Hannah Roxburgh
Illustration 2024
Hannah started her art journey at Bishop Auckland College where she studied Art and Design for 2 years (starting on level 3 and then taking level 3 extended year). She then decided to take the HND course in Art and Design (Art Practice) that was provided at the college. At Bishop Auckland College, she learnt many creative skills, such as lino printing, paper making, felting, clay sculpture, even resin acrylic pouring, and epoxy resin preserved flowers. Not only was she able to learn many skills, during her time at Bishop Auckland College, but she was also fortunate to have some great experiences, one of which was having a lesson on glass blowing at the Sunderland glass blowing centre. Other learning experiences, that she took part in, were 3 art exhibitions: one in June 2019; another in July 2021; and her HND Sustainable Art degree Show in May 2022 at the Bishop Auckland Town Hall.
After finishing her studies at Bishop Auckland College, she headed to university at the Northern School of Art where she studied Illustration for Commercial Application for 2 years so she could earn her BA (Hons). She had always planned to earn her BA (Hons) so she would be able to become an art teacher. But she was also able to gain more of an understanding of who she was as an artist as she was able to build up more skills and experiences. These included: learning how to do basic animation; editorial illustration, using digital art when creating comic book pages for Anorak Magazine; working on an advertisement for a Starbucks Campaign; and children’s book illustration for the Macmillan competition.
When it came to her final year at University, Hannah produced a series called ‘Women of History’ for her FMP. This was where Hannah was able to find her love for portraiture, combine skills that she learnt on the way, and express her creativity in her art pieces. She loves to challenge herself and learn about the people she portrays, by focusing on different materials and techniques in the background or even in the illustration itself. Hannah loves to use anything and everything when it comes to creating a piece, such as wood, collages of different paper, or even a roof tile, in hopes of creating different textures and making a depth of story in each portrait.
After graduating, Hannah will be continuing to aim for her dream job of becoming an art teacher by applying for a PGCE and, having an Artist and Illustration background, she feels this will be quite beneficial. She is hoping to teach secondary school students, and also considering teaching college students. She will allow those students to express their creative minds and help them, whenever she can, to become successful in life.