At Advocate art we are excited to announce Trystan Mitchell as our featured artist of the month. Inspired by Victorian illustrators, UK adventure comics from the 70′s and European and British folklore, Trystan specialies in narrative illustration for the older reader. After studying at the Falmouth School of Art his first love is gouache illustration but he now predominantly colours digitally. Read on to find out more about Trystan and to see a collection of his artwork.

“As an illustrator and paper-meddler, Trystan has scratched away at various surfaces since realising he could do more with a crayon than chewing it to a satisfyingly gooey pulp. Living in the wilds, originally on the Lancashire moors and later migrating to the fringes of  Bodmin Moor, he spent twelve years living outdoors and travelling the UK as a jobbing sign-writer and labourer, but now enjoys the relative convenience of bricks and electricity.

Fascinations for UK adventure comics of the 1970s, classic Victorian illustrators, and the folklore of Britain and Europe, created a passion for narrative illustration and the universal power of story.

He is largely self-taught after studying at Falmouth School of Art,  and his favourite tools are a brace of trusty clutch pencils and a sable brush. Although his first love is the more ambient world of gouache illustration, most of his current work is coloured digitally.

With an eclectic range of clients, including sign-writing for Rick Stein’s famous Seafood School, his early work appeared in ‘Squall’ magazine and the UK Guardian newspaper. He has worked freelance for Pearson, Ballon, Oxford University Press, and De Agostini, and is now represented by us here at Advocate Art Illustration Agency.

In quieter moments, when not scribbling or reading, he is seen navigating his way over the Cornish moors with ancient maps in search of sunken villages and buried treasure.”