About Me

Appropriately last night there was the trending hashtag #MeetTheCCArtist which saw the introduction of all the lovely artists (including me) taking part in Colour Collective this year so this post is well timed.

It's the beginning of a new year, I have a new look blog and I have some exciting new ventures and announcements coming soon so I thought what better way to kick it all off (in the 3rd week of January I know I know) than an About Me for those that haven't been following me from the start.

So who am I?

Well.

I am Gwennan Rees, a 23 year old freelance illustrator and blogger. I live in South Wales in the Vale of Glamorgan where I grew up after moving back here in June when I graduated from Glyndwr University in Wrexham where I got a 2:1 with Honours in Illustration, Children's Publishing & Graphic Novels. I split my time between my home with my boyfriend and my parents home (where they have lived since before I was born) which holds my studio/office.

I have one brother who is 20 months younger than me making him only an academic year below me and we are essentially twins. Legit, we faked it for years to get us both in places as children/students etc. Whatevs. Thuglife. He has a 7 month old daughter making me Auntie Gwennan and I babysit her at least twice a week and we go on lots of walks where she sleeps and I take photos for my Insta grid (they feature heavily on my blog so there's that).

We have a cat called Mildred who is about 7 years old and came to us as a stray about 5 or 6 years back by jumping on our window and basically refusing to leave. I named her Mildred as a joke because I am a HUGE fan of really human names for animals and everyone else hated it but it stuck so boo to them. When she goes on holiday to the cattery her little name plate on her cage says Mildred Rees which makes my heart all -heart eyes emoji-

I have known I wanted to be an illustrator (children's books would be the dream) since I was about 4 but I only realised I had a passion for blogging in about August last year. I was one of them kids in school that never had a detention and never did wrong but without being overly swotty, just one of them ones people say the name in conversation and everyone else says "Who is that?", yanoo, one of them kids that just blended in. I once got 0 in a French verbs test and on the resit got 2 so that's pretty much the highlight of my badass stage. I worked bloody hard to get a C in Maths, gave up at Science, sat my Welsh GCSE and A Level early and then forgot all of it. I started a trend where I got the highest grade in my Arts subjects with an A* at GCSE and A Level followed by a Distinction in Foundation and then broke it with a mere 2:1 at degree level.

In the summer I became a freelance illustrator and blogger and set myself up in business as self employed and developed my own brand. I am 6/7 months into working for myself and I love it but man it's bloody hard. One day I will do a post about things I have learned and things I wish I'd known before I embarked on this little idea.

And to finish;

10 Facts You Might Not Know About Me:

1. I have an allergy to nuts which I found out on the NYE when I was 15 when my Mum made me eat one.
2. I don't carry an EpiPen because I have never had a second reaction so they don't know whether the next one will be A Ok or, well, I will die. So there's a bit of roulette fun for you.
3. I took a year out after finishing school to do my Foundation course so me and my brother ended up in the same academic year so we moved to university within a fortnight of eachother. My parents loved the two student loans and two children begging for luxuries like cheese at every visit home.
4. My boyfriend and I have been together since we were 17 in school, moved 5 hours away from eachother for 3 years for university, came home again and moved in and we'll have been together 6 years in May.
5. I have always been partial to a Justin Bieber track, not since he started releasing all these bangers. What can I say, he writes a good tune.
6. My favourite film is Walk The Line about Jonny Cash. My second favourite film is Madagascar. Make of that what you will.
7. I suffer with anxiety.
8.  My middle name is Elizabeth which is my mother's first name and also my cousins first name but she spells it with an S.
9. I am 8491 days old today (I have an app that tells me these things, as I mentioned above, I got a C in Maths I ain't no genius or anything).
10. You know that meme going around Facebook of a picture of a cuppa saying "Imagine you fell in love with someone and then found out this is how they make their tea?"....That's how I drink my tea.

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