Duration: Two years.

Location: Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Career path: After completing my GCE A-levels, I’d been given London agency XYi’s director’s e-mail by my partner’s mum’s friend. After visiting there, I fell in love with the agency life and found that my heart was not set on university. Luckily, the design firm offered to take me on before I needed to make a decision on which uni I was going to choose, and fortunately, I was able to bypass the three or four years. As an apprentice at XYi Design, I artworked and localized film campaigns for Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures.

During my second employment, at a company named Tea, I was scouted by illustration agency Jelly. Although I didn’t do a lot of illustration in my day job—more so artworking—I worked on my illustration portfolio any spare second I had: lunchtimes, before work and after work. I attended a portfolio review held by Jelly, in which the agency followed me on socials. Thankfully, Jelly contacted me a year later. I was able to quit my job and become a freelance illustrator.

Artistic influences:My personal work is heavily inspired by film. During my employment, I worked on film posters and loved illustration, but it wasn’t until I came across PosterSpy that I thought to combine my two passions and create illustrated film posters. After always being stuck on what to paint, this was a real game changer.

More recently, I have fallen in love with fine art all over again. I’m keen on traditional oil paintings, and I’m happy if my digital painting looks like one! I love the work of illustrator Sam Spratt, who achieves this style.

Favorite projects: My project with Apple TV+, where I created artwork for the TV series For All Mankind. After years of creating art based on films, I fulfilled my dream of creating official artwork for films! I also wasn’t given a brief for this project and instead had free reign, which is usually rare. I was flown to New York to speak at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store. This was both such a surreal experience and a huge milestone in my confidence.

Work environment: Currently, I am living off-the-grid in a tiny home in Cornwall and excited to see where this takes me! I feel that this new change of life and connecting with nature will result in a positive outcome and an influx in creativity. We are also building my studio, where I will have access to one plug for my iMac. It is a huge dream of mine to own my own studio. Before this move, I was working, living and sleeping in my small bedroom at my parents’ home in Hertfordshire, so I’m excited to finally have my own space!

Approach: To capture an emotive, striking portrait in a realistic yet painterly style. I love painting every detail and making sure that I have addressed every skin texture and hair stroke that make up the subject matter!

Aspirations: Netflix would be a dream client. I have always been inspired by Kyle Lambert’s work on Stranger Things, and I would love to work on something as big scale as that. I am also interested in expanding my business into fine art as well as digital, even more so now that my lifestyle is adapting to be off grid. Seeing current fine-art film posters, such as James Jean’s mother!, really fuels my drive to push in this direction.

Philosophy: Stay true to yourself. Create what speaks to your soul, and you will be happier for it! For me, putting personal projects out there has been hugely valuable, as this attracts the right clients and work that represents you, too.

Anything else? My inbox, e-mail and Instagram DMs are always open for anyone needing creative advice!