about

Who on earth is MH anyway?!?

BA (Hons) Illustration, University of Hertfordshire

Foundation Studies in Art & Design, Barnet College

Clients include: Royal Humane Society (RHS), London Underground Ltd (LUL) & Hutt City Council (HCC)

I’m Michael Haynes, a British illustrator now based in Wellington, New Zealand who's passionate about art and graphic design. Along with my creative interests, I have a real obsession for music and film, which often influences the work I produce. I pride myself on my loose and lively linework, stylized comic book aesthetic and a bold use of colour. Although I began my art journey working with traditional materials, all new and recent work of mine is predominantly digital. Examples of my artwork on this site show a good mix of both creative mediums. I enjoy painting on an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil in Procreate but I often will finalise and tidy work up on my Mac in Photoshop before it's commercially printed. I'm surrounded by books in my day job, working at a central library and have a great love for quirky and unique children's picture books- even more so since becoming a parent. I hope to write and illustrate my very own one day as I work on developing my visual style for a far younger audience.

I've been freelancing in my spare time as an artist/illustrator for the past 15 years, selling and exhibiting my work in galleries, art markets and shops. To date, I've had 2 successful solo shows and participated in many more group exhibitions across the UK's capital. I also assisted in managing a community art gallery in East London, helping emerging artists from the local area set up and get their work shown. I've donated artwork and raised funds for various charitable causes over the years. I ran a popular drawing programme for children called 'Let's Draw!' at a community hub in the Wellington region of NZ and now run 3 distinctly different drawing programmes, 3 days a week at 2 libraries in NZ's capital. Sketch Club, Sketch Club: Book Cover Challenge & Sketch Club Social. These are groups for both children and adults too and may be introduced at other library sites soon.

Creative heroes/influences: Quentin Blake, Tony Ross, Mark Beech, Raymond Briggs, Donovan Bixley, Pete McKee, Drew Struzan, Jim Lee, Neal Adams & Tom Paterson.