Industry Research - Ruby Elliot

In keeping with the left of centre comics that have been influencing me over the last few months, I came across Ruby Elliot, a London based illustrator who uses comedy and brutal honesty to explore the ups and down of her experiences with mental illness, and how it affects everyday life.


I immediately fell in love with her erratic style and the honesty of her content. I find myself understanding a lot of her content as there are issues in her work I experience basically every day. Using creative expression to understand situations, feeling overwhelmed and inferior in the face of the massive amount of talent in our class alone, not even counting the whole enormous practice of illustration. There is a personal element to Ruby's work that I find really human, it doesn't try to provide some self important advice on how to cope with feelings of depression and anxiety, but instead takes a completely raw look at it and basically says that sometimes you feel horrible, and it's okay because you aren't alone.
Her whole outlook on her practice is massively inspiring and personally helpful to me. I try to inject elements of comedy into my work and life in general to help cope with feelings of inferiority, fear of failure and lack of self confidence. Seeing that Ruby is doing the exact same thing and reaching out to thousands of others struggling through her work is the main reason I really want to interview her for our creative report.

Luckily, I noticed on Ruby's Instagram story a few days ago that she's actually friends with Molly from third year! Which is really lucky and hopefully will mean I'm more likely to be able to interview her.