Reintroducing Brush and Brew

Hey everyone! It’s been a little while since I posted on here, but what better time than spring to make a fresh start? I’m back on the blog and keen to get posting about all things illustration, inspiration, wellbeing, and much more.  

For my first post back, I thought I’d give you a little reintroduction to me, and what I get up to here at Brush and Brew Illustrations.  

So if you’re new, my name’s Ellie. It’s lovely to meet you! I’m a freelance illustrator from Leicester in the UK, and I create colourful, thoughtful and whimsical illustrations for children’s books. 

Art has always been a passion of mine, and after earning a first-class honours degree in Illustration and Animation from Coventry University, I turned Brush and Brew Illustrations — the business I started back in school — into my full-time career. I feel incredibly lucky that it’s now my full-time job. Since then, I’ve had the chance to work with so many interesting clients from all over the world, creating commissions for a range of fun and inspirational projects.

A sense of playfulness is at the heart of my artistic style. So I like to have fun with my work, combining mixed media, different textures, and bright watercolours to create charming, loveable illustrations. In fact, the name Brush and Brew was born as I’m known to experiment with all different sorts of materials – including cold coffee as paint!  

 Mental health and wellbeing is an area I’m truly passionate about, and it really shapes my work – both in my personal projects, and commissions for clients. Back in 2020, I self-published my own book ‘Dawn – A Recovery Journal and Workbook’ to support those going through eating disorder recovery. And many of the children’s books I’ve illustrated have powerful, positive messages about mental wellbeing at their core.  

A wonderful example of this is the ‘Wonder Pup’ children’s book series, written by the psychologist and author Angela Murphy. These educational books help children learn to self-regulate their emotions, teaching them skills like positive self-talk, mindful breathing, active listening, and mood recognition.  

I’ve been so lucky to work with Angela since 2019. And since then, we’ve collaborated on the following five books:  

Breathe Up Wonder Pup 

Listen Up Wonder Pup 

Talk Yourself Up Wonder Pup 

Step Up Wonder Pup 

Love Yourself Up Wonder Pup 

Take a look inside at some of my illustrations… 

I just love bringing these sweet, silly characters to life. There’s something about capturing emotion and personality through animal characters that comes so naturally – and makes the storytelling more accessible for children too. Here, I’ve used gentle brushstrokes to show the softness of their markings for a realistic, sensory effect – but combined this with cartoon facial expressions, to keep things emotive and fun. And as a dog-mum myself, there’s I love more than illustrating dogs! 

Encouraging positivity and good wellbeing through my illustrations is so rewarding. And even more so knowing they could have a life-long impact on the young minds who see them. I can’t wait to work on more inspirational children’s books like these.  

That’s all for this month’s blog post! I’ll look forward to catching up with you all again in May. In the meantime, you can find me on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Just click the icons below.  

Is there anything you’d love to see next on the blog? Just let me know in the comments below.  

Sending lots of love,  

Ellie x