Bristol-based artist and illustrator Ed Cheverton adds a playful twist to each and every one of his creations. And boy, are his creations varied. From illustrations to collages, and comics to toys, Cheverton’s work deserves all the hype it can get. And with more than 15 thousand followers on Instagram, the hype is real.
Fond of reading comics, listening to Jazz, and watching Star Trek, Cheverton was drawn to art early on. “I always wanted to be an artist of some sort,” he shared with Lecture in Progress. “I contemplated being a musician for a while; I always loved Jazz and I played trumpet in a lot of bands, but I was never that great and didn’t love it the way I did with visual art. My mum was always very creative; she does a lot of textiles work now but she used to draw beautifully, which of course had a big impact.”
“Wanting to be an illustrator came from drawing comics and creating dense stick-figure battles with my best friend at school,” he explained. “We would do these pretty much every day from the age of nine until about seventeen.”
But it was only after studying illustration that he embraced his artistic ambition fully. “I studied illustration at Brighton, and I loved it to bits,” he shared. “You can’t generalise on the impact of having a degree, but some people really benefit from the collaborative and solid structure of a university course. Others don’t need it to achieve their creative goals. It can be harder and harder to justify it now, as it’s so expensive.”
“I think I’d always suggest going to university, as you get as much from the atmosphere and the people you meet, as you do from the course itself. I recognise it’s quite a privilege to be able to do an art course, and I do worry that it will become more and more elitist.”
Elitist or not, his creations are simply endearing.
