Hi! My name is Beth and I’m an Illustrator and Digital Artist from Scotland.
Originally from South Africa, I grew up in the Highlands before moving to Edinburgh in 2015 to study Digital Media and Interaction Design at Edinburgh Napier University. While at University I fell in love with Photoshop and would spend a lot of my free time trying different tutorials and exploring various techniques to create digital art. It was during this time that I won one of Photoshop Creatives monthly challenges (still waiting for my prize Photoshop Creative) and had my art showcased in one of my Universities art shows.
Also while at University I also got the opportunity to work with Disney Research in a group project that involved us creating a way to visualise data in virtual reality. I was in charge of designing the look of the project and creating the assets needed and my group ended up being selected as finalists out of the School of Computing before finishing second.
After graduating in 2019, I decided I wanted to make book covers. I've always been an avid reader and loved the thought of one day creating the artwork for one of my favourite authors books. To build my portfolio I challenged myself to redesign the cover of each book I read and in 2020 I started working freelance part time creating book covers for self published authors.
Up until now all my digital work had been done through photo manipulation on Photoshop and it wasn't until lockdown in 2021, when I suddenly found myself with more free time than I'd had in years, that I decided to focus on learning to draw digitally. I credit the Digital Artists RossDraws, Sinex and lotusbubble for inspiring and teaching me through their online resources during this time.
In late 2022 I decided to launch my own business called Juniper Fox Designs Ltd that was dedicated to creating and selling my own artwork. I'd always been inspired by other makers online who were producing their artwork as various merchandise such as enamel pins, keyrings, etc and wanted to try it out for myself. At this point the art I was making was very realistic and so the first items I created to sell was the Christmas Postcard Collection. While making this collection I had originally wanted to play about with the idea of having a Christmas scene inside a bottle however at the time I couldn't figure out a way to do it justice in the style I was working in.
On the 10th February 2023 my partner died of leukaemia. It was his idea to make the Figaro Collection (he thought there was a good market for it and as always, he was right). It was two weeks after his death that I sat down and drew again for the first time and it was nothing like anything I had created before. It was bold and colourful and simplistic yet still detailed and I think it was what I had been striving to achieve for a long time but hadn't quite known how to get there. That design was the UFO design and from there the Wonders of the World Collection was born.
In April 2023 I applied for a startup grant from the Highland Council and was successful. I used the funds to turn the collection into pins, postcards and vinyl stickers which I now sell on Etsy and my online store.
Now I'm focusing on expanding my collection and range of items to sell. I still continue to create book covers (my dream of creating a cover for one of my favourite authors still not been achieved) and I plan to continue to push myself design wise to really see what I'm capable of.
I credit Matt for supporting me to take my business full time and inspiring me to make the most of every opportunity given to me and ultimately for helping me reach my potential artistically even if you never got to see it for yourself.
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