MA Illustration student sees her art longlisted for the World Illustration Awards

You have built a successful career with your non-profit studio, Then Try This, and now study MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at Falmouth. What inspired you to pursue creativity and how has your time at Falmouth supported your growth as an artist?

Although art was what I enjoyed most, I wasn't allowed to study it when I was younger, and I was pushed into sciences which led me towards a PhD and having a whole academic career in wildlife conservation genetics. I left that world in 2014 and set up my own non-profit studio where we do all sorts of projects. Many of these are to help people understand, and be more involved with, science and technical research. We do this in lots of ways, such as through making online games and exhibitions, and often there's an element of illustration involved, which I always love.  

I was very lucky to be able to pay for the MA part time through my studio as professional development. Doing so has given me a chance to study something much closer to what I would probably have chosen to do the first-time round.

One of the highlights of studying at Falmouth has to be the print room, which I've completely fallen in love with. I’ve spent most of my time there experimenting with etching, wood engraving and embossing. I've also learned a lot more about digital printing, which will expand what I'm able to offer clients and collaborators through my studio. I'd also never done life drawing before, which has been a huge benefit to my development, because it provided a no-judgement space to play with different approaches and get faster and less precious about drawing.

Later this month, you will be at the Bristol Artist’s Book Event. Can you tell us about your creative project, We Have Mountains to Climb?  

We Have Mountains to Climb is part of my final project for the MA. While in many of my modules I designed projects that linked to my studio work, I allowed myself to go rogue for this one. I've been making three large etchings that tell a personal story of climbing out of trauma. Parts of those big etchings have been combined with smaller ones in a little book that will be available at the Bristol Artist’s Book Event. While I'm used to doing data visualisation and illustration for scientific and technical projects, finding a visual language for expressing personal experiences is far more challenging, so I'm glad to have had the space and time to give it a go.

You’ve worked with clients such as the Natural History Museum, Eden Project and various universities across the UK, such as Oxford University. Can you give us an insight into the work you’ve done for these clients and how your new illustrative skills will support these collaborations?

These are all clients of my studio Then Try This where we do a real mix of things, including building open-source software and open hardware, exhibition design, running workshops and teaching, curating and supporting residencies, etc. Most commonly, this is for citizen science and public engagement projects, and we only ever take on work that fits within quite strict ethical criteria. Sometimes they are projects that we've come up with and got funding for ourselves, and in these cases, we'll often invite researchers as collaborators. Sometimes museums reach out directly for specific installations as part of their exhibitions. In almost every project, we'll need some illustration work, but they aren't specifically illustration projects as such. 

Over the last year on the MA, I've also started to get some clients who are purely interested in illustration work, so I'm excited to see where that goes.  

Explore Amber’s website, Drawings About Things

Discover MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at Falmouth