Finally a Graduation!!!

Last week I finally got to celebrate, one of my greatest achievements, finishing university with a First in BA Illustration during a global pandemic.

Despite it understandably not quite being the same celebrating this a year after finishing, I’m still so grateful that I got to attend a postponed graduation ceremony alongside my amazing illustration course from Arts University Bournemouth.

The whole experience made me feel rather reflective. The last year has been really tough, for everyone. As if your first year out of university was challenging enough, myself and the other graduates of 2020 endured the this period of time which such a different experience, a crashing economy and a year of lockdown and resultantly cancelled opportunities. Despite all of this, I came out the other side still with an impressive chunk of experience to show for myself, despite moments with serious lack of inspiration.

As part of our final unit at university, we were encouraged to write a plan for our next steps out of education, to direct our illustration career. I quite often look over this last year with disappointment, I felt like I missed out on so much, experienced serious lows in my mental health and questioned my ability not only as an illustrator but even sometimes simply as a functioning human being. However when I look back at my written plan I did a year prior, I achieved every single thing on my list. I secured multiple freelance commissions in a variety of commercial contexts, honourable mention in some amazing competitions and art shows, and a years experience as an in-house illustrator. So recently, I’ve been a little easier on myself, taken time off and enjoyed the sunshine that has blessed us in the last few weeks, particularly on our trip to Bournemouth for our graduation!

To top it all off, as someone with a poor relationship with both parents, I got to experience a much greater love from my invited guests, my best friend Elsie and my partner Angus who made the day so special 🤍

Skate deck road sign

For a while now I’ve wanted to challenge myself and expand my creative practice away from the comfortable space behind my laptop screen, and I’m so glad I did.

I recently completed a little personal project doing exactly this. It took me longer than I’d like to admit, but the entire process from start to finish was so therapeutic. From idea generation, sourcing all the parts I’d need to make it work, planning the content and actually making it, I can finally reveal my small labour of love, in dedication to one year living in Bedminster Bristol.

I was inspired by a local sign-writer, Tozer Signs and Bristols amazing skate culture which I’m fortunate enough to dip my toes into through rollerskating. I got the board second hand so it was super rough and needed a lot of sanding before it was paintable. The end result is far from perfect, much like Bedminster, but it’s mine and I love it. I also learnt so much which I hope to bring to more projects with a traditional focus very soon.

Visit my instagram to see a snippet of the process in a time-lapse video!

3 more personal commissions and process videos development!

In the past month I’ve completed 3 more small-scale personal commissions, highlighting the value of word of mouth as a form of marketing, as each of them followed on from a positive recommendation!

Each piece, as always, was so enjoyable from start to finish as I got to learn about all their personal elements that makeup a final image. All these illustrations hold so much narrative for the people that commission them and I feel so touched that I get an insight to their lives through art.

Despite my current marketing techniques working pretty well for me, I have for a while now been considering the other avenues I can go down as I venture further into the freelance artist world, in order to access wider audiences. One of which is videos, more specifically Instagram reels.

I haven’t particularly enjoyed Instagram’s development into a video focused app, however it’s happening, so I feel the best way to stay on top of things is simply to adapt to what many audiences want to see! I made my first reel a few weeks ago, showing a simplified version of how I create my playing card illustrations, and I turned out pretty successful which a great reach. See it here!

I don’t want to completely change my content and solely focus on reels however I do think it’s in my best interest to keep the ball rolling! So I have a few plans in place to hopefully keep my audience engaged and attract new people too. This has come with the fun new investment of a tripod to film hopefully some more professional content with a little more ease! I tried it out first with another current personal project, hand painting an old skateboard deck, video soon to come…

Journally type entry

It feels necessary to do another brain dump. The last few weeks, since delving deeper into the freelance world have been pretty eventful! I’ve been super fortunate to be involved in a fair amount of commissions and collaborations recently as well as managing the personal side of being an artist!

I took 10 days off for a much needed holiday for the first time in what felt like forever. It’s so important to take time off and recharge, but so much easier said than done as an emerging artist. However the time off was amazing and reminded me that life exists outside of work. I went home to London and got to spend some time with amazing friends and family and hear about what the last year of a locked-down England has been like for them. I also went to visit a fellow illustrator friend who had moved to Scarbourgh, a place I would never have chosen to visit (due to how bloody long it takes to get there!) but enjoyed it so so much. I also of course got some great skating and sun soaking done too!

Coming back to a decent chunk of emails was really stressful for a few days, but as always, I was stressing unnecessarily at the work-load and over complicating things. This is something I frustratingly do quite a lot, and it always turns out fine. It feels pretty shit in the moment but I never hand work in late, so its probably a fairly beneficial way of thinking, but still something I want to get a little more control over in future so it doesn’t eat away at my personal life and mental health quite as much as it currently does. 

Despite this stress, the last few days have highlighted what it’s all for, the end product of happy customers and amazing connections. I completed two small personal commission for birthday presents both of which allowed me to delve deeper into the lives of absolute strangers and capture their personalities, and both so joyfully received. I also started the beginning stages of what I imagine to be 2 amazing collaborations. One with a team of fellow illustrators represented by Illo focusing on mensuration, and the other with a variety of artists and poets to bring attention to a National Trust venue focusing on belonging. I’ve already gained so much simply from the few video calls we’ve had, it’s reminded me of the amazing impact that collaboration can have and I can’t wait to learn more as well as making an amazing end piece. 

During the most recent collaborative call I was able to listen and learn about the creative experience of other artists, and share my own thoughts, something I didn’t realise how much I missed and how incredibly valuable it is. Just one small example of how brilliant this communication is, I shared with the team my WIP project of playing cards, and one artist pointed me in the direction of a reliable printing company to source them from, something I’d been looking for but had no success! 

Planning, printing, sourcing, and actually making a bringing all of  my personal projects into fruition is something that’s also been heavily on my mind, but defiantly slowly happening! It’s always a dream to have my work on physical products, but time, finance and knowledge of the market has gotten in the way. All these obstacles certainly still exist, but little moments like this are helping me chip away at them and get closer into making these dreams into a reality. 

Pictures above, show :

  • some small edits to my card project (the main personal project in progress)

  • additional work in progress sketches and ideas for the two collaborative projects

  • photos of the 2nd tee design done for Mia at Always Cook on the Bright Side, really highlighting the point that products take time to come into the real world but boy are they worth it!