Illustration is quite different from fine art. The information contained in the images should either make words unnecessary or raise so many questions that the reader cannot resist looking to the text to fill in the gaps.
It is not enough to make something beautiful, illustration should always be in the service of story telling, whether sequential as in graphic novels or as in vignettes sprinkled among text.
I am drawn to work that has a vintage quality and in particular the illustrators of the golden age and the painterly style of the European comic makers of the fifties and sixties.
I feel that the illustrative style should be varied to suit the mood of the narrative. For this reason my work ranges from the wistful, idyllic Edwardian style watercolour that characterise my children’s books to a dark chaotic approach that better suites adult graphic novels, horror and fantasy.
I often (but not always) write as well as illustrate my own work, sometimes an idea comes to me fully formed and I need to write and tell the story visually.
Sometimes I illustrate stories I have made up for my own children, sometimes songs that I have written with and for children in my other role as a music workshop leader.