How I work
From a complicated subject to a clear drawing
Most of my projects start with something more complicated than it first appears: a site with layers of history, a piece of research, a place that means different things to different people. This page explains how I approach that, and answers the practical questions people usually ask before commissioning.
The process
Five stages, with your feedback built in between them. Most projects are complete within three rounds of revisions.
1. Research and discovery
We start with a conversation, usually online, about your objectives, your audience and the key messages. Then I read around the subject and gather visual references, so that I understand the wider context and the layers of interpretation the work needs to carry.
2. Ideas and pencil roughs
I develop rough compositions to agree the direction, tone and structure before any final artwork begins. The roughs are always pencil drawings: the point of this stage is to agree the ideas and, where it matters, the composition.
3. Final artwork
Once the roughs are approved, I create the final illustrations. Sometimes I share line drawings before adding colour and texture, but usually that is not necessary.
4. Application
The illustrations are fitted to the formats they are for, such as panels, maps, publications or promotional materials, and shared for approval.
5. File delivery
Final assets are prepared for print or digital use, checked for technical accuracy, and supplied so that they are easy for you, your designer or your printer to use.
Research and accuracy
Illustration for interpretation has to be right before it can be charming. I work from the sources you can share (archive images, site plans, collection records, research papers) and from my own reading and visual research. Where a subject needs specialist knowledge, the most useful thing is a named person on your side who can check the roughs.
Every project reaches a point where the evidence runs out: how someone looked, what a building was used for, what an activity involved. For Oxford Health Histories, some people could be drawn from reference, while others, like Anne Green, had to be imagined because very little is known about their appearance. For the Iron Age activity illustrations, each scene followed research into how that task may have been carried out at the time.
I would rather make those decisions openly with you than hide them in the drawing. Sometimes that means a clearly imagined figure, sometimes a simplified silhouette, and sometimes a line in the caption explaining what is known and what is reconstructed.
Working with curators, academics and production teams
My clients are usually small teams with a lot of other people involved: curators, learning and interpretation officers, academics, trustees, funders, designers and fabricators. A few habits make that easier.
Sign-off where it is cheap to change things
The pencil roughs are the right moment for subject experts to comment on content, before the artwork is coloured and detailed.
Approval rounds in the timeline
If your organisation needs a committee, a trustee meeting or a funder to approve the work, tell me at the start and we will plan the schedule around it.
Artwork that others can use
On projects such as Hughenden Manor and Dive In at the Museum of Oxford, illustrations were supplied as separate assets so they could be used across panels, posters, social media and digital channels.
Design as well as drawing
I also do graphic design and layout, so I can take a project through to print-ready panels, leaflets or publications, or work alongside your designer if you have one.
Accessibility and legibility
Interpretation is read standing up, in changing light, by people of every age, with different levels of sight and of reading confidence, and sometimes in more than one language. That affects the drawing as much as the text.
Size and distance
Labels, keys and details are drawn for the size and viewing distance of the final panel or leaflet, not for a screen.
Contrast and colour
Important information should not depend on colour alone; map keys can use shape and pattern as well, and text sits on calm, high-contrast areas.
Clarity before detail
On a map, the route and the things people need to find come first, and the decorative detail second.
More than one language
The educational coastline map for Aberystwyth University was produced in Welsh, Irish and English, so the artwork had to leave room for labels in each.
Digital use
For websites, I can supply short descriptions of each illustration to use as alt text.
If your organisation follows specific guidance on accessible interpretation, send it at the start and the work will be planned around it.
Files, licensing and budgets
Which files and formats will we receive?
The formats the job needs, agreed at the proposal stage, because they depend on who will use the files: a printer, an exhibition fabricator, a web developer or your own marketing team.
- Print and fabrication: high-resolution, print-ready files at the final size, such as PDF or TIFF, with bleed where your printer needs it.
- Vector artwork: EPS or SVG where the artwork or lettering needs to scale, for example for signage or large panels.
- Digital use: web-ready PNG, JPG or SVG files sized for websites, social media and presentations.
- Individual assets: characters, objects or buildings supplied as separate files so they can be reused.
- Layered files: available when agreed in advance.
Who owns the copyright, and how can we reuse the illustrations?
As is standard for commissioned illustration in the UK, the fee covers a licence to use the artwork for agreed purposes, and the copyright normally stays with the illustrator. The proposal sets out what the licence covers: where the work will appear, for how long, and whether it includes merchandise or other products.
It is worth thinking about reuse at the start. A visitor map might later become a postcard or a souvenir print; an exhibition poster might be reused for a touring version. Including those uses at the outset is usually simpler and better value, but a licence can also be extended later. The window illustration for Arts at the Old Fire Station was re-licensed for a sign and an A5 leaflet.
How much does it cost?
The fee depends on the scale and complexity of the work, the amount of research involved and how the illustrations will be used. A set of drawings for a temporary exhibition is priced differently from artwork that will be used for many years. After our first conversation I send a tailored proposal, and I work with small organisations as well as larger institutions.
How long does a project take?
A small commission such as a single character or mascot may take around two weeks. A full set of illustrations for an exhibition, a website or a publication takes several weeks. Maps need a few weeks even when they are simple. The proposal includes a timeline with the dates when feedback is needed.
We are working towards a funding application or a fixed opening date. Can you help?
Tell me in your first message. It is often possible to plan the work in phases, for example starting with a map and adding interpretation drawings later, as happened at Kelmscott Manor.
Do I need a finished brief before getting in touch?
No. Many projects start with a rough idea and a deadline. Part of my job is helping you work out what the illustration needs to do, and the brief can take shape in our first conversation.
Do you work outside Oxfordshire?
Yes. I work with clients across the UK, and recent projects have covered places in Wales, Cornwall, Norfolk and Scotland. Most meetings happen online, and site visits can be arranged where they help.
Get in touch
Ready for a chat?
Tell me a little bit about your project and we can take it from there.
