About
Hi! I’m Kate – the artist behind all of the different designs you will see on this website. Let me tell you the story of how I discovered that I needed to pursue art as a career in order to remain happy in life.
For as long as I can remember, I have been drawing.
I persisted with art throughout every school year. Any opportunity I got, I was doodling. I would skip lunch breaks to draw in the art room through my later years of high school, because I was so invested in what I was working on.
However, I didn’t study art straight after finishing school. Mostly because I didn’t know what to do with my talent – what jobs suited my skills? Unfortunately, school didn’t show me any clear career paths. During this time, I became more and more unmotivated to draw, as my skills stopped progressing. Everything I did felt the same, with no improvement.
I had this profound realisation that I had been standing still for years, after re-drawing a portrait of one of my original characters. The two artworks were four years apart, but they were almost identical in technical skill. This was the breakthrough moment to take the next step in my art journey.
I enrolled into an Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design, specialising in Illustration. I chose the Graphic Design course in hopes of getting into the creative industry on a broader level, instead of just the niche character drawings I was into at the time. The Illustration part of the course was a great way for me to continue progressing my creative skills. This is where I learnt to paint digitally.
This was one of the best decisions I had ever made, not just in my career choices, but my life as a whole. I learnt so many valuable skills during my study time, and I will treasure all of the memories made for the rest of my life. That chapter played an important part in where I am today, and I look forward to what awaits me in the future.
– Kate
Chasm
This is the character that brought me to the realisation that I had been standing still for years. These 2 drawings are 4 years apart, 2012 – 2016. Disappointment hit me like a wave when I realised this represented 4 years of my drawing progress. I knew I needed more practise and skills to improve my art, and so I went to pursue the Illustration course. I knew I would never be happy if I didn’t pursue art more seriously.
This is where the 2020 iteration comes in, 4 years after that epiphany, after learning those critical skills and making it my own. I was so incredibly proud of that piece, but now looking back at it, I can see so many things that I would change and do differently, because of the immense amount of progress that I have made since then. My style and processes have changed quite a few times in the last 4 years. I now choose to paint in greyscale first, and then put colour over the top. I feel that this gives more of a realistic feeling, rather than the vibrant, oversaturated feeling that my earlier paintings gave.
Here we are in 2024 (a little earlier in the year than the others). I took the sketch and adjusted it, fixing proportions and changing some details. I’m so incredibly happy with the outcome of this piece. I have truly found my art style and process. My love for portraiture is stronger than ever after spending the last year or so tackling more intricate, half/full body pieces. I’m more excited than ever about my art journey. I look forward to taking these skills into more pieces, and continuing to explore my characters and fantasy world.