Celebrations Around the World

Katy Halford was born in a small village in Leicestershire, England, as has always loved to draw. She has a degree from Loughborough University in the UK.

Katy Halford: I was born in a small village in Leicestershire on a snowy winters morning in the year of '85. Ever since I have known, I have always loved to draw. I was told that from a young age, I used to always put eyelashes on the characters I drew. This became one of my distinct quirks and has stuck with me ever since! As a child, I used to create paper houses and shops and I would play for hours in these imaginary worlds, creating little stories and acting them out. I would say this is where my love for illustration started, and from then I continued to study the 'arts' at school and went on to graduate at Loughborough University with a degree in Illustration. I work from home, in a lovely house with a beautiful spacious garden. The garden is full of greenery and flowers and the birds are always singing. We have two bunny rabbits named Hubert and Esme, they are quite some characters! I am fascinated with people and animals and turning them into characters... I love to add patterns and details to clothing, add fun hairstyles, hats, glasses and lots of other accessories! Everything always starts off as a sketch and then I scan in the sketches and painted textures and work in Photoshop to add colour to my illustrations.

Katy Halford: I was born in a small village in Leicestershire on a snowy winters morning in the year of '85. Ever since I have known, I have always loved to draw. I was told that from a young age, I used to always put eyelashes on the characters I drew. This became one of my distinct quirks and has stuck with me ever since! As a child, I used to create paper houses and shops and I would play for hours in these imaginary worlds, creating little stories and acting them out. I would say this is where my love for illustration started, and from then I continued to study the 'arts' at school and went on to graduate at Loughborough University with a degree in Illustration. I work from home, in a lovely house with a beautiful spacious garden. The garden is full of greenery and flowers and the birds are always singing. We have two bunny rabbits named Hubert and Esme, they are quite some characters! I am fascinated with people and animals and turning them into characters... I love to add patterns and details to clothing, add fun hairstyles, hats, glasses and lots of other accessories! Everything always starts off as a sketch and then I scan in the sketches and painted textures and work in Photoshop to add colour to my illustrations.