What had been the driving force for you to pursue illustration?
I was only ever good at drawing so studying illustration seemed like the obvious choice. I studied at Falmouth College of Arts in Cornwall and there have been some really great artist’s to come out of that college so it was a very inspirational place to study.
Could you describe the typical creative process for one of your pieces?
The majority of work I produce is done in pencil which I then scan into Photoshop to add colour. I’ve experimented with other ways of adding colour but I always end up going back to it.
Many of your works feature portraits of very interesting and strong women. What is the inspiration behind this and how much of ‘you’ do you see in them?
There were always Pre-Raphaelite women on the walls at home when I was growing up. Those paintings are full or romanticism and symbolism and this has definitely had an effect on the work I produce now. Some of my pieces are definitely more personal than others and tend to reflect things that I admire or feel about certain things/people.
Almost all of your subjects have several tattoos, creating this sort of meta tattoo-within-an-illustration. What is the significance of tattoos in your work?
Tattoos can be used to communicate all sorts of things so the idea of using them within an illustration is a fun idea to play with. Some images are more serious than others, some are fairly tongue-in-cheek but I think each one has its own little message.