what better place to be than London for that. I get to go to the gigs and see the merch, posters, etc in person. That's what it's all about — seeing the work in use, seeing people wear it and dance! But most importantly, while being here I've met one of my best friends and it was through art. An extraordinary mural artist called Samme Snow, check him out! We draw together, go to art focused events together, and even started a little film club (merch incoming). Through him my experience of the London art scene has increased tenfold and made me feel like I'm welcome here and have a community to rely on.

When inspiration runs low, what usually helps you reset or reconnect with your practice?

Park time with the doggo! I love my dog, Pickle. He is there all day with me while I draw, from sketch to final. A nice walk and fetch usually resets the creative juices. Sometimes I just need to get out of my head and get a new perspective on what I'm working on. When all else fails, I can confidently rely on my fiancée, Jess, as well. As soon as I start to explain to her or show her what I'm working on, one of two things happens. The act of explaining my thoughts or intentions out loud helps me right then and there, or she sees it from a perspective I hadn't thought of and usually that leads to something brand new and beautiful. She has come up with more than a few of the quotes in my illustrations.

What do you listen to when working?

A lot of emotionally charged electronic music — Vegyn, 1-800 Girls, Jennifur, Joy Anonymous, Nia Archives, Four Tet. However, if I'm working on a brief for a specific musician, I listen to their tunes non-stop and just immerse myself in their world. And movie podcasts — I love a good chat about a film.

What are you excited to explore next in your work?

Gumball style toy vending machines! The ones with the prizes and the colorful tops. But in true My Sunbeam fashion, instead of just toys, there will be flowers, little houses, & representations of emotions. I love tapping into nostalgia and exploring memories through objects.

FAST FIVE

London or Detroit?

London, but Detroit will always have a special place in my heart.

What's the first thing you ever got paid to draw?

Probably a tattoo design. Not sure if it was the first, but what comes to mind is a marlin with its spear bill poking through the Detroit "D."

Sketch on paper or straight to digital?

Sketch on paper. Though I probably go straight to digital more often.

Salt beef bagel or Detroit style pizza?

Toughest question yet! Gotta go with the Detroit style pizza.

What's your creative superpower?

Making anything whimsical.

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My Sunbeam (Taylor Dasbach) is a London-based illustrator.
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