I have always been an creative person, and used to say I wanted to be an ‘artist’ when I grew up. Little did 7 year old Amy know that there would be many different options to explore within this career choice.
As a child, I loved drawing characters, or creating ‘junk’ which consisted of old packaging, boxes, toilet roll holders and various craft materials being glued, painted and glittered all together to create a masterpiece. I would proudly show this off to my parents and they would marvel at whatever my latest creation was. I’ll always be grateful for them keeping random bits of cardboard and plastic on top of a wardrobe for me, and allowing me to show that creativity.
After school, I was delighted to be accepted onto the Animation Bachelors course within The University of Edinburgh. I learnt a lot here and also continued working as a portrait artist throughout this time. I completed a variety of projects, everything from working for D.C. Thomson’s ‘Beano’ to the government’s ‘loneliness campaign’ and many individual and group projects within the University too. Despite Covid-19 bringing my time at University to a very abrupt end, I was ecstatic to achieve a 2:1 grade.
My portrait business (Amy Scott Art) has been a part of my life from around the age of 15. To start with, I received commissions from friends and family which I enjoyed and the portraits meant a lot to both myself and them. I create both people and animal portraits from photographs and am able to combine images to bring together people who may have never met in real life in one singular drawn image. In my early 20s, and through the use of social media, I was then able to build my business and have amassed thousands of followers across a variety of platforms. It means a lot to me to be able to create pieces for people which have great emotional value. These images are typically hand drawn with pencil on paper, whereas Allie Skye is digitally drawn in her books.
I have always enjoyed illustrating too, and when I saw the advert looking for an illustrator for the Allie Skye books I had no hesitation in applying. It was a wonderful coincidence to find out Donna lives close by to me too. The story of Allie Skye means a great deal to me, and I love being able to show some of the beautiful Scottish scenery to the world. Allie Skye is a confident, intrepid, enthusiastic young girl and I can’t wait for everyone to join in on her adventures.
The video below shows the process of creating Allie Skye’s animation you saw when you first came on the website – but it’s much, much slower in real life!
You can see more on my website at www.amyscottart.co.uk
