Julie Mulholland |Student with London Art College – art courses on the web

Reinventing the Artist

From a very early age I wanted to draw. Everything I could get my hands on I used to draw on.

When my parents realised I had this talent and I wanted to pursue a career in art they wanted to make sure I had every opportunity to do so. With their help and encouragement I left school and went to college to do a diploma in Graphic Design which I passed with a distinction.

I had a tutor who saw that I also had a talent in illustration and in 1984 when I left, he got me an interview with a local publishers who gave me a very small job of drawing a simple sheep. You might think this is a simple thing to do but at the time I was quite naïve and didn’t quite ‘get’ what they were asking for. I had never taken a brief before and felt really under pressure to get things right, especially when they gave it me back to redraw. I never got the job and have spent the last 28 years in the graphics industry. I never really bothered illustrating too much after that and my parents always say I am wasting my talent.

As I am sure all you frustrated artists understand, that dream never went away and I started to look for something to fulfil my long lost ambition, that is when I came across this course. Encouraged by my sister, I signed up there and then.

Since starting the course, I have really taken off, it has encouraged me to draw again and the support and constructive critique received from Maggy have really boosted confidence in my ability. Now, once again I draw at every opportunity and that has been the key to re-inventing the artist in me.