This week we had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Maeve Haslett aka @maeve_illustrates as our Artist spotlight of the week.

Hello! Please can you give us a brief little introduction about yourself?

Hi! I'm Maeve and I'm from Belfast, Northern Ireland but currently live in Surrey, England where I am Head of Art at a secondary school. Even though I consider myself an illustrator now, I actually studied Textile Art as my degree, which I completed in 2015. I like to think this is where my love for texture has come from!

I loved drawing when I was in school, but wasn't completely sure what I wanted to study at university so decided to take an Art foundation course. During that year I really enjoyed Textiles so decided to take my degree in Textile Art. I really enjoyed it overall, but in my last year there rediscovered my love for drawing and have been gradually building up a portfolio and working on my style ever since.

Since then I have also become an Art Teacher which I absolutely love. It's amazing being surrounded by other creative people everyday and watching my students create art that I have helped them with is so fulfilling!

What inspires you?

A lot of different things inspire me, but texture and colour would be the main things. I will sometimes create colour palettes in my sketchbook/iPad from different things I see around me and then use those to inspire an illustration or drawing later on! I also get really inspired playing around with different textures on Procreate.

What is your favourite thing to draw?

Definitely animals. No particular type, I just love drawing all kinds of animals!

What art goals do you have for this year?

I really want to make my portfolio as strong as I can this year, drawing as many different characters and scenes as possible. This is a big reason why I joined Friday Doodle Club! I also need to make a website (I can't believe it has taken me this long to make one)

What techniques/supplies do you use?

For final illustrations I usually always use Procreate, sometimes with hand drawn elements and textures. However, I use watercolours and coloured pencils a lot in my sketchbook!

What advice would you give to another doodler/artist?

If you are trying to find your 'style', try and be patient! It will come naturally over time (although I'm sure that is the last thing you want to hear!) A good exercise to help is to practice the same illustration multiple times using lots of different media.

Learn more about Maeve Haslett by visiting:

https://www.instagram.com/maeve_illustrates/

Maeve's Website is Coming Soon!