AIDEN'S ISUZU

Part 2 of my personal travel project centred around vehicles that have facilitated some amazing adventures all over the world! This one features Aiden’s incredible Isuzu truck, that toured us around some unbelievably beautiful wild camping spots in Northern Norway last July 🇳🇴 🛻

This is actually the 2nd time I’m sharing this (I deleted the old post) because I didn’t love the colours, but now I’m much happier with it! And I’m excited about how it contributes to a bigger collection that I have planned out and hope to be sharing more of soon!

I GOT A STUDIO SPACE!

As mentioned in my last post, 2025 didn’t include many wins for my illustration career, but to contrast that, I have very exciting news to share…

The abundance of rejections and radio silence throughout 2025 was incredibly rough at times, but because of the hard times, I like to think I’ve got pretty good at reframing my perspective, seeing all these rejections, instead as redirections and ‘not the right time’ situations. And thankfully, after a year and a half of effectively being unemployed, navigating burnout, and relying very heavily on friends and family, I’m very pleased to say, it appears that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because one of the hundreds of applications I did last year, finally pulled through for me, which includes access to an amazing studio space and mentor support for 6 months! This is all thanks to Fountain Arts Studio School

The slight catch however is that the studio space is a 3 hour drive up north in Scunthorpe… but I’m seeing this as a great excuse to really utilise my camper van (which is a life long dream I finally invested in a few months ago, that you can read more about here).

I’ve been drawn to the north of the UK for years now, and whilst living part time in a tiny van in the depths of winter can be fairly inconvenient, and I’m not planning on actually moving up north any time soon, I’m enjoying pulling on these threads and seeing where it leads me.

I’ve only been here a month, and I haven’t necessary produced much work, but I can already say this opportunity with fountain arts has had a significant impact on me and I’m feeling very optimistic at what the future holds. The excessive driving and camping in the cold has caused a bit of stress for me I can’t lie, but thanks to my improved ability at focusing on the positives, I’ve since witnessed the most stunning sunrises of my life, and listened to a load of great audio books on my drives. (I’m throughly enjoying reading at the moment and at some point I’d like to share more on this!)

I shared this update in video format over on Instagram where for the first time, I uploaded a post with myself talking as the audio, something I’ve wanted to do for a while but have made excuses for up until now… However, with this new studio space has come a desire to push for more in terms of my illustration practice, and with that this year, I really want to build connections, and therefore invite more working opportunities! Although it can feel a bit embarrassing talking about yourself on the internet, this feels like an invaluable step in that process.

I don’t love content creation, but I defiantly don’t hate it either, and I feel with trail and error, I hope to get to a point where content creation becomes a valuable source of work just without the mentally exhausting part!

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