Yvette Earl

RECOGNISING THE VITAL AND SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION OUR ALUMNI MAKE

Born and raised in Carlisle, Cumbria, Yvette has always loved art, particularly drawing. After graduating from her illustration degree she took on roles in graphic design offices before re-discovering her love of drawing and turning a side hustle into her full-time job, selling her prints of city landmarks and taking on commissions from leading brands.

Passionate about art and carving a career her own way

Born and bred in Carlisle, Yvette attended Norman Street and Trinity schools. Mum Marie is a higher learning teaching assistant at Trinity School and Dad Raymond, a retired railway fitter.

From a young age she was interested in art and her earliest memories are of drawing. Describing herself as ‘average’ at school, Yvette is a visual thinker. She has a creative brain buzzing with ideas. Art is a de-stressor for Yvette, a space where she can zone out and enter a flow state.

Art at secondary school was not a positive experience, she loved the classes until an art teacher told her she wasn’t good enough at art to pursue a career in it. This statement understandably stayed with Yvette and knocked her confidence.

Yvette continued to pursue her passion and in 2009 she enrolled on an art foundation course experimenting with different mediums, but always gravitating towards drawing. Tutor Paul Taylor helped push her in the direction of illustration. Yvette continued her studies at the University of Cumbria with a BA (Hons) Illustration degree. Staying in Carlisle was a natural choice for self-confessed ‘home-bird’ Yvette. 

Yvette loved her degree and she had an excellent tutor in Dwayne Bell, who encouraged her to go into digital and photoshop methods, which is how she works today.

As part of her course, she studied graphic design. This led to her first job with the Derwent Pencil Factory as a graphic designer and marketing assistant. Further roles followed and Yvette found herself working in nine-to-five, office-based, male-dominated graphic-design jobs which did not suit her. She ended up feeling uninspired and she stopped drawing for four years. 

In 2017, Yvette picked up her pens again. With a keen interest in social history, she began to draw buildings around Carlisle. Eventually, she set up a website and social media channels to start selling prints of her drawings. The prints took off and Yvette won a Carlisle Living Award. Many people around her upheld the view that you can’t make money in the arts, perhaps a more common perception in smaller northern towns and cities. This added to the scars from the negative feedback she had from school art teachers and Yvette never believed she could make her art practice into a business.

The print shop grew bigger, together with her confidence, and commissions started coming in. However, running a business, as well as working full-time was very demanding. Yvette had been saving and investing in computer and printing equipment and the idea of running her own business began to grow. With a final supportive push from her boyfriend and parents at the start of 2023 she made the scary leap and gave up her full-time job to work for herself.

Today Yvette works predominantly digitally drawing major cities; Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and even New York as well as Carlisle and local scenes. Her work really stands out with its strong, bold, psychedelic colours and surreal exaggerated night skies, as well as wobbly lines and multiple textures.

Yvette is very busy; she currently has commissions from the BBC, Armstrong Watson, NE1, Tullie House, Carlisle Gin and Stickerapp to name just a few. Major career highlights include featuring in a Royal Institute of British Architects book and having two paintings in an exhibition earlier this month at the Baltic Gateshead.

Yvette featured in our recent Creativity Pays campaign and was also commissioned to paint a mural for our Outdoor Classroom at Fusehill Street. 

Yvette has always stuck with her passion for art. She has committed herself to working on subjects that inspire her, developing a thriving business and making a real name for herself through her own hard work and determination. Yvette is passionate about inspiring local creatives and particularly women in the industry. Yvette has proven that you can make money from art, that you can do it even from Cumbria, and you can make a living out of something that you love. I hope her old art teacher can see her now...

Follow Yvette's career here... www.yvette-earl.com/