Hi! I’m Ali and I’m an Illustrator and Surface Designer living in north Northumberland. I thought you might be interested to find out about what I get up to in a day running my small creative business, Coostie Illustration and Design.

I really love giving people presents - both bought and handmade. In fact, I used to spend hours and hours on Christmas boxes for people, trying to create the perfect mix of handmade goodies (usually edible, but sometimes sewn or knitted) and little things I’d bought over a period of months. By gifting in this way, I could also be 100% sure of what something was made from and it also meant that I could reduce the environmental impact of the gifts themselves, as well as the wrapping and packing. A couple of big life events have made spending that much time on Christmas gifting unfeasible over the last few years. So I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve been doing more recently to try to ensure that my Christmas gifting continues to be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.

I really enjoy the run up to Christmas, as I’m a natural list-maker and organiser. I love getting cosy at home with the wood burner on and the smells of Christmas baking and cooking, or venturing out into town or to local events with twinkling lights and good company.

Old trees always seem eternal, like sentinels to history that stand in the landscape. It can be awe-inspiring to stand beneath the canopy of a tree that is hundreds of years old and consider who planted it and how different the world was then.

I’m still enjoying participating in this challenge and have been lucky with some of the prompts that they featured the types of illustrations/motifs I’m naturally drawn to (like food and things in nature). Quite a few of the illustrations for patterns in this quarter have made their way on to Art Prints and Cards in my shop, which is a great way to get additional benefit from participating in the challenge!

With coast and countryside literally on the doorstep, Berwick-upon-Tweed makes an ideal base for exploring a wide range of natural habitats and - as a car-free family - we’ve made the most of the excellent rail and bus connections to get out and about a bit further afield.

I don’t just draw pretty pictures… I offer a range of services, from freelance illustration and graphic design, to custom illustrated maps and even brand and communications consultancy.

Did you know that that infamous breakfast dish - the kipper - is a smoked herring? But why did I choose a herring as the inspiration for my latest artwork?

When it comes to learning new things, do you prefer to develop your skills using books, or by taking a class?

Why have 1 word of the year, when you can have 2?!

Now all that’s left is to somehow turn this into a career…