New Blog

I decided to start a new blog. Since graduating in July (Graphic Arts and Design, Leeds Metropolitan University) I have given myself a bit of time off to have a bit of a relax and break from all the hard work but I am now ready to thrown myself back into my work and ideas and carry on researching and developping my skills and improving the qualities in my work even further.

I thought a new blod would be a perfect way to document this to add in new skills and inspirations that i'm discovering.

I am an illustrator who uses photography, models, props, costume and situations, to illustrate stories, or create a narrative using the image itself. I like to encourage imagination in what I do and try not to restrict the thought tracks of the audience, by not over complicating my image or giving too much away.

I design, build, create, light, direct, glue, model, act, sew, and then photograph my final image. Almost everything featured in my photographs is made myself or very carefully selected. Once my photographs are complete I make very few alterations on Adobe Photoshop.

The key to my images is that they are set up and directed almost like theatre, and then this tableau is then photographed. My work is not just thrown together through lots of layers on a Mac, It is thoroughly planned out and everything in the image is physically placed in position, lit, and then eventually, after a lot of shifting around, photographed.

I am inspired by toys, train journeys, sweet shops, caffeine, carnivals, theme parks, stop frame animation, the seaside, circus, theatre, fashion, jewellery, costume, nature, colour, music, lyrics, stereotype, sets, magic, illusion, musicals, eighties films, people, animals, personality, puppetry, shadows, stencils, silhouette, designer toys, Japan, masquerade, pop up, and mischief.