My name is Kirsty Wade and I am an illustrator based between Edinburgh and Nottingham in the UK. My work is graphic and detailed, with a focus on character and narrative comic work. I enjoy using bright colours with detailed linework to create my images, and touching on subjects such as mental health, identity and dystopian worlds. I can use a range of both traditional and digital media to create my pieces, and adapt my working style to the project at hand.
kirsty wade
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Skills & Experience
- French Film festival poster - Designed a poster for the short film ‘Soif de Vivre’ for the French Film Festival promotional posters
- Insight magazine - I worked with the charity ‘Children in Scotland’ to develop cover design and an article spot illustration concepts
- Individual portrait commissions - Both traditional and digital portraits in a range of styles, privately commissioned
- Tattoo magazine editorial - I developed two illustrated editorial pages for Total Tattoo magazine (Published in issues 191 and 198)
Homebody comic
The story of this piece of work was inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular the uncertain times throughout 2020, when losses were high and information was minimal. I took inspiration from my own experiences during this time, as well as those around me, and developed an original short story from this.
This comic explores a mostly wordless narrative in a snapshot view of my main characters life, and their descent into chaos due to the fear and trauma of the events that follow. I wanted to show how this fear can alter your perceptions of reality and have a damaging emotional effect long term. I intended for this project to provide some understanding to people who have been affected by the events of the pandemic, and to give some comfort to those still experiencing the emotional effects of the past few years. I want to use my work to bring forward discussions on mental health and show the importance of these topics.
Comic character concept turnaround sheet
Homebody comic front cover design
Homebody comic pages 1 and 2
Homebody comic pages 3 and 4
Homebody comic pages 5 and 6
Homebody comic pages 7 and 8
Homebody comic pages 9 and 10
Homebody comic pages 11 and 12
Homebody comic pages 13 and 14
Homebody comic pages 15 and 16
Homebody comic pages 19 and 20
Homebody comic back cover design
Future visions creative pieces
This was an open creative brief to develop two images with the title ’Future visions’, with the only requirements being square in format and limited 3 colour palette. I wanted to make a statement on technology, and the influence of the digital world on our physical connections and humanity’s relation to nature. Using ideas of virtual reality and the juxtaposition of the natural and artificial, I developed these finalised images.
Future visions project image 1
Future visions project image 2
Equinox exhibition paintings
I developed these pieces for an art exhibition set up by myself and several other ECA illustration undergraduates in March 2022,with the theme of the spring equinox. I wanted to represent the balance of day and night during this time, and illustrated this with the depiction of a sun and moon goddess meeting at twilight. The pieces were done as a pair with acrylic paint on 16’’x20’’ canvases.
Exuinox exhibition goddess paintings
Total Tattoo magazine article
This was an illustrated research article that I worked on during 2021, with the intention of bringing more awareness and interest to women within the tattoo industry. I researched and wrote about the life and work of Maud Wagner, the first recorded female tattoo artist. This article was then published in the December 2021 issue of the UK-based Total Tattoo magazine, after receiving great interest from the editorial team there.
Total tattoo illustrated article piece
Duolingo travel illustration
'Hopeless' theme merchandise design concepts
'Hopeless' theme merchandise mockup concepts
Spot and cover illustrations for Insight magazine concepts
Netflix foreign language campaign illustration
Smelly cat logo design
kirsty wade
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