As with a lot of professional creatives BA (Hons) Illustration for Commercial Application Lecturer Jim Spendlove spent most of his childhood drawing; “I loved comics as a child and I was obsessed with copying characters and drawings from them”. During his teens he said he; “found ways to make bits of extra money selling airbrushed T-shirts and painted canvases.”

Starting un-traditionally after school he completed and NVQ in brickwork in 2011 commenting; “I was told I should get a trade” but settled on a career creative career; “I decided that I should have a go at an art career. I got onto an Art and Design course at Burton College and in 2013 I left home to study Creative Art Practice at Sheffield Hallam University. Early in my 3-year degree I realised that I wanted to be an illustrator, and in 2017, a year after graduating, I started to see some illustration work trickling in. In 2018 I was getting enough work to quit my job and be a freelancer full time.”

For the last six years Jim has had an exciting career working with a number of different brands, artiss and record labels; “I’ve worked for a range of different clients including record labels in the Lofi Hip Hop genre, including Lofi Girl, Chillhop Music, Splice and numerous independent artists worldwide. Beyond the music industry, I’ve worked with breweries, web designers, researchers and galleries.”

Jim’s work with Domestika, an online skills platform, slowly lead into a career in education: “From posting mini tutorials online about my illustration process, I caught the attention of Domestika, an online teaching platform, and was invited to their studios in London to teach a course on digital illustration on Procreate.”

Speaking of why he wanted to apply for the role here at The Northern School of Art he commented to “I always had an interest in teaching, a lot of illustrators that inspire me also teach, and I had tutors in college and university that saw something in my work and helped me to develop it. I knew that I wanted to go back to university as a lecturer one day and the online response to my Domestika course solidified it. I want to help students to develop their illustration practice the same way my tutors helped me to develop mine.”

Check out Jim’s work on his website: jimspendlove.com or keep up-to-date with his Instagram: @Jim_Spendlove

If you are interested in studying illustration at degree-level make sure you check out BA (Hons) Illustration for Commercial Application course, through skill development, live briefs and partnerships student on this course are able to build dynamic portfolio’s that allow them to enter a number of visual arts industries. Find out more here.