The Art of Breaking In: Real Talk with Early Career Illustrators – Part 1
With the launch of our new U25 membership, we are excited to spotlight six AOI Members aged 25 and under.
We asked them some questions to understand their path into illustration, their experience navigating the industry to date, and their advice for those treading a similar path.
In the first part of this feature, we start by meeting the illustrators and find out more about the challenges and excitements they have encountered during the start of their careers.
Meet the Members
Phoebe Dee is a freelance illustrator and tattoo apprentice based between her home studio in Bristol and Haus of Ode Tattoo Studio in Weston-Super-Mare. She graduated from Falmouth University in 2023 with a BA in Illustration and opened her online shop, Patreon service and commission work soon after.
Ben Saunders is a queer, trans masc artist, whose work often focuses on the trans body, intimacy and pleasure. Ben’s work is largely based in illustration and ceramics, however a large element of his practice also centres around exhibitions, event curation, and workshop facilitation. Ben established both his business and Manchester Queer Art Market, of which he is a co-founder, whilst studying at Manchester School of Art, graduating in 2024.
Tosin Akinkunmi is a self-taught illustrator and comic artist based out of London, working mostly in publishing and on character focussed work. They studied History, and got their first professional commission in the final year of their degree after their Instagram attracted attention, and that trend continued to follow. They have since got an agent and been working as a self-employed illustrator for around three years now.
Shri Gunasekara is a mixed-race queer illustrator who loves telling stories about wholesome, heartwarming depictions of familial or platonic relationship dynamics. She studied at the Arts University of Plymouth, graduating in 2022, and has been part-time freelancing since.
Genevieve Aspinall is an illustrator based in Lancashire, working primarily in gouache and pencil crayon. She studied BA Illustration and MA Children’s Book Illustration at University of Central Lancashire, Preston and has been working freelance as an illustrator since the third year of her degree. Her first commission was a children’s picture book, and since then she has written and illustrated her own picture book, painted murals and sells her own prints and cards on her website.
Lauren Kelso is a freelance illustrator based in Northern Ireland. In 2018, she completed her Foundation Course at Ulster University Belfast School of Art before specialising in Illustration as part of her degree course. Lauren completed an Enterprise Placement Year during her degree, which gave her the opportunity to experiment with new materials and create a body of work she loved. She has won numerous awards since, and worked with clients including Galgorm Resort, Ulster Orchestra, Lines & Current Jewellery and Digg Deep for Kids Charity, among others. She runs an online shop and attends markets and events, alongside her freelance work.
From winning awards to securing dream commissions, and being able to work as an artist full-time, these six illustrators have already achieved some fantastic milestones.
We hear more about their career highlights to date.
For Phoebe Dee, one of her favourite commissions so far was earlier this year, with YouTube Channel ‘People Make Games’, where she was invited to draw prints for three of her favourite video games – Dave the Diver, Undertale and Kirby. She says: “I am a big lover of films and games so it is always so exciting when I get opportunities to support myself by drawing what I love.”
Shri Gunasekara also achieved a dream commission in getting published: “I worked with Third Bear Press in creating one of the short comics in Boxes Vol 2 Anthology. I’ve been working toward getting published for years, so it was great to be able to achieve that”.
Genevieve Aspinall was longlisted for the World Illustration Awards, the Klaus Flugge Prize, and nominated for the Carnegie Medal in 2022, she says: “it was really encouraging for my work to be recognised by these awards and not something I expected at all!”. She has also loved seeing her book on bookshelves: “to have my work in bookshops I’ve visited all my life is always really surreal to see and so exciting.”
Lauren also won several awards early on, including being selected as the Overall Student Winner of the FIDA Fashion Awards, the winner of the Ulster Orchestra Live Competition, and one of the winners of the Rush Digital Prize.
Today, she is enjoying the day to day of being a working illustrator and celebrating each step along the way: “When I reflect, I can see how things have developed and I’m really thankful for each step in the journey. I specifically love working with clients, bringing their visions to life and I also enjoy hearing how customers have prints they’ve bought from me displayed in their homes. It’s really special to be able to create emotion through illustration.”
For Tosin, a career highlight was being commissioned by the Tate Collective for Black History Month in 2021: “I had just finished university and was diving headfirst into my career despite not really knowing which way was up; being contacted because they liked my work was incredibly validating and consolidated my belief in my career choice!” More recently, they also enjoyed being a panelist for the V&A Youth Collective’s Career Insights event in May 2024:
Being a panelist for the V&A Youth collective’s Career Insights event in May of 2024 was similarly validating. As a self-taught artist with no prior background in the arts sometimes has made me feel a bit unsure about existing in artistic spaces, but this event helped dissuade that (sometimes stubborn) belief!
Tosin Akinkunmi
Ben highlights that it can be hard to take a moment to actually celebrate wins and achievements – but it is something he is aiming to prioritise doing more: “I often struggle to acknowledge and take a moment to celebrate the wins and achievements, but this is actually at the top of my goals for 2025”.
He too is enjoying the day to day and his biggest highlight is being able to work as an artist full-time after graduating: “That felt like an unmanageable and unfathomable thing for me for a long time, but I worked really hard during university to build my practice and grow my business and I’m so proud of myself for making it happen, and I think I should actually celebrate that a little bit more than I do”.
We know that no illustration career is built overnight and it takes a lot of hard work to achieve these accomplishments.
We asked about some of the ways they worked to establish their careers when first getting started.
For Phoebe and Tosin, social media proved to be a fantastic tool, for community, creative freedom and to fight perfectionism.
