Illustrator inspired by the Lake District

Amy Whelan, 28, of Cark-in-Cartmel graduated with a degree in illustration from Loughborough University but it was only last month that she decided to leave her day job in order to make it her career.

“I used to work at Queen Katherine School as a learning support assistant and then this year I’ve gone full time as an illustrator,” she said. “It’s been a bit of a struggle trying to illustrate in the evenings as well as working at a full time job so I saved up a bit of money so that I could just go for it.”

Before moving to South Lakeland just over a year ago, Amy’s drawings were inspired by her home in the Peak District. However, now she is working on a collection focused on her new surroundings.

“I am making up collections of greeting cards of areas,” she said. “I have Peak District adventures and now I’m starting the Lake District one which will hopefully be available in spring.”

Describing her style as ‘colourful, humorous, bright and quirky’, Amy also likes to incorporate animals in her designs wherever possible.

“I think it’s easy to get personality and character with animals,” she said. “It’s easier to familiarise with animals than it is with people characters. It’s got more comedy if you’ve got two creatures talking to each other than with people.”

Although taking the plunge as a full-time artist is no mean feat, Amy said that since she left her school job she has completed more cards in the last two weeks than she would have been able to in a year of evenings.

With the Christmas period coming up, Amy will be attending Christmas fairs, such as Holker’s Winter Market as well as working on her Lake District inspired collection – something which she said there is plenty of inspiration for.

“It’s going to be a lot easier than the Peak District really,” she said. “Up here you’ve got the steamer, all the different mountains you can use – there’s endless amounts.”