I have been drawing for as long as I have been walking. I was the kind of kid that was excited when it rained at playtime, because I didn't have to go outside, I could just sit at my desk and draw.

My love of art carried on through my Art and Textiles A levels, and into a Fine Art degree course. Then one day it just stopped. I realised things felt stale and I wasn't inspired anymore. So I left uni. After this, I drifted along, drawing occasionally, and getting more and more frustrated that it wasn't coming naturally anymore. I would have a go every couple of months, and be disappointed with the results.

One day, about a year ago, my partner read me a paragraph from a book about a tattoo artist, which said she always did a little drawing every day, however simple, to keep her eye and her hand in practice. And that was that. I started doing a little sketch every evening, until I got better and better and it began flowing again. The inspiration and love of art had returned!

One day, a friend asked if she could pay me to draw her cat. After this, friends of hers, colleagues, friends of friends all jumped on the bandwagon, and before I knew it, I was a working artist, drawing peoples lovely pets, and getting paid! I couldn't believe it! I have never looked back :-)

I am now doing several pieces a week, and I love experimenting with new materials. My biggest, most exciting discovery has been chalk markers (the things that pubs use to write the menu on the chalk boards!). I realised that I could draw with these, and manipulate them by scrubbing with a toothbrush to give a chalky, smudgy, vibrant finish. Then I refine the piece with crayons, markers and tippex for the highlights. This is how most of my animal pieces are done. It allows me exaggerate the colours, and bring out blues in a fox's tangerine fur, and the red in a raven's feathers.

Currently, I am playing with water-colour, and working over it with biro and my old trusted friend, the tippex pen.

Thanks for reading my story, I hope you like my artwork. If there is anything else you would like to know, please drop me a message, I would love to hear from you.