A little about me

In primary school, I always struggled academically and it was only after being diagnosed with Dyslexia and later ADHD that it began to make sense. My friends at the time were nerdy and smart and we all loved to read, but my dyslexia meant I just couldn't keep up. Therefore, I really got into books on tape. I would spend hours in my room listening to radio plays and books whilst drawing and painting, this is where my love of art began.

I continued to study art at GCSE and college, but the constraints of school often made it less exciting. I left education at 19 and moved to Brighton to a mouldy flat with my friend who was studying for an Art Foundation Degree. Although mouldy, we had the best time in that flat! I loved to surround myself with friends who could also draw, paint or were generally creative throughout the years, this inspired me to keep pushing myself to evolve as an artist. It is great to share your ideas, and feedback, and learn new skills. I’m a self-taught artist to a point but feel like I have learnt so much from the people around me, as well as my own research, playing and investigating.

How did I end up as an illustrator?

At 22 I was commissioned by Karen Vagabond to create illustrations for her website to accompany her festival headdresses. I loved working on it and realised for the first time that this could be a viable career. I kept going, kept creating and started to get some recognition, along with other commissions from friends, family and other businesses. This passion began to turn into my career and I feel so lucky I get to create for a living.

My creative process

One of my favourite things to do is to take a small A5 sketchbook to a coffee shop of a morning, have breakfast and just draw with a couple of fine line pens for an hour or so, but I try not to out-stay my welcome! Sometimes that quick drawing can evolve into a painting or digital drawing. But I really like to keep drawing with more traditional methods in conjunction with Procreate on the iPad. Even though I do feel like I have learnt so much from drawing digitally, I don’t want to rely too much on that ‘undo’ button.

My main inspirations

I love creating art that brings people together and a lot of my inspiration comes from books, films and games. My first inspiration came when I found the comics “Tank Girl” by Jamie Heweltt & Alan Martin. I loved the style of the art so much, I’d study the lines, the forms, the facial expression and the colour palettes. I like the idea of my illustrations still being attractive to look at, even if you don’t know the context.  I get a lot of inspiration from just walking around, say if I’m out and about and I really like the way a leaf looks on the path, or garden ornament I’ll take a photo. Anything I like the look of, I’ll take a snap and my phone is full of pictures of things I find on the ground.