Paraorchestra - SMOOSH!

Been super absent on the socials in the last few months despite being probably the busiest I’ve ever been with my freelance illustration work. But I’m going to do a bit of catch up this week with sharing some of my recent projects and try keep up this momentum as I’m incredibly grateful for commissions and opportunities I’ve been presented with since the start of 2022!

Starting with a reportage illustration of Paraorchestra’s performance SMOOSH! On the streets of Knowle West last summer. It was such a fun and inspiring event to attend, I had to attempt to capture some of the magic in an illustration.

Paraorchestra is a collective of disabled dancers, artists, musicians and performers as part of Creative Youth Network. Learn more about their work here!

The Life of Stevie Smortberry - Nana's Got the Electric Touch

Sneak peak of something very exciting planned for 2022! 

For the last few months I’ve been working with the author Genéa Saunders to help illustrate her vision, a book focused on an amazing character, Stevie, and the everyday tasks involved with being a young career, with lots of fun and typical teenage mischief along the way.

The book titled, The Life of Stevie Smortberry - Nana's Got the Electric Touch is now available to pre-order on Waterstones!

The blurb reads : “Meet Stevie Smortberry, she's 14. A young carer. A budding athlete. And … is about to enlist her friends in the BIGGESTTTT mission ever. But with a Nana like Stevie’s, she may just have all she needs to pull the CRAZIEST plan off! …Don’t just take my word for it. I’m just the narrator!”

This is the first time illustrating for a young adult fiction book, and having this much published all at once! Working with Genéa has been such a joy and I cannot wait for you all to see the end result✨🏃🏾‍♀️🍬

Don't Look Up

A few months ago I was set a commission to create a piece in response to the new film Don’t Look Up. The film’s plot was very on brand for me and we managed to come up with a fun idea to transform the White House office into a greenhouse with the view out the windows showing an asteroid in theme with the movie. ☄️

Unfortunately the commission ended up getting cancelled but I had some spare time (finally) to watch it and decided to finish the illustration for myself and I’m really glad I did as it feels like I haven’t done any drawing for myself in AGES. The two images show the finished piece and an earlier draft so you can see how the image developed.

2022 Goals

So I did a little #artvstheartist over on Instagram ahead of new years, I wasn’t planning on doing one of these initially, because other than the pack of playing cards I’ve actually not done that much drawing, and I found it especially deflating when comparing to the post I had made the year prior. But then I reminded myself that this year, I’ve learnt SO much, gained new experience, developed my career and earnt more money 😎 (as a freelancer, not in total… I’m MUCH poorer than I was last year lol)

Despite drawing less, this past year I feel I’ve really build the foundations of my career, and it’s made me think about what I want to focus on next, so I made a small list, just with some pointers and nothing strict to not set myself up for failure.

  • More patterns, and contextualising them into products and packaging (even if just hypothetical)

  • A few more shop partnerships, spread across the UK.

  • More editorial work, this is something I’ve really enjoyed in the past and paid the best, so I plan to get back into sending more regular reaching emails to try and achieve this.

  • New products for shop, such as another collection of prints, stickers or a calendar to diversify stock options.

  • Attend more markets. The 2021 Christmas ones were such a success, it would be silly not to.

  • General upkeep of socials and admin. This is a no brainer, but also to try keep in the loop with trends and utilise all options.