WHSmith

In 2015 I was commissioned to design a diary cover for WHSmith. Their brief was a simple floral 'Agapanthus' flower or other similar large-headed bloom which they wanted to use across their diary ranges for 2015-16 and license for two years to use again in 2017.

The completed diary is finished with silver foil stems which look lovely against the blue background and white Agapanthus illustration.

The English Home Magazine

I was delighted to feature in The English Home Magazine in an article about my illustrations and products for Highgrove.

Quarto USA

For Quarto US I was commissioned to illustrate a book 'Moon Power' for the Author Simone Butler.

I illustrated all of the star signs in monochrome pen and ink, with one block colour for each illustration. I really enjoyed this project, gladly I had very few amends to do, as the style and theme was right in my comfort zone.

Create and Craft TV

Create and Craft TV have now launched my 2nd and 3rd collections, 'A Taste of Winter' which was a sell out and 'Wandering With Wildlife' which launched at the end of October.

I have enjoyed working with Create & Craft enormously, and really look forward to heading down to Peterborough to appear on their live shows, when I can get there. If you've seen the shows, you'll see that I demonstrate how I design and I'm interviewed by the presenters which is a great way to introduce my brand to the audience in the UK and USA.

The National Trust

Supplying my greeting cards to The National Trust has been one of my favourite achievements. My cards were sold at several of their shops, including Chartwell where Winston Churchill lived.

I visited my local site Calke Abbey where I was thrilled to see my cards on display in the shop, as well as discovering that some of my 'Spirit of Nature' cards for Nigel Quiney were also on sale here too, that made 8 of my designs in total on the shelves. I was grinning ear to ear that day!

Oxfam Christmas Cards

I was delighted to license 2 of my designs to Oxfam for Christmas cards a few years ago. I am often approached to design or license for charity cards, and it's great when the report back from the charity is that the cards sold well, in fact my leaping hare design was their bestseller!

Harper Collins Big Cat

In my first project to illustrate a fictional story book for young readers, I designed the pages and vignettes for 'How Birds Got Their Colours' written by bestselling Australian children's book Author, Helen Chapman. 

Helen has been an author for 38 years has 96 published books!

Here is my colourful cover for this exciting tale. My illustrative approach was to use my pointillist technique but in a way which resembles Aboriginal art.

A wonderful collection of creation stories from Australia, telling how the koala lost his tail, the kangaroo got her pouch, as well as how the birds got their colours. This is a Topaz/Band 13 book offering longer and more demanding reads for children to investigate and evaluate.

You can buy Helen's lovely story book here.

Michael O'Mara

Another edition in my colouring book portfolio is 'The Art of Mindfulness - Relaxed and Focused Coloring'.

Here is a video introduction to the book published by Michael O'Mara Books.

Buster Books

In another project to design pages for a colouring book, I was commissioned to collaborate with other artists, such as the talented Felicity French and Chellie Caroll to create 'A Calming Colouring Book for Kids' published by Buster Books a division of Michael O'Mara.

 I had to design lots of fun pages for children to colour or to fill with their own imagination.

Harper Collins

During the first fresh waves of colouring books for adults appearing on the shelves of many bookstores across the world, and the art of mindfulness at the forefront of many publishing companies, I was commissioned by book publishers Harper Collins to create a 'Floral Adult Colouring Journal'.

The book is full of pages to sketch and write, to focus the mind and take a break from the stresses of everyday life.

A great commuters book, or something to pick up in the evening when you are relaxing.

This was a very pretty project, full of line art and tasks to complete, and a very pleasurable book to work on. I was even challenged to create dot to dot pages, something new to me to design, but I had great fun constructing the layout.

Thunder Bay Press

For Thunder Bay Press, I worked on an enormous project to design a 'Color Your Own Tarot' collectors book and set of tarot cards. The whole project took many months from initial sketches to completed illustrations, I even designed a whole alphabet to use throughout the book and cards.

Thinking back to this project, I don't know how I did it. The amount of detail was intense and I had a lot to learn about Tarot cards just to take on the project.

However, the finished book is something I am very proud to have accomplished, and is no doubt one of the most in depth commissions I have ever taken on. There was possibly hundreds of amends, which is the nature of being a freelance illustrator.

Not only that, but the footprint which is created online by all of the users and reviewers, I never would have imagined that the end user would have so much to say about it, to be complimentary about the illustrations, which were in the Art Nouveau style as commissioned by the book publisher.

Here is a video review by a tarot card and colouring book enthusiast in America. Skip to the 2nd minute of the video to see her flip through the book and explain how it works.

Karto Finland

In a very exciting licensing deal, I have been working with the buying team at Karto in Finland.

The Finnish market is much more into postcards, and so my designs have been adapted to fit this format, however I will also be licensing my designs for greeting cards and A5 notebooks to them, as my first range of Christmas postcards has been a success in Finland.

In this photo, picturing one of their other talented designers, Johanna Korpela, you can spot my postcards, the black cat, dachshund, blackbird, fox and owl. I couldn't get to Finland to take this photo, but thank you Karto for sharing.

Jean Barrington Ltd

Jean Barrington Ltd is a Gift and Social Stationery supplier based in North Yorkshire and have been in business since 2009.

I have been licensing some of my designs to the company for over a year, which includes some of my 'In The Wild' collection and illustrations from my 'Sanigar Lane' card range.

Each design was produced as a pack of 8 small note cards in a presentation box.

These notecards are stocked in many stores across the UK, including the Wildlfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, pictured in the photograph below.

View more of the collection here.

London and Whipsnade Zoo (ZSL)

Working for ZSL London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo was amazing, the first time I had been commissioned specifically to illustrate zoo animals. I was commissioned by the creative buying team and collaborator 'Tinker Tailor' to create a set of zoological illustrations to be used on a collection of metal tree decorations for Christmas.

The set of baubles available included my designs of Penguins, Lions, Zebra and a Peacock. Here are the photos of the products that were available in the Zoo Gift Shops.

Nigel Quiney

I was commissioned to design a 12 piece collection called 'Spirit of Nature' for greeting card publishers Nigel Quiney Publications.

Nigel Quiney Publications is a Specialist Greeting Card Publisher with over 50 years experience in the business and have many beautiful collections in their portfolio.

It was a pleasure to work with the Creative Director who guided the project and I am really pleased to show you some of the illustrations I completed for the collection.

Royal Horticultural Society

The RHS Wisley Gift Shop and Plant Centre flagship store, and Harlow Carr Gardens have stocked a selection of my greeting cards throughout the past year. It has been an absolute pleasure to supply them with my summery greeting cards.

Whilst on a business trip to Harrogate in July I popped along to the beautiful gardens at Harlow Carr to see them on the shelves and enjoy tea and cake at Betty's Tea Room as they celebrated their 100th Anniversary.

The gardens are always a huge inspiration for future designs and I love strolling through the gardens here to see all of the species of flowers and plants and stop to take lots of photos.