2022 has been and amazing year of growth and also variety within my artistic venture and I’m super proud of all my achievements and lessons learnt!
My main focus this year was to work on my shop. I re-opened my online store last November after finally purchasing my own industry standard printer to have at home, making it way easier to provide prints of my art-work on a small but immediate scale. Since then, I’ve created new and more diverse products including canvas tote bags, stickers and A2 prints! I also worked on widening my audience online by creating more video content on social media and attracting new eyes from around the world through Etsy. I also grew my audience a smaller more local scale, by partnering with a few independent shops in Bristol and Wales, and hosting around 25 market stalls all around Bristol and Bath! Each new experience was a learning curve and a big risk. New products often mean investing quite a bit of money and time with no guaranteed reward. Some markets I came home at a loss from stall fees and travel costs. Preparing stock for shops and markets would have me over-stretched, working on printing and packaging until the early hours of the morning. However, I subsequently then had the most successful sales during the months of October and November, and by this stage I’d made my market set up process pretty seamless and worked out what locations and selling techniques work best for me!
In 2023 I’ll be taking a small step-back from the focus of my store, my plan is to host just 1 market a month, with organisers that I know work well for me, and I won’t be making any new products at-least until the 2nd half of the year in the lead up to Christmas.
Outside of the growth of my shop there’s a few major achievements that I’m incredibly proud of. First and foremost being that I illustrated an entire book! Although quite a normal expected outcome of an illustrator, illustrating a book, specifically for a young audience, has always been out of my comfort zone. It’s not something I would agree to without a lot of consideration, but when I was pitched with the beautiful plot, I couldn’t say no, and in June The Life of Stevie Smortberry was released and available to buy in leading bookstores!
Back within my usual comfort zone of editorial illustrations, I created work within tight deadlines for The Big Issue and Elle Decoration, both big names that I’m super chuffed with! I also completed a dream project of the complex descriptive modern tapestry type illustration, which was printed onto a hand held concertina as well as used digitally on an interactive website!
In 2023, I want to shift back into creating more descriptive narrative work. Despite being very challenging at times, it’s something I really enjoy, and fortunately I already have 2 major projects lined up for the new year! I also want to experiment more with my iPad, see what I can do with Procreate and capture moments on the go when traveling!
