New Studio, who dis?

At the beginning of 2025 I applied for, and was successful in obtaining, a creative residency at the soon to open Barbican Creative Hub, supported by funding from Arts Council England as part of the University of Lincoln’s National Portfolio Status, in my beautiful home city of Lincoln.

The Barbican Creative Hub is a space to develop your practice, exchange ideas, and make new connections. Their digital resources provide access to events, valuable support programmes, and new opportunities including open calls, jobs and freelance positions, and funding.

I’m one of five creatives to have been awarded a residency here and part of this includes us all having our own studio space to develop our practice.

As part of my residency I’ll be building upon my current path as a children’s book illustrator and expanding upon the research I undertook during my time as a University Lecturer - a little something I called Plan B Comics1 - in order to develop a more authorial approach to the work I do through the creation of an original graphic novel. I’ll also be continuing to spread awareness and information on the subject I love so much - illustration - through the continuation of The School of Illustration.

It’s my intention to use this substack to record and share my time as a creative resident alongside the other content I have previously spoken about, to give an insight into what goes on as part of my residency but also to share my journey as I take the next steps in my career as a children’s book illustrator and storyteller.

I’m currently in the process of setting the studio up and will post pics once everything is in place, but for now why not subscribe and follow the journey.

Thanks for reading and hope you follow along.