I have grown as a person and illustrator

Georgia is in her final year of BA (hons) Illustration and has overcome personal challenges:

“During the past three years, I have become more confident in my abilities and have grown massively as a person and an illustrator. In the first year, I was unsure of the direction that I wanted to take my art and career and I had a hard time initially because of this. I was surrounded by many other artists who were confident in their work, and I felt that I was missing this in my own work. Despite feeling like an imposter at the time, my friends and tutors on the course were very supportive of me and this helped me find the drive to keep growing.

“Going into my second year, I was able to start developing a style of working that I was happy with and finally began feeling worthy of my place on the course. For years prior to starting university, I had a lot of trouble finding my place within art and my identity. I felt that I finally was able to put a dent in a problem that I had stressed over for years and had a chance to tackle it for the first time in my art journey.

“In the third year I have further developed my skills and confidence with the support of the tutors and my friends. I feel very thankful for sticking with my course and finding an invaluable support network within university.

“From my experience, the university community is friendly and welcoming. As someone who is a part of the LGBT+ community, I felt very welcomed among my peers and felt that the space was inclusive and safe for queer people. On my course, I also felt that there was a lot of understanding of mental wellbeing, autism, dyslexia, anxiety, and other forms of neurodiversity. This was especially important to me as in previous education I was made to feel stupid by my peers and other students because of my struggles with dyslexia and anxiety.”