ABOUT THE ARTIST

Who is Penspeare?

Anni Penspeare is a late-20-something cartoon enthusiuast who was born in East Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since she was wee 'un, she would jump between wanting to be an author, a film director, and an artist. This wish didn't shift much as she grew into an older child, but being introduced to manga she soon toyed with the idea of being a manga-ka; the Japanese version of a comic artist. This hasn't changed, although she prefers the term 'graphic novelist', or her portmanteu 'illust-writer' (illustrator-writer) as the latter  offers broader connotations.

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She used to thoroughly enjoy looking into the 'behind the scenes' featurettes and process art books of her favourite films (Nightmare before Christmas; Corpse Bride; Shaun of the Dead; Return of the Living Dead) to see how they were made, and to garner inspiration and hope for herself.

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Penspeare utilises a stylised, semi-realistic aesthetic in her work, favouring portraiture. Mixed-media with dark but hopeful ukiyo-e tendencies, she looks for inspiration from aspects of Courage the Cowardly Dog, Kim Possible, '90s Disney cartoon shows, and works of Rebecca Sugar with particular interest in Steven Universe who, as it happens, also takes heavy inspiration from modern artwork of the East.

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Anni Penspeare has a BA degree with a Second Class Honors in Film & TV, specialising in screenwriting. Although she would absolutely love one, she is still working out exactly what she want to do for a Masters and trying to gather up enough money so she can complete it with financial peace of mind, and the time.

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When she isn't working at her day job, Penspeare lives in Belfast with her dog-son where she works on projects in her home studio. Hopefully some day she'll be able to solely do the latter without the muggle job distraction.