I'm a freelance illustrator who graduated from Glyndwr university in 2013. I've freelanced since graduation and worked on a range of things; mainly character illustrations for children's publishing, sports merchandise as well as creative hand lettering projects. I work out of a little studio at my home in North Wales but work with clients all over the North West and Wales as well as further afield.

I've always had a natural love of drawing and creating; my first memory is of an 8 year old me walking out of school with the idea of "if I can draw everyday then I'll be happy" and never really considered anything else after that! I went through college and Uni still with the notion that the art room was where I was happiest and allowed that to be the drive behind setting up a business.

I chose to be freelance because I'd spent all of my time at Uni developing a unique and identifiable style that I thought deserved a chance at being freelance before I considered working in house somewhere or opting for an agent. I've actually found I really like the aspect of networking and connecting with new people and companies for work so do a lot of self marketing now anyway!

Problems on some scale will always occur, being freelance one of the biggest regular problems can be contacting someone in the hopes of growing your business and getting nothing back, but you learn to look for alternative routes. If you have that passion and belief behind you then you find a way to make it work.

The biggest problem I've faced so far though would be my anxiety diagnosis just as I was starting off as full time freelance. At a time where everything was supposed to feel really new and exciting, my head felt completely overwhelmed and I started overthinking everything. It definitely wasn't the best start but I quickly rationalised that I was going to have anxiety whatever I chose to do; work a 9-5 or as a freelancer, so I learned to listen to myself and know when I needed time and when I could push through it. It's still very much a "learn on the job" feeling with it and I have good days and bad days, but it works for me and the benefits of doing what you love often silence the anxious thoughts for a while.  I've also learned to use it in my BIW talks and find that after every session, at least one person will come up to me who has experience with mental health issues and to know that it's struck a chord with them or given them that acknowledgement that you can still do what you want even with those issues, gives me a boost as well as them.


Being my own boss, and getting out of bed later than most people on a Monday morning is still high on the list of pluses of being my own boss. Flexibility is great for me, I can do different projects and not get stuck doing the same thing. It's like spinning plates; sometimes you drop some, sometimes you have multiple spinning, some spin slower than others, but I've come to love that.

Illustration and being a creative business is my main expertise but I combine illustration with other skill to make it functional for different areas. I'm an illustrator but I work on books, illustrations for merchandise, editorial and hand lettering for shops. So just because you see yourself as one thing, you can take those skills and what you like doing and use it for lots of different things.

My advice is to find what you’re passionate about and go for it. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there, it's scary but worth it!