Tell us about your professional journey - highlights, learnings, mentors.

My career path was never a clear one, and I didn’t necessarily have a direct plan into the job I have now. In 2005 I graduated high school with an average enter score and a reasonable amount of work in my folio, from completing 5 art subjects. With no idea of what I wanted to do, I decided to not rush into a uni course. After a few years of down time and travel, I went to what was called Brighton Bay, Art, Design & Photography Program. Which was like a year 13 of folio preparation, it covered most creative platforms and added to my enter score. A challenging year, but a lot of growth in many ways, I decided I wanted to try and get into illustration, particularly children’s books.
After that I completed a Diploma in Illustration. Which was a pivotal time in my career and was when I started to establish my own style.
Through networking I was able to score an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist, working with a machine. I learnt a lot about the culture of tattoo studios and how the industry works, during this time it wasn’t as female friendly as it is now. I left and decided to go back to the drawing board, pun intended, and throw myself into freelance illustration. This was a great time to market myself and create a client base. As a little side hustle, I still worked with tattooing, minus the machine and experimented with stick and poke. This then quickly gained traction and I was lucky enough to score a chair at Fine Line Tattoos in 2016.

Fine Line Studio in Melbourne

I love spending a full day, usually Mondays immersing myself with designing. I used to struggle a lot with getting in a ‘drawing mood’ but I have trained myself to snap into it quite quickly. I do need to be somewhere without any distractions, but if I do get a bit of a drawing block a walk along the beach always helps. Also snacking, lots of snacking.


Kate at home working on illustrations