Phoebe says: “Social media has been an amazing way for me to connect to other artists and feel part of a community of illustrators, as well as supportive people from around the world who enjoy watching my process of making art.”
Tosin adds: “One of my first major clients reached out to me because they saw my work on Instagram, and that commission snowballed into a great many others. Additionally, learning not to be so perfectionist was crucial to establishing my career because, in rejecting perfectionism I engaged with social media more – showing the behind the scenes of my process and works in progress […] I found that engaged people which led to a boost in my socials and ultimately more clients. Sometimes, you have to get out of your own way and put yourself out there, no matter how daunting!”
Ben cites his ADHD as a strength, allowing him to try out different projects without feeling held back by fear: “As someone who is neurodivergent, having ADHD often means I get very excited about projects and ideas and how I can make something happen and I think that can often be used as a strength. This meant whilst I was building up my practice I would often try things and give things a go and not get held back by the what ifs that could have prevented me from starting something really good and important.”
I think one of the most important things to remember as a creative is that no one fully knows what they’re doing when they start out and everyone is on a bit of a learning curve and figuring things out as they go and that’s completely okay.
Ben Saunders
For Genevieve, self-promotion was key, and something she found beneficial in a number of ways: “To establish my career over the years, I have regularly sent out postcards and emails to publishers and commissioners as part of self promotion. This has also included updating my online portfolio regularly with new work and keeping my Instagram up to date. I also find it really helpful for myself too, as it helps me visualise any areas I need to add to in my portfolio and new topics I could explore in my work.”
Lauren agrees that putting yourself and your work out there is really important: “I believe networking is very important when it comes to building your career and I learnt more about this during my EPY placement before Final Year.”
For Shri, making work that she loves, and being open to different commissions even if they are not in the same specific field she is aiming towards, has been her main focus. She adds: “I am also always trying to push into the direction I want to go, even if it’s not quite what I want to do for an end goal. I’ve been working with a lot of local libraries, doing workshops for events, although I don’t particularly want to build a career in professional workshops, this still is pushing in the direction of my goals of working in publishing”.
We know that there can often be challenges to building a career as a freelance illustrator.
What are some of the challenges these illustrators faced, and how did they overcome them?
For many, a common challenge was navigating the business side of illustration, whether around contracts, negotiation or pricing their work.
For Phoebe: “I have had to learn about running a small business in the UK from scratch, and it can be hard to find good information at first. So, it took a long time before my process for selling and shipping art, and all the admin that comes with it, became more manageable.”
Genevieve found that with practise and the help of the AOI, her confidence increased: “I have found setting up contracts and negotiating to sometimes be challenging, however with the help of the AOI Helpdesk and my membership, I have been able to successfully navigate this and have learned how to do this, meaning I now have more confidence in how to approach these situations.”
Navigating the ebbs and flows of an illustration career, and managing long-term goals alongside short-term priorities, was also a commonly felt challenge.
Shri said: “It’s been really challenging to balance long-form projects versus consistent portfolio and social media updates. When you work on a lot of long-form projects such as pitches or books it can be hard to show what you’ve been up to on your portfolio and social media”.
This is a challenge she is still working on, but has found having multiple projects on the go as something that works well for her: “I try and have two projects on the go at a time, one short-term one I can quickly do, as well as a long-term project, I work best this way too as I can bounce between the projects when needed.”
Time management is also an obstacle I am still learning to overcome – it can be stressful learning to cope with having too little or too much work, and it takes a lot of structure and care to be able to roll with the punches.
Phoebe Dee
For Tosin, some of the challenges were unique to their experience as a self-taught illustrator: “Networking has always been especially difficult, especially when you don’t have natural access to artistic spaces. I did a history degree and coming from a family of doctors meant that I’m really the only creative person I know and have been around”.
They found social media to be a good help: “Finding and meeting artists through social media really has helped and being able to later meet up with those people helped consolidate a network of artists and creatives I’ve found I can lean on and mutually support.”
Similarly, Ben found some challenges navigating the industry from his position as a queer artist. Using social media can sometimes be difficult he found, as posts often get removed or shadow-banned due to their content: “This is an ongoing challenge that so many queer artists and small businesses are navigating and finding ways to work around”.
Another challenge was understanding where his work could fit in. However, he has worked hard to create a space for himself and other artists in a similar position: “This was one of the main reasons why we actually established Manchester Queer Art Market, to provide a space where queer artists can sell their work and receive a positive response and not face judgemental looks or comments. We also felt it was an important space to create to give queer artists the opportunity to generate as many sales as other artists at other more general art markets do, as the demographic and target market at these events suits queer artists’ work.”
For Lauren, though she experienced challenges, she found she was able to actively source support from organisations like her university and the AOI, and would recommend building your own support network:
“There have been many key people who have really helped support and guide me throughout my journey as an Illustrator which I really appreciate. I’ve also found that making connections with other creatives and Illustrators is hugely beneficial as you can talk, support and encourage each other through the challenges. Having a support network is really helpful through these times.”
Catch up with the second part of this feature, where we talk more to Phoebe, Ben, Tosin, Shri, Genevieve and Lauren.
We find out how they have used their AOI Membership, what goals they are working towards, and what advice they wish they had known when first getting started (and that they’d love to share with others).
Are you 25 or under? Meet us half way with our new U25 Membership, getting access to our direct support in your illustration career at 50% off the Illustrator Membership price.
Take advantage and join today. Offer until 19th May 2025
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