Being a Queer & Autistic Illustrator

Hi there!

Welcome to my blog.

I wanted to write a quick post about who I am and how my identity is important to me as an illustrator, so a quick introduction is needed!

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel it is important to be proud of who you are. I like to insert my personality and identity into my artwork to align with my values and dedication to creating diverse and inclusive content in my illustration practice.

I was diagnosed with Autism in my 20s, and this is something that I feel is important to raise awareness, understanding and acceptance of within my illustrations since it often is misunderstood by wider society.

I feel that my illustration practice, which leans towards children's illustration, can help to educate young people about minority groups in a fun and inclusive way, and I plan to continue working on projects that reflect who I am as a creator and the lived experiences I have which can inspire my work.

I also like to create illustrations for various other projects, including previous work on A Dog's Trail South Wales. I created a large-scale illustration on a 3D Snoopy the Dog sculpture featured in an art trail around Cardiff and South Wales. The theme of my sculpture was mental health, wellbeing and the great outdoors, with my sculpture being titled “Self-Care with Snoopy”. The initial design was part of a fundraiser for Dog's Trust Cardiff, where the public would donate to Dog's Trust to colour in a section of the sculpture at an event at Cardiff Castle. I was then commissioned to finish the sculpture while still capturing the efforts put in and colours chosen by the public.

I love to inject fun and diverse illustrations in all my work, as it's important to me to represent our world, so everyone can feel seen and represented.

Thanks for reading!

By Alison Howard