About me...
My name is Ellie but I prefer El's, I'm 26 years old and live in Essex.
​
My love for art and crafts came about in an unusual way...
​
At the age of three I was diagnosed with a brain stem tumour. After surgery I had no movement from the neck down. I spent 18 months living in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge. During this time had intense physio to regain what movement I could. I never regained the use of my right side, so had to learn to use my left hand instead. My first love of art came through physio play therapy. Experimenting every day with different textures, materials and colours. Not only was this an important part of my recovery but it was igniting a passion I still have today.
I eventually left hospital to live back home in Essex with my family just before my 5th birthday.
​
After finishing school, I decided to go to college to study VFX and animation due to my absolute love of animated films and tv series.
After starting the course I realised it wasn't for me as I found the technical side of it quite difficult for example drawing on a screen and getting the timings right of each individual movement for the character.
I wanted to focus more on story telling and character design so I changed college courses and began studying Film and television, which I really enjoyed.
​
​​
Covid postponed my journey to university for two years. so I decided to raise money for a charity that needed the help.
During Covid when door to door selling of poppy's were banned I created small ink drawings of poppy's to sell for £5 or £8 from for the Red Cross Poppy Appeal. I raised £680. Afterwards I advertised through social media small ink drawings of animals I would sell and raise money for the local zoo in Colchester. I raised £750 for them.
​
After two years of study I decided to go to University and carry on my Film and television studies. I finally got to University after a long battle and began my studies however, I very soon realised that course was not for me due to it being mainly camera work which I can't do myself due to my disability. I changed University courses after the first year to Illustration which was the best decision I made.
​
​​
I studied Illustration for three years and got my BA Hons Illustration degree in 2025. Throughout those three years I learnt so much about exploring new techniques, using various new mediums and I began to understand by tapping into memories and what inspires me really elevated my work.
Before studying Illustration all I did was ink art with a fine liner but now I do so many different types of artwork, I even do textured artwork which is not something I ever imagined I would!
