The AOI’s 2024 Mentorship Scheme
Illustration by Dan WoodgerAOI 2024 Mentorship Scheme
We are delighted to introduce our wonderful mentees, who will be receiving free 1-1 guidance and support throughout this year.
The scheme is designed by illustrators for illustrators and is coordinated by The AOI. There is no cost to take part. Applications were open to all illustrators who are underrepresented in our industry, open to AOI members as well as non-members.
As well as Illustrators, our mentors include agents who are looking to support people underrepresented in the agenting field, either at the early stage of their career, or who are considering moving into being an agent.
We are grateful to all our amazing mentors for sharing their time and expertise so generously with our community. Meet them all here.
Our 2024 Mentees are:
Aislinn F.
Aislinn F. is an illustrator with a passion for working with mixed media, encompassing both digital and physical mediums such as textiles, screen printing, and painting.
Having spent her childhood in various countries, starting from birth in India and eventually settling in Belfast at the age of 14, she underwent a profound cultural transition that led them to grapple with questions of identity and a sense of belonging.
Aislinn F. is mentored by Illustrator Ngadi Smart.
Follow Aislinn F. online:
Website | Instagram
Bruno de Almeida
Bruno de Almeida is a Brazilian illustrator based in Porto, Portugal.
Bruno employs illustration to create diverse images that reinforce diversity and inclusive futures through vibrant, fun, and dynamic characters. His work has been recognized by both public and private institutions across Brazil and Europe.
Bruno is mentored by Agency BA Reps.
Follow Bruno online:
Website | Instagram
Besher Alyoussef
Besh is a Syrian architect/illustrator based in Berlin. Having always enjoyed the medium of digital painting and the way it transforms onto paper, he has been combining his passions for architecture, digital art, and its limitless potential, as well as fine art printmaking. He offers many different colorful interpretations of iconic buildings that aim to capture how they sometimes unintentionally shape and define the places we live in, and our experiences interacting with them or the spaces around them.
Besher is mentored by Illustrator Marcus Marritt.
Follow Besher online:
Website | Instagram
Skye Baker
Skye Baker is an lllustrator and arts educator from Croydon. Her practice centres around play, bright colours and telling stories in her illustrations as well as working with communities and empowering people to tell their own stories in her workshops
Skye is mentored by Illustrator Sean O’Brien.
Follow Skye online:
Website | Instagram
Diana Bobb
Diana Bobb is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer living in Vienna. Since completing her Master‘s studies in MultiMediaArt, she has been particularly focused on illustration. She likes to use bold colours, gestures and body postures to visualise ideas and create surreal image compositions. Her personal work is mostly a reflection of her passion for addressing contemporary issues, amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, and celebrating femininity.
When she‘s not creating, you can find her soaking up inspiration at the theatre and various performance shows, infusing her illustrations with the vibrancy of live art.
Diana is mentored by Illustrator Monsie.
Follow Diana online:
Website | Instagram
Sandra Grbic
Sandra is a Serbian illustrator based in Belgrade, but forever inspired by nostalgia and their lovely hometown of Nova Varosš hidden in pine mountains. Sandra is passionate about creating vividly colored illustrations that have found their place in editorial pieces and advertising, but also transforming their personal experiences and raw emotions into powerful personal projects. They love it when their work talks to and touches anyone who has ever felt different and unseen in a world that discards differences.
Sandra Grbic is mentored by A Human Agency.
Follow Sandra online:
Website | Behance
Yu-Hua Ho
Yu-Hua Ho is a Taiwanese illustrator. She used to work at an animation company for nearly three years. In 2019, she started working as a freelance illustrator. She believes that it is valuable to capture life stories in picture books. In 2021, she collaborated with an author and self-published a children’s book titled ‘Little Goat Gets Lost.’ This experience inspired her to conduct more research about children’s books.
Yu-Hua is mentored by Illustrator Rachelle Panagarry.
