About Kirsty

Kirsty Oxley does not need other people pushing her to create works, she seems to be one of the most unyielding illustrators breaking through at the moment. Just looking at her website will show you that each seemingly stand alone piece of work is actually the gateway to another part of the mind of Kirsty, with numerous individual inhabitants.
Kirsty experiments with multiple different areas within illustration, currently starting a new endeavour, delving into the world of comics. With every new subgenre she explores, her style-influences grow, and are then brought together to make some incredible commission pieces. With this wealth of knowledge to draw on, it could sometimes be difficult formulating how to get it from brain to paper successfully. Possibly due to this, Kirsty Oxley employs a thorough design process,

“I usually write my ideas down quite thoroughly so I don’t forget, even describing what it will look like. Then once I’ve done rough pencil sketches and thumbnails for the page layout and some character design, I do the finals using a combination of watercolour, coloured pencils and special felt pens. I then scan them in and tidy them up a bit in Photoshop, but I try not to do too much because I want to keep the textures and paint marks there so it feels more authentic.”

Having a style that is totally original while keeping on trend, she does well selling prints online and at events. A notable event was her ‘Feel Good’ pop up shop in central Edinburgh, which she set up with some fellow illustrators. The aim of the shop was to sell work that made people smile, made people laugh – and in a busy city centre this can sometimes be much needed. Not content with just having this be a success, she also fell into philanthropy, as money from this venture went to the Mental Health Foundation.

Definitely not one to rest on her laurels, Kirsty Oxley is one to keep a check on, as each new piece of work shows a new side to her.