Hello. I'm Kathryn MacHugh, an Irish artist and designer based in the Netherlands with a passion for turning ideas into visually compelling stories. With a background in architecture, I specialise in creating digital art and I am currently working on personal projects for my portfolio, designing characters, their worlds and the things they use.
My journey in art and design began when I was a young child drawing birds and making homes and furniture for my toys. Since then, I've honed my skills through a degree in Architectural Design from IT Sligo and other online resources such as a course in Visual Development and Art Direction from CGMA.
I studied Architectural Design RIBA Part 1 at ITSligo, Ireland and graduated in 2019. The course focused on designing places for people that were functional, relate to their surrounding area and re-imagine the existing built environment. The building designs centred on interpretation of place, regionally transformative architecture, regeneration of built heritage, human experience and perception of space.
I took the Visual Development and Art Direction Mentorship course from CGMA at the beginning of 2021. This was a 10-week mentorship course focused on learning how art direction helps tell the story and fits within the production pipeline. We chose a short story to work on, created a visual planning sheet and developed the designs. I focused mainly on the sets and environments and really enjoyed the course.
I love engaging in hands-on projects, whether it's sketching, building props, models and sewing. I always sketch my ideas in my notebooks testing different iterations. Then I usually bring the sketch into Photoshop to flesh out as there is more choice for colours, tracing over my designs many times and having reference photos on my canvas. If the project calls for it I will make plans for the building and then generate a model by hand to test the ideas, or I will figure out different ways to make a prop from materials I have on hand. For my sewing projects I start with a basic pattern and alter it according to the design or I will make a pattern from scratch.
I draw inspiration from nature, and my work often reflects concepts of “connections”. In my architecture projects, I aim to bring these ideas of connections into the design by connecting to the building site through views and material choices.
When I'm not designing, you can find me baking, exercising, looking at vintage clothing and playing video games.
Thank you for visiting my portfolio. Want to work together? You can contact me below, I'd love to hear from you.
Thank you!