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Meet Sophie Minto Illustration, an illustrator with a fondness for the great outdoors.
SoLo Craft Fair sits down with Sophie to discuss how she creates each piece of unique artwork and the challenges facing a new, small business.
“I am a freelance illustrator currently living in South West England. My work represents a deep fascination with the outdoors and nature, often inspired by travel.”
“Growing up by the sea, many of my ideas are based on memories of regular adventures on the water or exploring local landscapes.”
“I begin each piece with a simple freehand sketch and go on to vectorise and build colour digitally. All of my work shows a watercolour aesthetic that I layer with brush tools to make each design look more natural and truer to the environment that I am illustrating.”
“I began selling my work as prints on Etsy in 2019 at the start of the pandemic. I really wanted to both share my passion for the places I have been to and create a relaxing aesthetic in the form of wall art. I also felt that when so many of us were unable to travel it was important to bring a bit of visual escapism into people's lives.”
“I am in the process of creating new prints to add to my shop as well as packs of greetings cards. In the next couple of weeks I will be adding Christmas cards to my shop too.”
“I have learnt to keep pushing my products out to a wider audience even though I am still a small business.”
“I am learning to believe people will like and buy my work even when I haven't had a huge amount of people discover my shop yet. I have also learned along the way which prints sell best and that less is sometimes more on my shop page.”