Miss Ella lives and loves in a fairytale world of wonder and kitties and fluffy pink cream puffs! Ahhh okay, she doesn't, she lives in the real world, but do you know what, you can have a lot of magic in the real world and her goal is to help you to tend that magic and curate your own fairytale to make the bumps in the road a little more fun!

I am inspired by travel, particularly Japan and it's visual culture and magnetic magic drawing me back time and time and again. And Italy where my father has lived since I was a child and where storybook adventures have long since inspired my thoughts and dreams. I collect all sorts of vintage reference books, ephemera and love to get lost in stories old and new. I covet fabrics and patterns and colour, the heat of the sun on my cheeks in the daytime and the ethereal glow of the moon in the night. I am also addicted to hot chillies on everything, drink a cup of tea pretty much every 20 minutes and as you may have noticed LOVE cats and all sorts of other critters who pop up in my work intertwined with florals and fairytales and dreams of running away with the circus.

I was born in Leeds and as a child I spent periods of time living in Africa. Zimbabwe is remembered with rich fondness! My parents taught at the local art school and I would go in and make my Sindy Doll’s furniture from blocks of wood in the workshop. Later my dad lived in Italy so school holidays migrated back to Europe. Growing up as an only child I was self sufficient, a love of design and making started young and as a teenager I’d scour the Sally Army for curtains to make into dresses, moving on to take various courses in Fashion and Costume Design in London. For a time after that I made costumes and then learnt how to digitise for embroidery. At that point I discovered software and fell into the digital world. I went on to do my BA in Graphic Design and Animation at NUA focusing on mixing digital art and design with stop motion and puppetry. My MA in Design and Animation was focused on animating and coding interactive websites for various sectors including education, exhibitions, e-commerce, artists and musicians. Alongside this I completed my PG Cert for Higher Education to support students on their journey too. I have been tutoring on BA and MA Design, Visual Communication and Illustration courses for over 10 years.

The creative nurturing that comes from teaching feeds into my business here as Miss Ella and vice versa. I’m continuously working on it and evolving, so far it’s been a ride! Thank you for jumping on board with me!

You can follow me daily on Instagram here - instagram.com/missellaillustrator/