How I feel about generative AI as a digital illustrator and what I'm doing about it

I remember when AI generated images started to become more prevalent, and at this point I really wasn’t bothered; the quality of the images produced was pretty weak in my opinion, they screamed AI with additional fingers in places where they shouldn’t be, they felt alien, and so I didn’t feel threatened. However, over time as the capability of AI has gradually increased, and I have to admit I’m now often impressed with the images that AI can produce. Sure they still lack that incredibly important hand-made and human feeling which I feel AI will never truly be able to reproduce, but they remove a heck of a lot of time and effort from creating images that perhaps don’t necessarily need that human touch.

As this threatening feeling towards the future of my career as a digital illustrator started to approach, I have had to question myself (and of course have been asked by friends and family) on what I’m going to do to tackle it. For a good while, I used my usual technique of trying to ignore it and hope for the best, but that only got me so far and I feel at this point it’s inevitable that more and more people will go to the ease and low cost of using generative AI rather than commissioning an illustrator, (depending of the complexity and reason for the images of course). So this is why I decided, if you can’t beat them, join them, and I’ve partnered with exactly ai, an ethical approach to AI that’s changing the rules of how AI interacts with artists.

Exactly ai trains bespoke AI models on your own assets to generate brand-ready visuals at scale. It’s designed to be secure, fast, ethical, and built for professional creatives. Obviously I was reluctant at first, as this is a huge change that’s happening right now in the industry I’ve based my livelihood on… but I’m hoping engaging with it in this way, using it as a tool to work with me, rather than against me, will save me being left behind in a technology driven world that is constantly evolving.

I’m working hard behind the scenes with members of the exactly ai team to ensure my model is the most accurate representative of my illustration style that it can be, as it still needs a few tweaks when it comes to depicting certain themes, however after experimenting a lot with the model, I was able to produce some images that I absolutely love and feel look remarkably similar to how I would draw them myself!

All of the images above were made using my exactly ai model, Ethereal Realism. Watch this space to see how it develops and I intertwine it into my personal illustration practice! You can also play around with the model and produce and purchase licensed images for you own use!

Creative Freelancer Tips I'm Not Gatekeeping

I’ve just finished 4 weeks of ADHD psychoeducation sessions that I was given access to following my ADHD diagnosis. These sessions were delivered in the format of weekly 1 and a half hour webinars, designed to improve understanding of ADHD after receiving a diagnosis later in life and most likely having an unclear perspective of how it truly presents itself and how to work with it, rather than against it!

I learnt a fair bit in these sessions and felt immensely validated. A lot of what was shared, I already knew, however this provided reassurance that the methods I’ve put in place, are deeply beneficial to my working practice! So I’d like to share a few of them here, as I’m very anti gatekeeping, and I’ve recognised that it’s very common that neurodivergent people find themselves working as a freelancer like myself, rather than within a company.

Create a structured environment: 

• Establish routines and consistent schedules. Predictability helps individuals with ADHD manage their time and tasks. 

• Use visual cues, reminders, and calendars to keep track of important events. 

Break tasks into smaller steps: 

• Large tasks can be overwhelming. Help break them down into smaller, manageable steps. 

• Celebrate progress along the way to boost motivation, and make it INTERESTING, providing novelty makes tasks easier!

Encourage healthy habits: 

• Prioritise regular sleep patterns. Adequate rest improves focus and overall wellbeing. 

• Promote a balanced diet, regular exercise, and social interactions that feed you!

Working for yourself is great for so many reasons, but it can also be really really shit too. The lack of community can make you feel really lonely, isolated, and unsupported. You can miss out on opportunities and inspiration that comes with working as a team. You can’t spread responsibility, instead you have the weight of it all on you own shoulders. Of course you can bounce ideas and share your struggles with family and friends, and I think for most people this is predominantly dumped on their romantic partner… but it’s not the same as having someone to listen and give advice that really understands the industry. So I’ve found, one of the best ways I’ve been able to overcome many of the issues around working for myself, is to nourish your connections with people who work in the industry.

As I went down the fairly traditional route into my creative career and attended university, I’m really lucky that I was easily able to form connections with like-minded people, however I know this isn’t the case for everyone! I also made friends with other freelance creatives later in life separate from education, (online and through market stalls) so despite it being harder, I know it’s possible, and the inside knowledge and validation I’ve gained from these friendships has been an invaluable asset to my career and general mental health!

I’d say the MOST beneficial choice I’ve made as a creative freelancer and actually stuck to (for I think around 5 years?!) has been weekly accountability calls with my dear friend and fellow illustrator Imogen.