Follow Yu-Hua online:
Website | Instagram
Stephanie Jade
Stephanie Jade is an Illustrator, Graphics & Motion Designer born and based in London. Her diverse practice is focused on telling stories in a way that words can’t, through combining bold colours, textures, and typography, to create eye-catching and thought-provoking visual narratives. Stephanie specialises in playful portraiture and lifestyle Illustration, taking inspiration from vintage posters, maximalism, and pop culture.
Stephanie is fortunate to have worked with clients including Harper Collins, Google, Sports Direct, The Arena, Westfield, and Channel 4.0.
Stephanie is mentored by Agency BA Reps.
Follow Stephanie online:
Website | Instagram
River Jiang
River Jiang is a Chinese illustrator currently based in Shanghai. Her artwork combines digital painting with vibrant colors and captivating designs. Inspired by themes such as family relationships, childhood memories, River’s illustrations evoke a sense of wonder and nostalgia. She also has a strong interest in traditional crafts and printing techniques like riso and screen printing, which add depth and texture to her work.
River is mentored by Illustrator Viola Wang.
Follow River online:
Website | Instagram
Sam Jones
Sam Jones is an illustrator from the North of England. She spent much of her childhood travelling the world in rusty cargo ships, always dreaming, always drawing, always telling stories. Her work is playful, narrative-driven and textured, and describes fantastical worlds and everyday magic. She loves vintage children’s books, deadlines and prompts. Her work for longlisted for The World Illustration Awards 2023.
Sam is mentored by Illustrator Rachelle Panagarry.
Follow Sam online:
Website | Instagram
Kennedy Loraine
Kennedy Loraine is an American illustrator currently living abroad in Northern France. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Art History from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Kennedy loves to illustrate the everyday lives of children and their imaginations, and prides herself on creating diverse and underrepresented characters. When Kennedy isn’t drawing, you can find her learning French or trying every buttery croissant in France.
Kennedy is mentored by Illustrator Chanté Timothy.
Follow Kennedy online:
Website | Instagram
Hannah Megee
Hannah Megee is an illustrator, writer, artist and crafter from Devon, UK. Her main passion is books, and she has been writing and illustrating stories since childhood. Her work experiments with hand-made textures, bold colours and cut-out forms. Suffering with chronic pain, Hannah loves nothing more than escaping to strange imaginary worlds and bringing them alive with her illustrations. She is inspired by folklore, nature, 80’s movies, old circuses, 1900s Halloween costumes and masks from around the world.
Hannah is mentored by Illustrator Owen Davey.
Follow Hannah online:
Website | Instagram
Yusra Na’im
Yusra Na’im is a Scottish-Pakistani creative based in Manchester who loves creating lively, textured illustrations bursting with the details of real human stories -from the exciting and mundane, to the unique yet relatable.
Influenced by her art/design background and the intensity of experiencing the world with autism, Yusras work is powered by things that spark connection and the belief that “where words (often!) fail, art speaks.”
Yusra is mentored by Illustrator Matt Murphy.
Follow Yusra online:
Website | Instagram
Mumbi Munyua
Mumbi Munyua is a self-taught illustrator and designer, with a passion for expressing the importance of representation in her work. Her illustrations are texture rich, full of warm and vibrant colours to depict a welcoming feel.
She uses illustration to express her creativity but currently she is exploring her cultural identity through her work to archive Kenyan traditional stories. She draws inspiration from everyday life, nature, movies and travel and her favourite colour combination is purple, orange and green.
Mumbi is mentored by illustrator Kingsley Nebechi.
Follow Mumbi online:
Website | Instagram
Valya Papadopoulou
Valya is a Canadian born independent Illustrator based in Athens, Greece. She is an engineer by trade but decided to make a change in career to illustration after spending many years in the corporate environment. She has a passion for fashion illustration, surface, pattern and packaging design. Her style can be described as whimsical, a combination of vibrant colors, playfulness and elegance, with a love of the feminine form. Her go to medium are mainly watercolors.
Valya is mentored by Illustrator Montana Forbes.
