Roles
Illustrator
Visual Storyteller
Product Designer
Freelance Collaborator
Illustrator
Visual Storyteller
Product Designer
Freelance Collaborator
Alongside pets, one of my greatest illustration passions is places. I like to create the kind of location art that captures beautiful memories, details and stories.
Over the past four years, I’ve created a growing portfolio of illustrated places for both my own shop and freelance clients, using a blend of brushes and textures in Procreate to bring each scene to life.
It all began with one of my favourite spots in my home city, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, complete with the famous hot air balloons drifting overhead. I created the print as a heartfelt piece to add to my Etsy shop, and it became the first of many location-based illustrations I’d go on to make.
Turning Locations Into Personal Stories
In 2024, a client commissioned me to illustrate every city she’d ever lived in, using the style and colours of the Bristol print. The result was a beautiful set of five A2 framed prints, each one celebrating a place and a chapter of her life.
In 2024, a client commissioned me to illustrate every city she’d ever lived in, using the style and colours of the Bristol print. The result was a beautiful set of five A2 framed prints, each one celebrating a place and a chapter of her life.
We worked together to identify meaningful details for each city:
Leeds featured the West Indian Carnival: with dancers, Caribbean flags, a steel drum band, and a special moment: the client as a child dancing with her Granddad.
Lincoln captured the festive Christmas markets: styled to feel seasonal but timeless.
Cambridge focused on the River Cam: where she spent time punting and relaxing by the water.
Canterbury showed the University of Kent: with her and two friends sat looking over the Cathedral in their graduation gowns.
The result is a series of prints that tells her life story through buildings, events, and small joyful details.
Illustrating for a Local Coffee Shop - Jozi Café
One of the most exciting spin-off projects came from the original Bristol print was a freelance commission to design a full set of wall art for Jozi, a Bristol-based coffee shop inspired by Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jozi’s brand is rooted in community, comfort, and homeliness, with green tones and warm textures. I created:
- A Johannesburg cityscape
- An illustration of their shopfront (which they went on to print on their coffee cups!)
- A coffee menu illustration
- A coffee menu illustration
- A Bristol print to complete the wall set, based on the original, but re-styled to suit the other prints
Each piece was designed to reflect the personality of the café, and customers could buy the prints they liked.
From Coffee Shop Walls to Wedding Gifts
A customer visiting Jozi reached out after seeing my work and asked if I could create a bespoke wedding gift: an illustration of the building where his friends were married, complete with their little tabby cat sitting outside.
It was the perfect brief, architecture and animals, and I loved bringing that personal story to life.
A Different Style - Star Map Prints
Alongside my full-colour illustrations, I also offer a second, more minimal line-drawing style for location-based star map prints on my personalised print shop.
Each one features a meaningful building or scene (such as a wedding venue, a first date location, or a proposal spot) paired with a real star map of the sky on that exact date and time.
The simplified, one-colour line-work draws focus to the stars while still preserving the magic and meaning in the location. These pieces are deeply personal, beautifully giftable, and have become a signature product in my Etsy shop.
Illustrating places is about more than bricks and buildings, it’s about belonging, memory and identity. These projects have taught me how to adapt to different illustration styles, work to scale for both retail and freelance, and tell personal stories through visual details that matter.
Have a place that means something special to you or your audience?
Whether it’s a building, a memory, or a whole city, I’d love to bring it to life.
Whether it’s a building, a memory, or a whole city, I’d love to bring it to life.