Imogen and I met at Arts University Bournemouth where we both studied illustration. We loosely came up with idea during lockdown (as we graduated uni in 2020) to have a weekly call with one another to simply to keep in touch with the huge distance between us (Scarborough to Bristol), talk about our creative process, and hold one another accountable on the tasks we set ourselves the week prior. I don’t think either of us anticipated that 5 years later we’d still be doing it, but we both recognise it to be so incredibly helpful, so why would we stop?!

I’ve tried a whole bunch of different motivation techniques and organizational apps with varying levels of success as I often get overwhelmed. I’ve found for me, often simplistic is best. - Along with the phone calls with Imogen, the most beneficial tools to productivity are Google Calendar (despite being and iPhone user as they were so late to the party with introducing colour coded elements and better view to see everything all at once), and a really basic notebook that I think I was gifted years ago, that breaks tasks down and asks you to choose 3 top priorities, which for me forces me to group things together into more manageable chunks, rather than trying to do everything all at once!

I've joined a new illustration agency!

I recently gained representation with Art Lab Agency!

I’ve always been open to having an illustration agent in order to boost my audience outreach and pick-up more clients, but unfortunately my experience with a previous agent from a few years ago really let me down, with next to no work in 3 years of representation… Understandably, I’m hoping work flow with Art Lab will be much better!

Art Lab recently announced me joining on their Instagram, and I loved how they worded my introduction! So here’s a snippet…

🕶️ Mary Flora Hart captures the intricate beauty of everyday life through bold, semi-realistic illustrations rich with unexpected detail.

☕️ Her digital artworks are immersive visual narratives—bursting with color and grounded in real moments that echo with emotion and storytelling.

🎞️ Her process blends observational photography and digital collage into layered compositions that celebrate ordinary scenes with extraordinary flair.

🎧 From live music and local travel to the intimacy of conversation, Mary Flora’s inspirations reflect a vibrant, lived experience.

🪩 Her distinctive style has attracted leading names such as The Big Issue, Elle Decoration, Médecins Sans Frontières, Transwilts/GWR, the National Trust, and Watershed.

💼 These collaborations highlight her ability to translate complex ideas into compelling visual stories—ideal for editorial, publishing, and tourism sectors.

Excited to watch this space, and see where this creative connection takes me!

Everything I learnt illustrating my travels and navigating ADHD burnout

I’ve always loved traveling; I was immensely fortunate to have this interest embedded into me at a very young age from my parents who took us on incredible trips to places like Egypt, India and Argentina! Unfortunately I have a shocking memory, was a very fussy eater, and a moody teenager, so I felt a lot of these cultural experience were wasted on me, but if anything, it’s taught me to appreciate it all so so much more now as an adult, and I try and get away somewhere new as much as possible. 

Unsurprisingly, I’ve always loved art too, so it was only a matter of time before I wanted to articulate my love for the both of them in my illustration practice.

I dabbled in this theme here and there, (see below for my first attempt at capturing memories of a trip to Oslo in 2021) but I felt it wasn’t that doable until I purchased my iPad towards the end of 2022 as it allowed for a far more transportable option!

Adapting to Procreate from my previous very comfortable approach of using Photoshop on my Wacom Cintiq was a fairly slow process, but after a lot of practice and finally completing a few commissioned pieces using just my iPad, I felt confident enough that I could create illustrations to the same quality as I did before, and so I set myself the goal of illustrating scenes and capturing memories of my two month trip around Australia and Bali which was planned for early 2024!

See below for my first travel illustrations captured on the go on my trip Rio, Brazil in February 2023 where I was just getting the hang of things… and my first commissioned piece completed solely on my iPad from a returning client, Elle Decoration in July 2023, funnily enough also on the theme of tourism, with the title Hotel Wonderful, exploring the realities of traveling with children.

The most important and also hardest lesson I learnt through this process was, don’t try to do everything, because you will pay the price.

It was during my trip to Australia and Bali in early 2024 where my ADHD burnout came to its biggest head. I’m sure it would have come about eventually regardless, but at least it enabled me to learn my limits when it comes to navigating travelling as a someone prone to sensory overload.

The constant inspiration from being thrown into a colourful and exciting new world pressured me to capture it all in drawings, but this riddled me with exhausting overstimulation. I felt I couldn’t waste this trip because it was a privilege to experience it, and then this spiralled into rumination and self torment, because how dare I feel miserable experiencing all of this?! 

First of the series, an observational illustration capturing the first part of the journey to Sydney, a flight with Singapore Airlines, stoping for a lay-over in Shanghai! Featuring some surprisingly tasty plane food and my boarding pass. This illustration was made much more achievable thanks to a 30 hour journey with minimal distractions.

Sydney summary! This 2nd illustration is unique to all the others that just capture one scene or a still moment, because instead with this one I chose to cram as many of the features of Sydney I could into one image. Showcasing the train interior, busy beaches like Byron Bay, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the famous ferries, and a sprinkle of wildlife.

