Bright, colorful shapes fill illustrator Eliott’s bedroom workspace

Today we’re talking to illustrator Eliott Bulpett, whose bright and colorful shapes can be found in illustrations, stickers, pop-up books, and even their workspace!

Check out the full interview below, and be sure to visit Eliott’s website and Etsy shop, or see more of their work on Instagram or YouTube!

Affiliate disclosure: Articles on Tiny Workshops may contain affiliate links.

---

What do you make? What do you consider your best or favorite work?

Most of the time I’m making digital illustrations. I love drawing and making super colourful pieces of art, plus I spend a lot of time drawing peoples pets.

However, I never like sticking to just one thing and enjoy crafting too much, so I also make crochet and clay products for my shop. I have also been doing plenty of paper engineering projects in the last year or so.

My favourite piece of work is the ‘Animals and Where We Find Them’ pop-up book I made. It had always been a dream project of mine to create a pop-up book, and despite being a complicated and frustrating process, it was totally worth it.

How long have you been doing your craft? Who taught you or where did you learn?

I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember – even at 3 years old I had decided I was going to be an artist when I grew up, and I stuck with it!

After doing art for my GCSEs, I took graphic design in college which was such a great decision. Even though I knew I didn’t want to be a graphic designer, I learnt so much about the fundamentals of design, and the workflow of creating projects, it was truly an invaluable course.

This helped me when going into University, where I’m currently doing an illustration degree at Arts University Bournemouth.

With crafting though, I’m mostly self-taught, learning how to make badges or crochet through YouTube, books, and experimenting!

Tell us about your tiny workshop

I live at home, so my tiny workshop is my bedroom! I’ve spent the last couple of weeks painting a mural on one of the walls which has been so exciting.

Since starting my small business and spending so much time here, it’s become important to me that my workspace is efficient but also looks fun and feels good to work in. My illustrations are always bright and colourful and now I’m trying to incorporate that into my space too!

While decorating, I also decided to reorganise the layout of my space, and now I have a separate area for digital work and the, usually messy, ‘doing stuff’ desk. I keep this one next to my bookcases where I store all my crafty things, having everything close by is really useful when in the flow of making or packing shop orders. 

What equipment is most important to your work?

In the last few years I pretty much always work digitally so my iPad and laptop are my most important pieces of equipment!

Getting an iPad last year completely changed the way I work and now I make much more art than I ever used to. The convenience of being able to make art anywhere and so easily has been so useful to me.

At university, I’ve worked on a few paper engineering projects, including pop-up books and interactive games, as well as doing lots of paper crafts in my own time and I recently invested in a Cricut machine to help me with cutting everything out.

It’s been a lot of fun getting used to a new piece of equipment and already it’s given me loads of ideas of things I could make. I’ve never been much good with a scalpel, so having something that can cut very accurate shapes for me is game-changing! 

Any advice for beginners to your craft?

Something I started doing recently was keeping a list of things I find/see that I love, and it could be anything; colours you like, shapes, types of packaging, food, as vague or as specific as you like, and I’ve found it to be so useful to my work. I’ve always heard advice from other creatives to make art about the things you enjoy but I never knew how to do that.

Outside of art, I’ve never really had many other hobbies or interests so I never knew what I should be making art about. Since starting a list though, I’ve already discovered so many things that I love that I can incorporate into my work and it’s the most inspired I’ve felt for a long time.

So if you’re struggling with knowing what to make, I suggest start making a list too, ideally on your phone so that you always have it with you, and make note of anything that you come across that you enjoy! 

Any shoutouts to fellow creators? Who inspires you? 

I’m inspired by so many people and it changes all the time. Recently I’ve been loving following graphic designers, ceramicists, and all different sorts of artists, as it gives me so much more to be inspired by.

Here is a short list of some of the creators whose work I am always looking at!

• Maddy Young – (@made_by_maddd)
• Taaryn – (@taaryn_b)
• Melanie Johnsson – (@melanie.johnsson)
• Jessica Forgie – (@jessicaforgie_illustration)
• Melissa Mathieson – (@melissalikessushi)
• Alina Tang – (@helloitspansy)

---

Check out more of Eliott’s work at their website, Instagram, YouTube channel, and Etsy store!