How/where do you find your inspiration?  

I find inspiration in many places. Sometimes just going through my ideas sketchbooks, helps to spark new ideas. I find it really useful to have sketchbooks handy when random ideas pop into my head. Sometimes just typing a word associated with what design or illustration I want to create in Google and searching in images brings up ideas you may not have thought of so I start gathering ideas through those searches. 

What are things you do when you face a creative block?  

I write down word associations or emotions I want to get across with what I would like in my illustrations and designs and compile a list. Sometimes those words spark ideas and become a valuable source for inspiration. I once did a ‘Drawing a Day for 365 Days’ to keep creatively inspired when I had no big projects to work on that year and it really helped keep my passion for creating art alive. I used a Frankie Magazine and a book written by a comedian and each day I would choose one of those books, open a random page and just put my finger on a word and draw it. Using this idea challenged my brain and was a fun way to create sketches and drawings in 15 to 20 minutes. Now I can look back on these 365 drawings which might inspire new art ideas in the future.  

What are mistakes/lessons you’ve encountered as a beginner and have learned from?  

Knowing how the final design will look printed has been a big learning curve over the years helping me to design and illustrate according to where the final image will be seen or what it will be printed on. 

What are your best tips/tricks when working with CorelDRAW?  

I really like to have my scanner/printer beside me to import sketches and ideas that I’ve hand drawn which helps set a base to work on in CorelDRAW. I use my Wacom tablet often but recently have just been ‘drawing’ using the computer mouse which my recent prize winning artwork was ‘drawn’ with. (I have just submitted this artwork to the 2022 Callout Campaign).