Rugged shower scene from a campsite in Misty Mountains, Kunghur. At this point of the trip I was feeling quite overstimulated after travelling in the van for a short while and not feeling the cleanest, although pretty grimy, the stillness of the view through the corrugated sheet window and the sounds of the shower head spraying, calmed me down massively!

A personal favourite and popular print with customers at markets too, Van Views. Capturing a windy but calming scene of our bikini and swim trunks drying in the sun post swim, out the back of the rented camper van.

Peach Farm, was one of the first campsites that we stayed at whilst travelling in our lil rented van, driving up from Sydney to Cairns. As somebody completely obsessed with animals, it was also probably my favourite of all the campsites we stayed on. So I decided to draw this image capturing the best part of the day, feeding time!

I crashed hard after about 5 weeks, and then again multiple times throughout the last 2 weeks of the trip after accidentally deleting a drawing I’s spent hours on… so the main takeaway was that 2 months is too long for me. As someone incredibly emotionally led by their menstrual cycle, that long away from my normal life and routine was very destructive. I felt that 1 month was probably my maximum, and although this seemed like a less efficient way of traveling especially somewhere new and so far away, because there’s SO much to see and do, being annoyed at myself for not experiencing it all was never going to work out well. 

It’s not super often that I choose to draw people, but these two were proper characters so I wanted to capture them as a significant part of the incredible memory! K’gari (also known as Fraser) Island Tour guide and fellow curious traveller in her incredible tie dye fit!

The most detailed illustration of the collection, Coral Sea (available to purchase as a print), a slightly more vibrant depiction of the scenes I saw whilst snorkelling around coral reefs on a boat tour by the Whitsundays, combined with a few additions spotted at Cairns aquarium!

Pool Table Pit Stop, capturing one of our slower more chilled out activity choices, with my usual semi-photo realistic style, but a bit more oil-painting vibe, something that I’ve always loved in the work of other artists so wanted to give it a go!

Birds of Aus!
Showcasing a collection of most the wild birds I spotted whilst travelling Australia; minus a cassowary as I couldn’t really fit one in and I’m also still not 100% convinced they are actually birds rather than dinosaurs…

Plan a mixture of action and rest, and embrace going with the flow. Having a plan is obviously great, but you can’t plan everything. You can’t plan the weather, the random disruptions, the unexplainable mood swings or energy shifts. Despite doing SO many incredible things whilst traveling America, we also factored in a good chunk of slower rest days. I did lots of reading, watched a few films, napped, and spent hours scrolling on social media (which I normally wouldn’t encourage) but I did it to avoid this pressure I put on myself to constantly be productive. What my previous self would have probably described as boring and wasteful when in a new place with so much to explore, I now recognised as an essential task to fill time alternatively. Thankfully too, I was surrounded by the most incredible, understanding and supportive company that made leaning into how I was feeling on a day to day basis, far far easier.

I was encouraged of this general attitude throughout my 2 month trip around Australia, both by myself and my partner at the time, but ADHDer’s don’t learn from being told, we learn through trial and error! Only you know what is too much for you.

Sunset Swims at South Beach, Fremantle. I had such a strong vision of what I wanted the illustration to look like, but after multiple re-starts, I had to accept the reality that I’ll never be able to truly capture the endorphin fuelled magic that it was. I’m pretty content with my attempt though!

Observational drawing at a cricket game. Whilst in Perth we attended the WACA to see West Australia vs New South Wales. I barely paid any attention the sport, as I was much more interested in people watching and drawing.

Lazy River illustration was inspired mostly by a trip to Waterbom waterpark in Bali, but the main aim was just to capture the exquisite, care-free feeling that comes with floating on a rubber ring amongst luscious greenery.

Today Was a Good Day, captures the tropical winding roads in Ubud Bali, via one of my favourite modes of super safe transport, moped!

Despite creating a total of 13 illustrations for my self directed project, “Through My Eyes”, encapsulating 8 weeks exploring Australia and Bali, only 4 were actually drawn whilst on the trip! The rest were completed throughout the year that followed from returning home. 

I did start sketching up the ideas of most throughout the trip, but getting them to a standard I was happy with, was interrupted by the burnout, it probably didn’t help that I also took on 3 commissions for Transwilts, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Just Breath Magazine during the trip too! 

Now, over a year later, after a breakup from the partner that I travelled around Australia with, moving cities from Bristol to London, loosing my job, rehoming my cat, a lot of therapy (in many forms), and an ADHD diagnosis, I can finally draw a line under this project and feel I’ve gained far more confidence around understanding my ADHD.

