Sophie Watson lives in Auckland and balances art and craft tutoring with illustration work and her own arts practice. A tinkerer and experimenter by nature, her love of trying new things feeds into a diverse output which ranges from dense black and white pen drawings to colourful, layered collage pieces, rich, dry-brushed gouache works and recently 3-D and textile projects. These disparate mediums are expressed through a characteristic wonky, tactile charm often accompanied by vibrant, considered colour palettes. Her zines have won ‘Best of the Fest’ awards at the Auckland Zinefest in Narrative and Artwork categories and her comics were featured in ‘Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women’s Comics’. She is a current Creative Arts Resident at Studio One Toi Tū where she is working on some picture book projects and is a member of the Auckland based illustration collective Paper Assassins. Previous illustration clients include Huia Books, Penguin Books, New Kid Footwear and Metro Magazine.