Starting Out: Embarking upon a Career in Illustration with Bright Artist, Alëa Marley

Alëa Marley is in her third year at university studying illustration, living by the seaside. Here we talk about her inspirations, experience with Bright and advice for fellow students looking to pursue illustration full-time.

What mediums do you prefer to work in, and where do you create your work?

When it comes to traditional work I love to use gouache and watercolour crayons, when its digital I love to use large texture brushes. My favourite space to work in is my bedroom with the work of my favourite illustrators on the walls.

How did you find out about the Bright Agency?

I’ve known about the agency for a while because they represent some on my favourite illustrators such as Lucy Fleming, Maddie Frost and Chris Chatterton. I would always love to look through the artist page and see all the gorgeous work people were making.

Would you say working with educational clients is something you’ve enjoyed, and would you recommend it to new artists?

What I like most about it is that it gets me to draw scenarios that I’ve not drawn before. I quite like the challenge of this and I feel at the end of each project I’ve improved in some way.

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“Working with Alea is not only, for me, working with a very talented illustrator; it’s also a joy to work with such a creative, quick, efficient, flexible and friendly artist, making communication and the whole project a very smooth process.” Juliette Magro, Rustica Éditions

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What advice do you have for other illustrators, especially for those like you, who are currently attending school?

Find what sort of direction in illustration you want to take, draw every single day and put yourself online!

A little more about Alea:
You’ve mentioned that you absolutely love drawing plants and animals. What inspires you about the natural world?

I love to draw plants because it’s something I’ve always done and I find it relaxing. I absolutely love drawing animals because they come in so many shapes and colours and have such amusing expressions. The rounder the animal is the more fun they are to draw!

We love the Bright logo you illustrated, in fact, it started a whole year of Bright logos re-imagined by Bright artists! What gave you the idea to do this?

The logo that started it all!

I was so excited to join the agency that I felt I needed to draw something to commemorate that moment and so I drew me drawing the logo!

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“Since the beginning of her journey with Bright, Team Edu have found Alea an absolute joy to work with! Lucie and I feel that her artwork really reflects her personality – colourful, fun, experimental and bubbling with ideas. Every character packs a punch of personality and she really captures the magic relationship between children and animals in her artwork. One of the things we most admire about Alea is her internal drive to generate new pieces on Instagram and Twitter which keeps her portfolio fresh and a delight to show to clients. We can’t wait to see what she does next…” Susan Beveridge, Illustration Agent

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Check out more fabulous kid lit art from Alea in her portfolio HERE and be sure to follow her on Twitter!