Hi, I'm Tamsin
I draw big, warm pictures for people who make things.
Illustrator in Bristol, drawing editorial pieces, book covers, murals and packaging. Bold shapes, four colours and a lot of heart.
- Editorial
- Book covers
- Murals
Portfolio
Prints pinned to the wall
Recent commissions and personal pieces, straight from the drawing desk.
Process
From pencil to print
Drag the handle to see how a rough sketch became the finished picture.
Commissions
What I can draw for you
Four kinds of work I take on, and what each one is good for.
Editorial illustration
One picture that says what the article is circling around. I read the piece, send two roughs the next morning and deliver final colour at print size.
Book covers
A cover has to work from across the shop and as a thumbnail on a phone. I design the whole jacket: front, spine, back and flaps, with room left for the words.
Murals and big walls
From a corridor to a whole cafe wall, painted by hand or printed on vinyl. I survey the space, design to the architecture and stay until the last leaf is dry.
Packaging and patterns
Tea tins, seed packets, wrapping paper and the odd beer label. I draw repeat patterns that behave on press and pictures that survive being wrapped around a box.
Process
How a commission unfolds
Four panels, start to finish. No mystery, no surprise invoices.
We talk
A call about the story, who it is for, the sizes you need and the deadline. I ask a lot of questions and take notes by hand.
Rough sketches
Two or three pencil directions, loose on purpose. We pick one together, and I note what to keep from the others.
Colour and refine
The chosen direction goes to finished colour. You see it once at the midpoint, so there is time to nudge anything before it sets.
Files and hand-off
Print-ready files at the sizes we agreed, a licence that says plainly what you can do with the art, and one invoice.
About
Hello from the drawing desk
A little about who is holding the pencil.
Hi, I'm Tamsin, an illustrator in Bristol who draws the small, ordinary moments most people walk straight past.
I started out drawing on the backs of cafe receipts between shifts and somehow turned it into a job. Ten years on, I make editorial pieces for magazines, covers for publishers and murals for walls that used to be beige.
I like a limited palette, a bit of print grain and a story hiding somewhere in the picture. If you spot the cat, that is on purpose.
Tamsin
Now
What I am up to right now
A living note, updated whenever something changes.
A picture book about a lighthouse keeper's cat
Due spring 2027
A stack of Tove Jansson and one very long book about mosses
Slowly
Field recordings and old soul records
Loud, while inking
Bristol, UK
Remote commissions welcome anywhere
Last updated August 2026
Clients
People and places I have drawn for
Magazines, publishers, cafes and one hospital corridor.
Kind words
Notes from the people I draw for
Art directors, editors and one very happy cafe owner.
I sent over a two-line brief on a Friday and had three cover sketches in my inbox by Monday, each one funnier than the last. The one we ran is still pinned above my desk.
Our picture books needed a hand that could hold the silly and the sad on the same spread without dropping either. The endpapers alone sold the whole series to our sales team.
The mural turned our plain back wall into the thing people photograph before they have even ordered. Regulars now bring their parents in just to stand in front of it.
Recognition
Awards, press and talks
The nice things that happened along the way.
Sketchbook
Pages from the sketchbook
Loose, quick and unpolished - the drawings that never get finished on purpose.
Scroll sideways to flip through
Shop
Prints and small things
Signed giclée prints, risograph editions and a few stickers, shipped from the studio.
New
Last few
Ships worldwide from Bristol. Every print is signed and numbered.
Got a story that needs pictures?
Tell me what you are making and I will sketch a first idea back within two days.
Say hello
Send me a postcard
Commissions, collaborations, print questions or just to say you liked something.
Thanks, your postcard is in the tray. I reply to everything within two working days.