Rebecca Sampson

06/05/2026

Bit of a hiatus the last few weeks where I had loads of half-finished pieces that needed my attention. This one has been top of that pile for a while - I spent most of my childhood on my bike and it was such bliss. Just teaching my oldest to ride without stabilisers and can’t wait to see how much he’s going to love going fast downhill.

10/04/2026

I haven’t been drawing much this last week due a combination of focussing more on writing, Easter holidays and a heavy cold. So here is a throwback to a sketch for a project from 2020, Parsley Mimblewood, written by Mike Forde and released as a free ebook for schools and parents during the heart of COVID. What a whirlwind it was, with Mike appearing in the national news in his home country of Northern Ireland and I interviewed on BBC radio. We had a lot of good feedback on Parsley and her family as characters and it was great to be able to make a positive contribution at such a difficult time. There was a moment when Macmillan Children's Books was interested in the sequel but alas, it wasn’t to be. For now!

03/04/2026

Closeup of a piece that I’ve been working on that is still not quite finished. My little boy loves listening to The Wind In The Willows dramatised audiobook and putting him to bed to the sounds of Ratty and Moley splashing about on the river is so comforting. This would be a dream project for me and hopefully a portfolio piece when it’s completely done.

30/03/2026

The finished piece. Swipe for the (very sped up) making of video. This took 10 hours, mostly because I went back and forth on the main colours so much and then swapped in for more relevant objects in the background to add to the storytelling. I learnt a lot about interior illustrations here - my comfort zone is outdoors so this was a good challenge to push through.

29/03/2026

Crop of my next piece which I posted a colour pass of a couple of weeks ago. More trial and error here - mostly around how loose or how refined to go and also I always seem to bite off more than I can chew by doing some challenging lighting - but that’s what I love!!! I’m calling this ‘Dancing at Dawn’. Taking suggestions for what to name the mouse character. Comment if you have any ideas!

26/03/2026

I had a project for a company in Dubai scheduled but it was on hold and now unfortunately delayed until further notice due to the war in the Middle East. This was a little concept piece I put together prior to the actual project starting so giving him a home here for now.

25/03/2026

Little astro-gardener character, trying to grow his carrots on a far-off planet. Lots of fun sketching these poses.

01/03/2023

01/08/2021

Had a Neolithic project in my head for a long while now but haven’t sat down to ever write it out. I do love playing with characters for it though. I wish I had as much commitment to the background design. I would love to doodle landscapes and environments a little more in my downtime. I suppose you usually one or the other!

28/07/2021

Does anyone else find child characters SO much easier?! Or senior people - I think middle age is so tricky to get right. For Papa Brad and Mrs Williams here, I went through quite a lot of development work before even showing the client.