Okay, so, first things first.

Hi there, I’m Lauren Kelly – you can call me Lauren – and it’s nice to meet you!

Mostly, I am a person who is so unbelievably in love with drawing – characters specifically – that I have to actively remember to stop, put the pencil/pen/tablet down and go to bed already.  This happens around five nights a week, give or take, and I am good friends with 3am by now.

What really gets me about drawing are characters. Character design is my biggest passion, and goes hand in hand with my love for storytelling. Before deciding to go into an illustration degree, I had originally planned to go into an English Language or Literature, or Creative Writing degree and studied all three of these subjects during college. This has left me with skills that I use to create interesting, well-developed characters.

This storytelling is something that comes across in my non-character work as well. I enjoy creating worlds and spaces and love sharing them with other people!

My biggest personal project currently is something currently called ‘A Ragtag Roadtrip’ which has been lovingly crafted from scratch, an entire fantasy world and culture and characters. I hope to be able to share some of this soon.

Other than this, I have done a little bit of work here and there for charities such as Parkinson’s Equip and Step Out Stockport. I have entered competitions such as Pan Macmillan’s 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland redesign, have competed to create a mural for NHS’s Stepping Hill hospital, and have collaborated with Manchester Metropolitan University’s creative writing course and illustrated a short story called Bayroot which was published in 2014. I have also done some freelance work, my favourite so far being a pet portrait of a dog named Deano (which his owner cried over!).