About me
My name is Raluca and I am an Illustrator based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. I specialize in narrative work such as children’s books and character design and I enjoy working on various other projects such as comics, concept art and publishing. Beside those, I also enjoy creating novelty patterns, greeting cards and animations. My style is very bright and colourful, and I love making others happy with my illustrations!
Beside art, I am a huge fan of traveling, video games, theme parks and anime. I have travelled across Europe with my studies and lived in three countries so far. I aspire to work on a lot of amazing projects and for great companies and individuals! I have lots of goals I want to achieve, and I believe that, with hard work, I can achieve everything I wish to!
currently stuck in my room...
Hello! I hope you're enjoying having a look around! I am currently working freelance from home.... dreaming about the end of all this chaos. What about you?
Interested in working with me?
education
Work experience
MA Visual Communication/ Illustration- Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK (currently studying)
BA Illustration- First Class with Honours- Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK (grad. 2019, and also as an Erasmus+ student in 2017)
BA 3D and 2D Animation- Erasmus+ program- Haute Ecole de la Province de Liege (2018)
BA Fine Art-Graphic Art- Universitatea de Arta si Design Cluj-Napoca (year1, 2016-2017)
Children's Book Illustrator- Matthew James Publishing (March-October 2019)
Design Intern(2019) and Freelance Card Designer (2019-present) - Moonpig
Freelance Card Designer- Card Factory (November 2019-present)
Freelance Designer- Enksy (June 2020-present)
Competitions and achievements
Projects I am currently working on!
Publications
'Molly and the Bog Sprogs', the first children's book I illustrated, will be published by Matthew James Publishing on the 27th of August, 2020.
Prizes
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Winner(and exhibited) of the Black History Month contest organized by The Birmingham Royal Conservatoire
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Winner of the Soska Sisters 'Tales of Terror' Competition
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Student of the Year for Illustration, Viscom Awards 2019
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selected as an intern for Moonpig through a competition
Other Competitions:
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Gallery 1988 2019
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'London Stories' competition by the AOI, 2019
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Runner up for the NB Magazine Contest 2019
Exhibitions and Art Sales
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Exhibited at New Designers 2019- and runner up for the most creative panel
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Selected to attend MCM Birmingham as an art seller twice
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Selected to sell my art at The Elephant in the Room Exhibition 2020, Birmingham
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Selected to sell prints at BoomBirms 2019 (twice) and The Elephant in the Room exhibition (2020)
Interviews
Currently, beside my university work, I am focusing on a lot of other fun projects. Beside working freelance for Moonpig and Card Factory, I also have a few other projects going on
I am working on an original children's book, written and illustrated by me, featuring my beloved character Stella! This is the first time I have done anything like this, but I am trying to make it as good as it can be! My story follows Stella on her journey to reunite with her lost mom and it is a story about loss, friendship and moving on.
I am also working on a comic, which will be part of a bigger comic universe created by Jamie Brownhill. While our stories take part within the same universe, both our comics can be read separately as well, as they follow different characters and narratives. I am very excited to work with him and James Rudd on creating a great comic universe of our own!
My story follows Emily, a bookworm that has always been quite weak and unable to live life to the fullest, and her journey inside the world of a video game. The comic takes place in an 80's setting outside the game, and in a neon coloured futuristic metropolis within the game.
This is a very recent idea that I came up with. I have been working on a few pieces for Mermay, which is an art challenge throughout May to draw mermaids and following prompts given by other artists while doing so. During this, I created a piece for the prompt 'Magical Girl', and illustrated Stella as a magical mermaid girl. The piece slowly came together in what looks like an actual poster for an up and coming anime. This gave me the idea to explore this further. As of now, it's all just in my head!