2025 WRAPPED

I just shared a late (but we are very anti rushing over here) 2025 wrapped over on my Instagram but I’m going to dive a little deeper here! In 2025 I…

> Sent over 200 job applications and reaching emails, from which I successfully received 1 paid commission! (This doesn’t include all my wonderful returning clients and those who came to me from recommendations)

> Got signed and dropped by an illustration agent after getting zero work from them! This is the 2nd agency I’ve had a shit experience with

> Made the least amount of sales, and significantly less art than in previous years….

Whilst I think a lot of people would look at this and think I had a very unsuccessful year, 2025 was potentially the best year of my life! Turns out, success is arbitrary, and tying my worth to productivity and ability to make money, isn’t great for me?!

Obviously, getting to a place of WAY more stable mental health, had many contributing factors, but here’s a couple bits I’m proud of/ mega grateful for:

  • Spending more time outside and away from a screen

  • Slowing the fuck down! Being more mindful by engaging in slow art forms like, journalling, reading, embroidery, kinsugi, and walking. - I read 20 books this year, both fiction and non-fiction. Half of the books read were in just the last 2 months of the year, you could say I became a little hyper-fixated, discovering an app called Fable definitely contributed.

  • Reducing my consumerism and buying more second hand (I’m obsessed with Vinted)

  • Navigated an ADHD diagnosis and successful PIP application. Long but life changing.

  • Surrounding myself with incredible people. COMMUNITY is EVERYTHING.

Maintaining a regulated nervous system that I spend some much time on effort on, is essential for me! But ideally I’d love to make some more money from my illustration work this year. So as part of that I want to engage more in my artistic practice, and more importantly share that with others to hopefully open up more opportunities. So here’s a start at that attempt. I hope you can stick around to enjoy the journey x

AUB BOYS JAM 🛋️

Finally got out of a little drawing rut with this reportage illustration thanks to an inspiring evening in the depths of the winter, saying goodbye to an amazing friend before he heads off to live on the other side of globe. Thanks for being my muse, inspiring me out of my drawing rut, and for randomly sending me a message 5 years ago to hang out and chat shit. Very grateful for creative crew, we’ll miss you Harold!

Normally I have no issue tracing images within my illustration work, as it ensures accuracy and time efficiency, however I was very pleased with the outcome of this considering I just used one poor quality video for reference, because I feel it injected a little more joy and life into the process and also the final image!

This illustration acted as a gentle reminder to myself that live music and observational / reportage drawing, ALWAYS helps to get my creative juices flowing, and this is a practice that I should engage in whenever I’m feeling a little uninspired. To see all music themed works, click here.

I get the feeling that this is just the start of a very creative and productive year to come 🔥
I shared a time-lapse of the drawing process on Instagram if you care to see!

SHOP RESTOCKS

I recently went on my first little road trip in my new van! I decided to go to Devon, initially to visit my sister and help her move house, but then I decided to tie in a little solo exploration with the safety that family is nearby just incase.

My beloved Bristol is on route, and pretty much smack bang in the middle of my house and my sister’s, so I of course jumped at the opportunity to visit old friends on the way, and whilst I was there I also re-stocked all of my Bristol based stockist. They’ve dwindled over the years, but I’ve managed to hold on to 3 very loyal and lovely stockist including: