I've been a illustrator since 1993 and still love the adrenalin rush when a new job comes in, with a due date and a new idea that needs to be realized.

My vocation allows me to draw, experiment, play with all sorts of lovely inks, pencils and paper... and to try out new ideas all the time. This process keeps my perspective fresh and fun and hopefully never boring.

My clients often encourage me to push myself in new directions - and it doesn't matter that I'm here, in my messy, inky studio in a small village in Scotland and they are perhaps in the middle of Manhattan, Amsterdam or the East End of London. I'm happy to have the opportunity to collaborate with my clients wherever they might be.

The inspiration for my work changes all the time - at the moment I love skyscrapers and garden birds, flowers and botanicals - and people, always people. I sketch and draw all the time and this feeds directly into my illustration work, alongside a passion for arranging and composing all these elements into a beautifully balanced image.

The artists whose work I most admire is an ever changing list, but let's mention Howard Hodgkin, Velázquez, David Hockney, Joan Eardley, Javier Mariscal, Andre Francois, Diane Arbus and all the wonderful Vogue illustrators, as constant favourites.

This love of drawing and illustration means I also have the opportunity to teach. I am part of a small but perfectly formed team in the Illustration Department at Edinburgh College of Art where we teach about 65 students in total on the Illustration Honours and Masters courses. I really love it.

When I am not drawing, or doodling about with Photoshop, I love travelling to new and exciting places (West Australia is top of my list), cooking and eating fresh, local seafood, gardening, walking with my husband Tom (he's a laser physicist) and my two permanently hungry Labradors, Charlie and Dougal.