Hi, I’m Hannah, a freelance illustrator based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. I love drawing and creating fun characters to make people smile. My work has been used across a variety of areas from children’s publishing to wall murals, licensing designs, to window art. I’m happiest when I’m drawing and I’m always excited by my next creative challenge.

My love of drawing led me to complete art GCSE and A level. I continued my studies by completing an Art Foundation course and then a degree in Graphic Communication and Illustration at Loughborough University. After graduating in 2018, I set up my own business as a freelance illustrator. Since then my work has been used across a range of areas. Between 2019 to 2021 I was a mentee on the Pathways into Children’s Publishing Programme, where I made more industry contacts and refined my skills within the children’s publishing market. It was during my time as a mentee on the Pathways Programme that I received my first large picture book publishing commissions. Since completing Pathways I have continued working on commissioned jobs and building my art licensing portfolio.

I’d like to be considered for creative opportunities from publishers, businesses and organisations based both locally and further afield. I would be interested in working on more picture books and young fiction titles with publishers. I also love to write my own stories so one day I would love to see my author illustrator picture book Pedro the Pufferfish offered a book deal. I hope to develop my art licensing portfolio further and get more of my work and products into retailers. I have also previously painted a wall mural which was fantastic fun. I would love to paint some more murals and large scale artworks. I would love to paint some more window art too. My work is strongly character based and I really enjoy bringing a sense of fun and playfulness to a variety of products and places through my illustrations. I’m always excited by my next creative challenge, so whether you have a project in mind, or just want to chat through some ideas, it would be a pleasure to hear from you.

At school, I won a competition to design a rollercoaster and I got to take my whole class to Alton Towers! This was one of my first successes in the world of art/design and it still makes me feel so happy that my design was chosen.

One of my proudest moments in my career was working with Scholastic on two picture books Somebody Crunched Colin, and Somebody Woke Wilson, written by Sarah Roberts. I illustrated both of these stories and its such a special feeling holding the printed book. It also brings me so much joy to see children enjoying the books. Working as an illustrator is a very competitive area to work in, so even the small jobs and little opportunities make me so happy and grateful to be able to do what I love.

I would love to work with a large publisher on my author illustrator picture book Pedro the Pufferfish. It would be a wonderful opportunity to bring my story and artwork to the world in this way. I also hope that my story may go on to have merchandise and an animation made of it too! Also, as a young child I was very inspired by Disney theme parks so it’s still a big dream of mine to do some imagineering for Disney. It would be such an honour to work for a company that has inspired me so much!

When I think of Wakefield I think of how down to earth and friendly the people are. There is a lovely sense of community, especially among the city’s creatives. So many local artists are hard working and ambitious and this in turn encourages me.