Martin is a Bristol-based illustrator and character designer.
Martin is a Bristol-based illustrator and character designer.
I am currently developing characters and a story for a self-authored and illustrated children's picture book starring a pirate octopus named Otto. The book will feature hand drawn and painted artwork and a funny story about adventure, friendship and fun! This book is a work in development but some concepts can be seen on my website here: https://www.twine.net/signin
I was thrilled to be invited to contribute to the “Toilet Time” project at Mr B’s independent bookshop in Bath, UK. Along with many other published children’s book illustrators, I contributed a tile with a cartoon design for permanent display in their toilet.
In 2024, I was commissioned to visualise the core values of Cadbury Heath Primary School and went on a collaborative illustration journey to create new characters to be depicted throughout the school!
The school’s core “HEART” values are:
Honesty
Empathy
Ambition
Resilience
Teamwork
My creative journey to represent these values began with a cast of fun animal characters that best represented these qualities, along with inspirational relevant quotes. In collaboration with the school Principal and through workshops with the children, we eventually came up with the idea of a pair of squirrels. My challenge was to develop these characters and find ways to depict them clearly demonstrating each core value as a single illustration.
The finished illustrations were printed and exhibited around the school and on classroom achievement boards.
From 2021 to 2022 I collaborated with Bibado on the Dawn the Dawn the Dinosaur™ project. Rachel Wood and I co-wrote the story and I developed characters, storyboards, the visual look, the lift-flap designs and the front and rear cover designs and layouts. I prepared the book layouts for publishing and I also collaborated on the design of the award-winning Dawn the Dinosaur™ teether which was sold in conjunction with the book. This project demonstrates my ability to work collaboratively with authors and publishers while keeping the needs of children firmly at the heart of my work. I used illustration to support storytelling, emotional engagement and readability. https://www.twine.net/signin characterdesign childrensbookillustration illustrator toydesign illustration collaboration
In the early days of Covid lockdown in 2020, I was approached by Julie Iribarren, a Florida-based author who sought an illustrator to collaborate on her new project. What followed was an emotional, creatively rewarding transatlantic labour of love to bring her vision to life! My work with author Julie Iribarren on Levi Journey: An Unlikely Therapy Dog was a close creative collaboration focused on telling an emotionally resonant story for young readers: the moving true story of Levi, a rescue Golden Retriever who became a therapy dog. Although Julie is based in Florida and I’m in the UK, we were able to work closely to shape both the narrative and its visual storytelling. From the earliest stages, I considered how illustrations could carry emotion and clarify meaning and support key story beats. Together, we made the decision to tell the story in Levi’s own voice, a shift that brought warmth, humour, and accessibility to the text and helped guide the tone and expression of the artwork. I approached the illustrations with a strong awareness of picture-book structure, developing character designs, page sketches, and full layouts that balanced text, image, and pacing. Working directly with the publisher, I helped refine layout, typography, and image placement to ensure clarity and consistency for young readers. This project demonstrates my ability to work collaboratively with authors and publishers while keeping the needs of children firmly at the heart of the book, using illustration to support storytelling, emotional engagement, and readability. https://www.twine.net/signin characterdesign childrensbookillustration illustrator toydesign illustration collaboration
Responsible for the commercial and operational management of the company's regional markets and events programme, delivering approximately 400 events annually and managing a team of 15 freelance staff across markets, festivals and promotional events. Lead responsibility for event planning and logistics, including staffing, stock ordering, equipment management, operational planning, contractor recruitment and training, payroll approval, sales reporting, customer service and compliance. Manage a revenue stream averaging £275K per year, including leadership of the company's flagship presence at Bath Christmas Market. Conceived, developed and co-hosted a sold-out cheese and wine masterclass at Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival in collaboration with Woodchester Valley Vineyard. Engaged an audience of 100 guests through an entertaining and informative presentation, showcasing three flagship cheeses expertly paired with English wines while sharing the history, heritage and craftsmanship behind the business and its products. Developed new customer engagement initiatives including farm tours and cheese pairing events with local wine and brewery partners. Contributed to brand development through packaging and logo design alongside customer-facing promotional activities.
An experience multi-media illustrator with a varied freelance career. Highlights include: Illustrating "Levi Journey: An Unlikely Therapy Dog" during lockdown. I collaborated with new American author Julie Iribarren on her debut children's picture book, developing characters, selecting significant narrative moments to illustrate, refining the illustrations and digitally painting the final designs. I worked closely with the publishers on page and illustration layout and developed the front and rear cover design and the "blurb" on the back of the book. Illustrating and co-authoring a lift flap children's book "Dawn's First Tooth" in collaboration with baby goods firm Bibado in 2021-2022. Along with co-author Rachel Wood, I developed the story and rhymes, storyboarded the book, selected key points for illustration and the lift flap moments and designed a cute cast of dinosaur characters. The main character, Dawn the Dinosaur, was further developed into an award-winning teething toy with my input and was sold along with the book and baby bibs adorned with line art of my characters. Artwork to accompany a Primary School project to illustrate the school's "HEART" values (Honesty, Empathy, Ambition, Resilience and Teamwork) with newly developed cartoon squirrel characters. Logo design for companies such as Hettie Hen Scotch Eggs Countless private commissions - bespoke illustrations and character-led commissions, always working collaboratively with the client to ensure the final artwork feels personal, engaging and fun. These "cartoon portraits" of people, their pets and their hobbies are typically used as wedding and anniversary gifts, birthday gifts, commemorations and other celebrations. I am an experienced workshop leader and regularly delivers illustration workshops for primary schools. These range from whole-school assemblies about art and illustration, to hands-on classroom sessions drawing characters, animals and imaginary worlds, as well as multi-day Art Week events, World Book Day workshops and after-school art clubs.
Selected to join Bristol School of Animation's 3 month intensive summer training course learning the techniques or 2D animation
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