‘I remember when I was little looking at Quentin Blake and Janet and Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs and just wanting to do that myself.’
Lauren may not yet have illustrated a children’s book but she works full-time as an illustrator. Not only does she take commissions, illustrating articles in national magazines, designing posters and maps, she also produces artwork through her own business, Lauren Radley Illustration. She is remarkably successful, selling in up to 15 different places locally including Rococo in Liberty Wharf, Durrell, the Harbour Gallery and online.
Her work will be known to many people as she created the popular and quirky map of Jersey and this is going to be followed up with 12 parish maps. St Martin and St Ouen are already complete, and she is enjoying finding out more about the place she now calls home.
She admits that her success has taken her a bit by surprise.
‘The business has just snowballed,’ she said. ‘There was never really a day when I thought I’m starting the business and this is what I’m going to do.’
Born in Birmingham and brought up in Sheffield, Lauren did her degree in illustration and animation at Kingston-upon-Thames University.
About four years ago, she arrived in Jersey having married Emile Duhamel (son of former Deputy Robert Duhamel), whom she met at art college.
Initially she worked part-time as an illustrator but also part-time for ceramics artist Jane James.
‘Jane was really encouraging and suggested I do a few greetings cards to sell in her shop, so I started doing that and they went well,’ she said. She also had a good response from taking part in the Skipton Open Studios and the Spice Arts and Music Festival.
It was the Jersey map that seemed to put her on the Jersey map, so to speak.
‘I guess it was the first time I had put my own work out into the world and I had a really positive response,’ she said.
It was all quite gradual but increasingly she realised that she could embark on her own business full-time, has become a member of Genuine Jersey, and she has now got her own studio space at The Art Rooms in Payn Street.
In much the same way as her business has grown, her distinctive style evolved quite naturally too.
‘I don’t know if I had to work on my style. What I had to work on perhaps was accepting my style,’ she said.
‘When I went to Kingston it was all about the drawing and from there you had to develop your individual style. I was doing collage, abstract and painting and then I think being around lots of other talented people, you compare yourself to others, which I did struggle with but I think that’s part of the process.
‘And then I went to Japan and Thailand for a year and I taught English and in the evenings and at weekends I was drawing and painting. Emile and I would go location drawing and I was away from other artists. It was being away that gave me the chance to develop who I was and what I did.
‘And when I came back I was just kind of on it. I didn’t question what I was doing or how I drew, it was just there.
‘I guess it’s a matter of confidence and that has come from people’s response to my work, especially in Jersey. It’s been an amazing opportunity being here with such a nice art community.
‘Jersey is so great. You do anything Jersey and people just love it, and tourists love it.’
Talking about what inspires her, Lauren says she enjoys nature – she has Woodland Wonders and Rockpool Discoveries as current projects – and she enjoys drawing animals.
She has asked me to bring along my dog, Zippy, who has stretched out on her multi-coloured rug.
Picking up a pencil to start sketching, Lauren explains that she did her first pet portrait in the summer with Bert, her sister’s miniature sausage dog, and Frank, her mum’s Labrador.
The response on Instagram and Facebook was sufficient for her to take commissions.
‘I don’t know if they’re cartoony but they do tend to have little dot eyes and smiley faces,’ she laughs. ‘They are not supposed to be photo-real.’
She gets orders from the UK and even ‘one yesterday’ from America, so she doesn’t always meet her subject.
In this case, though, Zippy is taking it all in his stride, blissfully unaware that he is posing. She takes a few photos of him from different angles.
‘I need a minimum of five photographs because I want to capture the character,’ she said. ‘Dogs have such characters.’
Lauren has her own dog, Bella, a long-haired Jack Russell, who is often to be found with her at work.
So how long will it take to do a ‘full Zippy’?
A couple of hours, she says, passing him another treat. ‘They’re not massively detailed – they’re detailed in my way. I don’t like to over-work them.
‘My work is often described as cute. I’m still trying to work out how I feel about that but if that’s what it is, that’s what it is.’
Lauren has done a range for Durrell as well as work for the National Trust for Jersey.
‘I take Bella for a walk in the woods in Vallée des Vaux every day and it’s lovely to see the seasons change. I like to draw collections of things.
‘I’m 29 and I still have to pick up a conker or an acorn!
‘Work has just snowballed, especially this year, in an amazing way. It’s been really exciting.’
She has been so busy that she can no longer do it by herself and her husband, a learning support teacher at Grainville, is helping her with markets, packing and wrapping, accounts and deliveries.
Lauren is certainly kept busy, both through her work with her agent, Eye Candy Illustration, and in her own right.
Currently she is doing illustrations for an animation – three short films for BT for their new app – and she also teaches art at Highlands College.
‘I constantly have ideas,’ she said. ‘I probably have too many ideas to have the time to do them.’
Asked which illustrators she admired, she reeled off a number of names.
‘I always liked children’s book illustrators, Eric Carle who wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Oliver Jeffers, Sara Fanelli, Janet and Allan Ahlberg, and Raymond Briggs. I always liked the style of realist painter Edward Hopper.’
Might Lauren illustrate a child’s book one day?
‘That’s the dream,’ she said. ‘That’s why I became an illustrator. I was talking to my agent about it recently and they said I should come to them with my dog-based stories. The Adventures of Billy and Bella. Billy is Bella’s brother… they’re proper little characters. He will jump in the sea and every muddy puddle he comes to, whereas Bella is bit more of a princess.
‘I will do it, but I’ve just got too much to do at the moment.’
