Welcome

Drawing and painting have always been in my life. As a child I thought a drawing desk was a piece of bedroom furniture, thanks to my dad who had one in his bedroom for all my childhood.

My formative years were filled with creativity and I picked up a passion for illustration from the influences around me; my parents who both went to Art school, my favourite Dr Seuss and Richard Scarry books, as well as all the other art books and inspiration laying around the house. It was no wonder I wanted to go to Art College!

I went to Bradford College of Art Design and then I went onto an Illustration HND course for 3 years in Lincoln. After leaving Lincoln College of Art and Design in 1989, I found myself with a design job in a small advertising agency, I wasn't there very long before I left and settled into a job with a large greetings card publisher. It was there that my passion for illustration grew, along with my interest in greeting card design.
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Over the years my art style has developed, thanks in part to the forward thinking publishers like Paper D'Art who have encouraged my individuality and have never been afraid to try something new.

My partnership with Paper D'Art (Me&McQ)

started over 20 years ago and we've created some of my favourite images and designs. the Long Legged Santa and the Bringer of Snow are popular to this day 20 years on. 

Paper Engineering has become a big part of my work for Me&McQ  and we've developed a range that I'm very proud of.

Working with a wide variety of greeting card publishers has also helped me develop lots of different styles and I enjoy working with many mediums to create interesting textures and patterns.

I always enjoy the challenge of a new brief and try to start every job with a fresh approach.

Working on children's books has always been a goal of mine since I was a young boy. My dad wrote and illustrated some stories in his younger days that really captured my imagination, sadly they were never published, but the idea of communicating through a picture book really appealed to me. I was influenced by many children books at that time, Maurice Sendak's beautiful "Where The Wild Things Are"  to name but one.

I was given the opportunity to illustrate a children's book in mid 2017 for an American publisher called Carousel Publishing and we've worked on a book just about every year since, I love working on them, it's a very different design process to the greeting card.

There's more scope for character development in a book and that suits the way I work very well. 

I have a few stories of my own rattling around my head and some even written down that I would love to work on, hopefully one day I will find some free time to bring them to life.