Fantasy Illustrations

Explore my narrative-driven art. The angular style seen in many of my illustrations first took form in etching plates as I explored the mysterious practitioners of joy, harlequins. These oddly dressed, masked and make-up wearing entertainers are a constant in our long history with a prominence in the medieval era. I wondered how it all began, how these "beings" this form and their many guises and bizarre mannerisms prevailed through centuries. They felt otherworldly, as if creatures from a different plain of existence were persistently trying to infiltrate the human world and their strange costumes and movements were an attempt a mimicry to blend in. The angular style was a way to interpret their clockwork rigidity of mimicry and drawing inspiration from medieval paintings helped me explore disproportion as a purposeful tool to portray a non-human air.

This style has travelled with me through watercolour, ink and acrylic, being applied to family members and familiar narratives.