Smiling Dinosaur Studio
I've always believed that personal projects are an important tool for artistic development, allowing the opportunity to experiment with ideas, styles and processes that client work doesn't usually allow for.
What started as a fun name while selling prints online and at markets & festivals, soon became a way to bring all my personal and freelance projects together under one brand.
From the beginning, I didn't really want to go down the route of using my own name, so set about the task of branding myself.
I was working on a series of dinosaur prints at the time for my nephews first birthday and without thinking too much, I'd casually labelled the project folder 'SmilingDinosaurs_Prints_01'.
I was working on a series of dinosaur prints at the time for my nephews first birthday and without thinking too much, I'd casually labelled the project folder 'SmilingDinosaurs_Prints_01'.
Something about that file name really stood out to me as a fun and memorable name and that's when 'Smiling Dinosaur Studio' was born. I was obsessed with dinosaurs from a young age, Jurassic Park is still my favourite film and I've always tried to make people smile with my illustration work so it all felt very authentic to me.
Recent Projects
Towards the end of 2020, I began to transition the Smiling Dinosaur style away from the overly cartoonish approach of the last few years into something more graphical and stylised. The aim of the style change was to bring less focus on detail and more on bold lines, strong colours and texture.
One of the larger projects I've recently undertaken in the new style was 'My Type of Monster' (View Project)
Past Projects
The 'Smiling Dinosaur' style originally had a very cartoony approach with a clean feel and lots of detail. I was a fan of The Simpsons growing up, with the large, expressive eyes being a primary inspiration and consistent element through each design.
