Finding Creative Inspiration and Establishing a Niche - Insights From Illustrator Lisa Berkshire

I’m an illustrator who lives and works by the sea in Poole, Dorset, and have taken part in a good few markets with the Craft and Flea, including Guildford, Portsmouth, Walthamstow and Brighton since my first event with them in Bournemouth in October 2023.

I create colourfully narrative illustrations for my own ranges of prints, original paintings, greetings cards, dioramas and illustrated homewares which I love to share with folk at fairs, markets, galleries and in my website shop. My illustrations have a large cast of characters and themes including flying mermaids, octopi, whales, sleepy swallows, hope-giving suns, magic dragons and wooly hatted cats. I also offer my artworks for wholesale and I create work for licensing and commissions too. 

I started my creative career after graduating from Norwich School of art with a Degree in Graphic Design and Illustration in 1989. I soon began working as a Freelance Illustrator creating imagery for magazines, publishers and designers and also for my illustration agent who I worked on some fantastic jobs with, including illustrating a whole range of jam and preserves labels for Fortnum and Mason. 

My son was born in 2005 and I carried on with commissioned illustration work for a few years until I found it increasingly difficult to take on the larger illustration projects. I then decided to concentrate on creating work to sell at face-to-face events which fitted better with my life as it was then. I’d taken part in a few craft fairs before that time but the items I showed then were really just a ragbag of things I’d randomly created between working on commissions and, suffice it to say, I made few sales!

So, how to build up a new range? 

One option was to look at what was already currently popular at markets and in the wider commercial world and to create my own versions. It is certainly wise to find out what’s around you in the market, but I find doing things that way only takes you as far as the next trend. This approach also often comes at the expense of developing your own voice and uniqueness, which I have gone on to find is exactly what visitors at indie markets and events most look for.

So there I was in 2016 wondering where to start. I’ve always found that when in doubt about something, it’s best to start simple with a theme that you’re already interested and invested in and to learn and develop organically from then on.

The flash of inspiration to get me on my way with new work came to me unexpectedly while sketching in my car while waiting for my son to finish one of his regular Saturday football training sessions. I’d recently been to see a wonderful exhibition on Folk Art at Tate Britain in London and had loved the sailor’s scrimshaw work I’d seen there. The drawings I was making in my car that day had echoes of scrimshaw in them, and it hit me that it was a great style to use for my new artworks. I’d always been drawn to the theme of the sea with its old nautical sayings, fantastic imagery of ships, whales, and storms, and of course encounters with fearsome sea monsters. It was impossible to resist and I was on my way.

My first range of artworks included drawings, hand-printed originals, collages, digital prints, paper bunting, greetings cards and painted stones. Over the next couple of years I gradually added new artworks to my range on other favourite themes such as British wildlife, Dorset and Cornwall, children’s books (including an illustration of The Owl and the Pussycat which is still a customer favourite) and a range of artworks on a mindfulness theme, ranging from sad and thoughtful through to the funny and joyful, many of which I also still sell to this day.

A big project for me was deciding in 2019 to create work for a new range of illustrated homewares. I’ve always loved making art to be used and enjoyed in everyday life, so it was great to explore how my imagery could work on products such as tea towels, mugs and coasters. I began by illustrating lots of purposely designed artworks for these practical items, which injected exciting new imagery into my ranges. I also used existing imagery for a product if it fitted the usage. If I’m asked by enough people for a certain image to be made into a particular item, then I do. It doesn’t pay to argue with a crowd!

For the homeware designs, I often ask myself whether I’d want to have this in my own home. Domestic spaces are where people want to feel happy and where they like to reflect their interests and personality, so I try to make my designs (however quirky) make sense in that space.

Not all of the new works I’ve introduced over the years have been successful though, I must admit. The few that haven’t gone down well are mostly those where I’ve not followed my own advice and I’ve created slightly derivative or general style work. As is so often the case, it’s much better to identify your niche and be as excellent at that as you can be instead of trying to please everyone with general work, and in the end please no-one. It’s fascinating how people connect with an individual’s art, and I’ve found that they can quite often ‘suss’ out when things are ‘off message’ or just don’t seem authentic.

It’s good that I’ve not made too many mistakes in choosing imagery for products as I’m a stickler for not wasting time, money and materials; avoiding wasting time and money definitely hones up your decision making! Thankfully, these days it’s also much easier to order short runs of printed items from print companies, so you can do the research without being left with a lot of unwanted stock.

After my work in honing my ranges over the years (it never really ends!) I’ve reached a stage where the imagery and products I now show make sense as an entire range - however varied and quirky they all are. It’s great to see people reacting to them positively in all kinds of different settings and locations.

Ultimately, connecting my imagery and words with folk is the most important thing to me. Knowing that someone smiles when they pass one of my artworks in a hallway, while drinking their tea in one or my mugs, or when they dry the dishes is great to think about. People often tell me they buy my creations to gift to someone for personal reasons. I’ve been told many humorous and also moving stories as to why a piece of my artwork, card or illustrated homewares has been chosen, and it always makes me feel happy and often humbled that I’m helping people tell their own stories and to connect with others in a personal way.

This is a huge inspiration for my work, and it’s why I do it!

Lisa Berkshire, April 2025