I experimented with so many new techniques, approaches, ideas, and explored a theme that I’d wanted to for years! And despite this being a solely personal and mostly unpaid project (other than sales of a few of the designs I made into prints) I’m hoping it will attract an audience of like minded travel obsessed clients and companies! Many of my friends assumed I’d be creating illustrations of my American road trip, which of course I’d love to, and I’m not saying that I never will, but I’m looking to prioritise paid gigs at this point in time so I’m working on sharing this collection as far and wide to make that happen!

I’d love to create some more tourism themed editorial illustrations, or even capture travel themed stories for writers and publishers. I previously wasn’t interested in kids books, but now I’d absolutely love it! I’d also love to create covers for adult fiction or even non-fiction such as semi-realistic wildlife illustrations! (Book covers and more publishing directed work is another personal project I’m hoping to push at some point). 

The ultimate dream would be to create some commercial advertising for big names in travel such as Air Bnb, Hotels.com, Eurostar, or British Airways, (with a free all expenses paid trip thrown in for good measure), but for now I’ll enjoy reminiscing on the travels I’ve been so lucky to do, and continuing manifesting a life of endless possibilities. ✈️ 

I'm back on the markets!

As we may or may not know, I had to move back home to London last year after an unexpected eviction from my home in Bristol where I’d built my freelance career for the last 4 years since graduating from Arts University Bournemouth 2024… it was a rough transition, but also an incredible opportunity for reset and growth, and after now being home for over half a year, as much as I’m missing Bristol, I’m actually really glad I moved!

Part of this big scary transition, was slowly establishing myself into the creative scene within London, and I felt the best way to do this was attending market stalls as I felt this was a big part of not only my sales growth in Bristol but also very much pushing my name out there!

My loose plan was to book at least 2 markets a month, trying a variety of companies, locations, and dates, to try and suss out where might be the best fit for me to engage with the biggest audience.

So far I’ve traded with Solo Craft Fair for 2 days over the weekend 8th-9th March for International Women’s Day at St Martin in the Fields, and Truman Markets in Brick Lane for 3 dates in the month of May.

I feel I’ve already learnt a few key pointers that could help improve my sales and I’ve booked a whole bunch booked for the next few months; so I feel I’m on track for a profitable market season!

I’ll probably have more dates to add as I go on, but for now here’s my line-up for the next few months, if you’re around please check them out!

MAY

SATURDAY & SUNDAY 17th-18th Truman Markets in Brick Lane 10am-5pm

JUNE

SUNDAY 8th Duck Pond Market at Lauderdale House, Highgate 11am-5pm

SATURDAY 14th Lochinver House School Summer Fair 10am-6pm

SATURDAY & SUNDAY 28th-29th N4 Makers Market at Abney Public Hall10am-5pm

JULY

SATURDAY 12th Solo Craft Fair in Leadenhall 10am-5pm

SUNDAY 13th Crafty Fox Markets The Crossing, Granary Square 11am-5pm

So far I’ve found the packs of playing cards to be the most popular purchase (makes sense as this glorious weather calls for card games in the sun!) shortly followed by A3 prints and then coasters, which sold out at my market in March, so I made sure to get more of these made (thanks to my delightful friend and fellow maker Imogen Ward), and restock all of these in time for my next event this weekend!

Post travelling motivation including my newest shop addition!

At the end of April I returned home to the UK after an incredible month travelling around the US in and RV with my family. Following the burnout that I experienced post my last big travelling experience, I was very cautious and mindful when it came to my return, and attempting not to do too much, and thankfully I feel enough was put in place to avoid this same kind of exhaustion, and instead I actually managed to surpass jet lag almost completely, and even rode a decent wave of motivation for a couple weeks! I think a lot of things contributed to avoiding this burnout, which I may explore in another blog post, but for now I wanted to share possibly one of the most exciting aspects of coming home after a long trip, which for me is printing an illustration that was finished whilst away!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably keep saying it until the day I die, I LOVE seeing my work in print! As a digital illustrator, I spend the vast amount of my creative time on a screen, and I love the way I work, but there’s just something about seeing the work you’ve created physically in front of you. I worked on my Coral Sea illustration for MONTHS; some illustrations within this project where more of a quicker capture of memories, whilst this one was absolutely capturing a memory, I was so focused on it becoming a new print addition too. Over the years, after drawing so many tropical jungle scenes with wildlife, I’ve had a fair few requests for under the sea environments and so I invested a ridiculous amount of time and thought into the composition and colours to make sure this would not only capture memories and tell a story from the trip, but also produce a striking stand alone image that would work as a print. So upon my return, one of the first things on my agenda was getting this printed and sharing it with my audience, and I’m pleased to say the colours and details came out so crisp!

As usual, prints are available in A5, A4, and A3 now on my website and upcoming market stalls… however I’m very strongly considering getting this one printed in A2 as well. I might just wait to see what kind of reception it receives both online and in person!