My father knew I was going to be an artist before I did. He was a massive Leonardo da Vinci fan and heard Da Vinci started by drawing eggs*. So Obviously, he forced me to do the same: I’d study the same egg evening after evening for weeks.  

After eggs, I graduated onto celebrity headshots. Every week my dad would print out a new celeb, draw a tidy grid over top and a matching one on a blank page making me copy square by square. Dad only picked Hollywood A-listers: Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie… It was the 2000s. 

I formalised my studies at Kingston University where I found animation. My graduation short film Tough was BAFTA nominated, won 17 awards including the ITFS FANtastiche Award, Underwire Best Animator Award and RTS National student award, as well as hopping across over 80 international film festivals including Sundance and SXSW.

Were my dad’s teachings integral to my development? I do use the same diligence in my practice today but I don’t learn with eggs and celebs anymore–I set my own curriculum now. I like to learn new mediums: pottery, sculpture, 3D and even improv comedy which all cross-pollinate, evolving my work.

My commissioned work has won awards at Klik! and Motionographer, been nominated at the Emile Awards and screened in festivals internationally including Pictoplasma, Hiroshima, Annecy and more. I have worked with clients such as Netflix & Headspace, XL Recordings, Serial and Yunji.

I love students and have taught or talked at Goldsmiths, Kingston University and Westminster University.

Please do get in touch if you fancy working together.

*

As I was fact-checking I found out Da Vinci never drew eggs and this seems to be a China-specific folk tale.