In 2015, I was lost. Completely and utterly lost. It was the most ridiculous of situations that I had managed to find myself in. In Beijing, with not a word of the local language under my belt, a map that I couldn’t understand and a bag full of unhelpful paraphernalia, I managed to get lost exiting a train station. Yes. A train station. The size of said train station was such a scale that having left it at a completely different exit to the one in which I entered, I may as well have been another district over because there was no way of knowing where I was in relation to where I had started.

After several (terrible) attempts to communicate my confusion to local passerbys, I sat under a tree and pulled out my trusty sketchbook. I spent over an hour lost in my sketches of that tree and the leaves that fell and I was content. Utterly and completely lost, but content.
Fast forward three years, and here I am. Living on the opposite side of the world to my hometown, wandering the Australian landscape in search of pretty leaves, and making a living out of my passion for drawing

I have been making art from the time I was old enough to hold a paintbrush, but I didn’t settle upon illustration as my main medium until I traveled the world solo for six months. ! studied Fine Art and English Literature at university and then went on to train as a teacher. After gaining my qualifications, I decided it was time to see the world, so I packed a single backpack, waved goodbye to my friends and boyfriend (now husband) and wandered wherever my little legs and even littler savings account could take me: China, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, all with my sketchbook in hand, and finally settled in Australia. It was then that I really considered changing my career path from education to illustration.

I was contacted by a number of local businesses in Ocean Grove (where my parents live and where I stayed for the first few months of my Australian adventure) and did a lot of illustration work with these businesses in that time. This was were my journey really began. I set up my own design studio, Twinewood Studio, specialising in illustration and photography, and from there, the opportunities and commissions started to come together. It has grown and developed ever since.

I draw my inspiration from the world around me, particularly the natural world, so traveling is a big part of my life and exploring new places often inspires me. My recent travels around Cornwall and Devon in England inspired a lot of my most recent works that you can on my Instagram; it made me revisit my roots and consider how I see myself as an artist. I am always looking for inspiration and pull references from the delicate flora that surrounds me wherever I go.

Hannah

Where have I seen Hannah’s work before?

Oh yeah. That’s right, Hannah is the amazing artist who designed our tee-shirt range. We love Hannah and the work that she does. So much so that we paid her in cold hard cash to draw for us.

Thanks to Hannah for this delightful guest post. We can’t wait to create more magic with you.