About the Artist

Blackpool born artist, Linzi Howard studied Commercial Illustration at Blackpool School of Arts, UK; she specialises in traditional and digital illustrations that are animal based and child focused. She is a mother of 2, using what little free time she had to create art and involve them with creating stories.

She wants to go into character designing and storyboarding for film and TV, whilst also creating illustrations for children's books, including a colouring book themed to dogs. Her work tends to be fandom focused, usually around what interests she had, such as Constantine or My Little Pony.

Skills & Qualifications

Procreate
Team worker
Organisational Skills
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Story writer
Script writer
Power point
Google Docs
GCSE's: Art, Maths, English, Science
BTEC IT
A Level Graphic Design
Fast typer

Process & Equipment

My creative process usually consists of either drawing traditionally with paper and pencil, then finelining it and using comic markers to colour it, or digitally on Procreate.

To start with, I tend to do thumbnail sketches of the idea I want to do; these are typically done in my physical sketchbook (left), but also do them on Procreate. These are to rough out any poses I have in mind for the final illustration. These are mostly done for bigger pieces in mind.

If I feel my sketches could be better or a certain process would be better digital, I will insert the current sketches into Procreate. I usually pick from the sketches already drawn, but may add more (right).

Sometimes, I will design a few outfits and pick out of the selection which I think fit best for the illustration. In this case (left), I drew out outfits themed for the MET gala for the characters in my illustration. References for styles may be used, such as in the case of the male character's hair and outfit. (Below)

I pick out the outfits I like best and test colours (below) and decide which one I prefer/ fits the characters.

When happy with the colour palette/ outfit choice, I sketch out the final illustration. Once finalised, I will outline with the Syrup pen (Digital) or a 0.5 Fineliner (traditional). If I feel confident enough, I draw out a background, but in the case of the MET Gala illustration (below), I ended up using an image from the gala so it looked as if they were actually there.

I don't always do shading as I don't feel I am good at it, but when I do, it is usually cell shading. This was done on the MET gala illustration also (right).