Step one: wake up, put on snazzy socks. As you can see, the ones I am wearing today have fuzzy polar bears on. Disapproving dog does not understand why we are awake at 6am nor why I am taking pictures of her next to my feet.

I leave the house while still half-asleep and stumble to the train station. I split my time between freelancing and teaching printmaking at a local University – this morning I am in teaching a class called ‘introduction to monoprint’ so I have to catch a train to work and hope that there aren’t leaves on the track causing unforeseen delays (who knew leaves could cause so much chaos?).

After a delightful commute where I sit next to someone eating a tuna sandwich for breakfast (why?) I arrive at work and set up for my class while trying not to get ink on my new jumper (which inevitably happens anyway).

Part of my class this morning involves showing students how to make registration sheets for their monoprints. I use this opportunity as an excuse to draw dogs while my students look on pityingly at the crazy dog lady before them.

After my class I go down to my office to start preparing for a print fair we will be attending with our students in a few weeks. When I get down there, my colleague shows me these amazing rosettes that a member of the Fashion Department has made for our students to wear at their print fair! They are snazzy and I want to steal one (but I resist, because I am a good egg).

After I leave work, I head home and start working on some sketches! Today i’m working on my illustration for The Pretty Picture Club, an international illustration studio/collective that i’m part of. As well as our normal freelance work each month we set a theme and a limited colour palette, then we all produce an illustration around the theme. This month’s theme is ‘creature comforts’. You can check out what we do at www.prettypicture.club

I spend the rest of the afternoon and evening working at my desk in my spare room. After i’ve come up with my initial idea for this month’s Pretty Picture Club theme, I work into it using my iPad and Procreate. I’ve only just switched over from a Cintiq to an iPad and i’m still getting used to it, but so far i’m really enjoying the freedom that it gives me (and by ‘freedom’ I really mean that I can be lazy and draw from the comfort of my sofa)

Beanz Meanz Heinz! My partner is working late tonight so I cook myself a hearty meal of beans on toast. My friend and fellow Pretty Picture Club member, Nicole Cmar is from Pittsburgh where Heinz is from so I took this picture in her honour. (She also makes awesome illustrations, you can check her work out at http://www.nicolecmar.com/)

After eating far too much dinner, I drag myself upstairs and start packing up all my work for an art fair i’m selling at this weekend. This is one of those jobs that I hate doing but alas, I am a one-man-band and therefore sometimes you have to be willing to play the triangle.

Once i’ve packed everything up for the fair, I spend the rest of my evening lounging in front of the fire with my dogs. I inevitably fall asleep on the sofa and wake up confused and disheveled when my partner gets home. Being an illustrator is very hard work but someone’s got to do it.