A Positive Look Back at 2020!

Hi everyone! So it's the last day of 2020 which I'm sure we're all happy about.

Though this year has been extremely tough and has been filled with countless challenges and constant change I wanted to spend a moment to share some of the highlights of my illustration journey this year with you.

At the beginning of this year I completed the final stretch of my illustration degree, submitting my picture book 'The Balloon' as my final major piece and overall achieving a 2:1.

This project would then be showcased in the Light Grey Art Lab's Senior Show 2020 where I was selected for a one-to-one portfolio review with the amazing illustrator Belle Lee. It also got featured on several recent graduate instagram accounts including Sad Grads and the Social Distance Art Project. It would also go on to win the Poole Maritime Turland Award, which I am so proud of!

After my degree I worked on several personal projects including the animals adventures week series and 30 days of characters. I also decided to create a birthday greetings collection centred around sausage dogs and try my hand at selling my own products.

Though my initial product launch was slow, I got great feedback and my collection got featured on Dachshund Station's blog and social media channels!

This positive feedback encouraged me create more products ready for Christmas and pushed me to apply for as many fairs and markets I could find as well as work more on my social media marketing.

In honesty the last few months have been a bit of a blur!

From September until now, I have been lucky enough to run stalls at Westover Gardens Art and Makers Market, South Coast Makers Market, Pop-Up Emporiums Online Christmas Market and in Bournemouth Arcade. Not only this but my work was also stocked in South Coast Makers Market's Christmas Pop-Up Shop! As well as these successes, my Etsy store has picked up massively over the Christmas period and incredibly I reached 100 sales!!