Follow Valya online:
Website | Instagram
Roger Peralta
Roger Peralta is a Nicaragua-based illustrator whose art style can be described as “colorful, yet dark”. His passion lies in greedy narratives with a colorful execution which provide a sense of levity to the strange worlds that lie in his work. Today, he focuses on the area of publication, aiming to bring literary works to life and visually translating editorial pieces.
Roger is mentored by Illustrator Marcus Marritt.
Follow Roger online:
Website | Instagram
Roger Rigol
Roger Rigol is an illustrator that creates his work with vibrant colors, bold patterns, and a sense of freedom. He uses digital illustration to create more finished work but loves to experiment with analogue processes, also dabbling in animation, ceramics and sewing.
Most of his work is about identity, playing with gender and expression in the shapes of bodies, clothes and accessories, as well as exploring everyday and quotidian topics.
Roger is mentored by Illustrator Carina Lindmeier.
Follow Roger online:
Website | Instagram
HyunJin Seo
HyunJin is a versatile South Korean Illustrator and visual facilitator who skillfully utilises illustration as a dynamic storytelling medium, inviting viewers to engage in the process of re-worlding, rediscovering, and reimagining our world.
Her creative practices, anchored in research, writing, illustration, and design, cultivate surreal and metaphoric visual representations, exploring the interplay between nature and society. From impactful editorial illustrations to captivating book and album designs, she showcases her creative prowess in recreating a myriad of narratives and themes.
HyunJin is mentored by Illustrator Laurindo Feliciano.
Follow HyunJin online:
Website | Instagram
Aisha Stoll
Based in England, Aisha began illustrating 4 years ago during her masters degree in Urban Planning and Design. While her interest in the built and natural environment has remained, she has since taken interest in portraiture and people as well as illustrating topics relating to well-being and mental health.
Her scenes are playful but thoughtful, finished in a loose contemporary style. Typically her work is inspired by specific colours or phrases, sketched by hand then finished digitally on her iPad.
Aisha is mentored by Illustrator Ari Liloan.
Follow Aisha online:
Website | Instagram
Carlos Toro
A Chilean illustrator based in San Pedro de la Paz (southern Chile), Carlos blends minimal and detailed styles to craft compelling visual narratives. His background in engineering and science infuses his work with surreal, naturalistic, and sci-tech elements, creating versatile illustrations that adapt from realistic to abstract to meet diverse communicative needs. His use of digital tools skillfully adds depth and dimension to each piece. In his free time, Carlos enjoys traveling to the countryside, embracing a slow living lifestyle
Carlos is mentored by Illustrator Ollie Hirst.
Follow Carlos online:
Behance | Instagram
Jill Tran
Jill Tran is a Saigonese freelance illustrator now based in Brighton, United Kingdom, after a 13-year spell in sunny Singapore.
Jill’s style blooms from her obsession with nostalgia and her deep-rooted influence in Oriental aesthetic ethos. Her work is a reflection of her personal experience and contemporary life commentaries that explore the strong side of femininity, women’s inner voices, and the nuances of emotions.
As a freelance artist, Jill is always eager to take on new commission opportunities.
Jill is mentored by Illustrator Claudine O’Sullivan.
Follow Jill online:
Website | Instagram
How it works
Mentees will have six sessions (online) with their mentor over a 3-6 month period. In the first session they will agree a basic contract, including when they will meet, what is to be achieved, and any challenges to be identified.
Mentees are asked to set up to three goals to achieve during their mentorship. This might be developing a new technique or skills, getting more confident in negotiation, or working in a new area. They don’t have to be world changing- just game changing for each individual.
Mentees will be expected to work on agreed areas between meetings, with tasks to be completed in between meetings.
At the end of the sessions, each mentee will write a short report for the AOI summarising their mentorship and identifying next steps.
PROMOTION: The AOI will share the great work of mentees on our website and social media platforms, offering valuable promotion to the industry.
PEER SUPPORT: We will also create a space for mentees to get to know each other, creating a network which can be helpful at the end of the scheme.
Meet our previous mentees!
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The AOI Mentorship scheme is possible thanks to the support of our members. Find out more about membership today.