Hi. I’m Jo and I like illustrating things – any topic really. Which is in the most part the reason for this blog, but you never know, maybe some other things will also happen too!
I grew up in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK – the home of the Crooked Spire. It’s on the edge of the Peak District, which was a really great place to go at the weekend with my family for long walks really early on Sunday mornings (try telling that to a 12 year old me!).
I was always interested in drawing and painting and studied for a degree in Illustration at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside where I graduated with First Class Honours in 2001. Since then I’ve been earning a living as a designer for a local company, but in my spare time I’m still drawing and illustrating lots of different things.
What I’m listening to: AC/DC, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Queens of the Stone Age, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Cribs, Eagles of Death Metal, Nick Drake, LCD Soundsystem.
Lovely films: Amelie, Stranger Than Fiction, Juno, Sonatine, Anchorman, Naked Gun, The Big Lebowski, Tears of the Black Tiger.
Lovely books: Wind Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami in general), The Snapper, The Believers, Join Me, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
murakami rules! i’m reading will self’s “dorian” and have “dorian gray” on deck
Just came across your work. It’s really wonderful–great texture and drawing style!
love the way you illustrate animals and your style overall. very excellent. also, you have great taste in music and movies.
Thanks for visiting my IF submission and browsing my blog.
I’ve long been an advocate of writing what you think. When I draw or doodle, even, I often get in touch with feelings I didn’t realize I had. But writing helps me understand thoughts I have, or feelings I have that were mysterious or opaque or that I thought were just wrong. When it’s in writing (whether published or blogged or never read by anybody else) it has heft and its own TRUTH. I hope you do assign yourself things to write about (doesn’t have to be long… amazing what can happen in 100 words or lelss!!) the way you apparently assign yourself things to illustrate.
Good luck to you and your career.