FIRST MAP ILLUSTRATION

Towards the end of last year, I completed my first map illustration for a returning client, Genea Saunders, the author of ‘The Life of Stevie Smortberry - Nana’s Got the Electric Touch’ to hint at the themes of her next book and I really enjoyed it!

The map features a bunch of spot illustrations including Caribbean carnival characters, an athletics track, a sewing machine and fashion sketches, Stevie’s high school, the bus she gets to school, and her favourite hang out spot, Morley’s chicken shop! It’s not super often that I do spot illustrations, rather than busy scenes, but I still enjoy them, and dotting them around on a map backdrop works in a similar way to give the audience clues of the storyline! Hoping this is the first of many more map illustrations!

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!