Yes, in another life I worked in TV animation on shows such as Danger Mouse and Duckula in Manchester. Then when I moved to Dublin in 1990 I worked on Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. At the age of 28 I had moved up to art director but was doing little if any actual drawing myself. From a young age all I’d ever wanted to do was draw so I gave up animation and embarked on a freelance illustration career. It was tough getting regular work at the beginning but instantly a lot more fulfilling.

Myself and 6 other illustrators were invited to Tenerife. At a press conference we were each given an island, a local illustrator guide, a sketchbook and a hash tag, #onthedraw. The mission: to sketch the island over 6 days then return home to create 6 illustrations, each for a group exhibition later in the year.

I flew to La Palma where I was met by my guide, a very talented local illustrator, Victor Jaubert and Kevin who was our translator.

Over the following 6 days I was taken to many wonderful places, some famous, like the day we took a 1 hour drive up the steepest roads to visit the The Gran Telescopio Canarias ‘Canaries Great Telescope’, sited on a volcanic peak 2,267 metres (7,438 ft) above sea level. As night fell on a moonless sky we could clearly see the Milky Way and shooting stars. Around midnight we were given a tour of the massive 10m telescope, truly a once in a life time experience. Other trips were more secret and hidden like the old fishing village at Poris de Candelaria, situated under an enormous overhanging cliff and used by locals as a weekend get away. Berto, our host for the day, prepared the best Paella ever over a BBQ, which we washed down with some incredible home made red wine – an amazing day.

Other days we had trips to a prehistoric rain forest, underground thermal springs, a salt farm, a cigar museum, a winery and many more, not to mention the fantastic food and wine every where we went and of course the very friendly and ever helpful people of the island.