HCA Graduate Talks – Lydia Hand

I always had an interest in being creative at school and pursued art in college after my GCSE’s. I remember a tutor suggested to look into illustration and around the same time reading a novel by Colleen Hoover which further sparked my interest in visual communication.

The novel is based on spoken word poetry. At the beginning of each chapter there was a quote from the band, The Avett Brothers, I became inspired by them as artists in the form of music and their print making background. At HCA I was able to explore different printmaking and artistic techniques that strongly influenced my visual language as an illustrator.

A mixture of both. One day it would be nice to be making money from my illustration work. However, currently I am creating for my own enjoyment on projects I want to work on and matter to me, whilst adding to my portfolio. I am finding a good balance of setting myself small goals whilst working part-time.

I do on social media. However, more recently my confidence is building and the best way to gain feedback is to share. I do enjoy exhibitions and hope to do more in the future and I am keen to collaborate with other artists.

Being in my third year in 2020, that in itself was daunting. HCA did make that situation in to a good experience and I was able to produce my major project in the summer of 2020 and have a one-year on degree show in June 2021. If it wasn’t for those 2 years (Covid years) I wouldn’t have explored/experimented with painting and punch needle embroidery.

To design and print an Avett Brother’s gig poster, they have been such a huge inspiration.