Meet Stacey, The Talented Artist Behind 'Fox Under The Moon'

'Fox Under The Moon’ started as a project for me while I was out of work during the pandemic. I wanted to put some hope and positivity out into the world, and so I began sharing my whimsical illustrations and uplifting messages on social media. My wonderful online community of followers has now grown to over 275,000 people; and my books, prints and cards have reached more than 25 countries around the globe.

My husband, Jamie, and I are sympathetic to mental health challenges, as we’d had our own journeys with it in the previous years. In fact, when Fox Under The Moon started we were living in a tiny 23ft touring caravan – we’d sold our mortgaged house and left our teaching jobs three years earlier in search of some headspace and a lower stress lifestyle – we had reached our limits living in the ‘rat-race’ and desperately needed to reset our minds.

The brand came about quite by accident really – I had a close friend who was going through a difficult time around then, and I simply couldn’t find a greeting card in the shops that said what I wanted to. I decided to set myself the challenge of creating a suitable piece of artwork – back then using watercolour, which I’d recently taken up to fill some time while lockdown was happening.

The picture I created for my friend was of a little fox sat under a huge moon, and I wrote some words of encouragement underneath. My friend, my Mum and a few others shared the picture on social media, and it quickly got a fair few likes. Friends of friends began messaging me to ask for new designs with different themes, and so I set about creating a series of 8 pictures, all with uplifting messages on. I had them printed as greeting cards, which I sold on Etsy, and every single one sold out within 24 hours!

Within a few weeks the Facebook page I’d set up as a bit of a hobby had grown to have more than 5000 followers, and I had multiple messages from complete strangers every day asking for new designs, which is when I realised that I could possibly make a business from my artwork.

This is a timely question – while browsing social media this morning, a ‘memory’ post from three years ago popped up, from the very first Christmas event I did – the products I had on the table, the branding, but more than anything the actual illustrations themselves are almost unrecognisable to me now!

I very quickly switched from watercolour and acrylic painting, to digital illustration once I realised I wanted to make a business out of my creations – as I mentioned before, I only really started drawing in 2021, and it has been a massive learning curve!  I couldn’t begin to count the hours I’ve spent watching YouTube tutorials on how to use procreate, how to draw in perspective, how to draw full stop… a huge part of it for me was just wanting to be better, but also wanting to get something I cared about out into the world. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but I’m also realistic. I know that I’ll never be an incredible artist – I have finally got to a point where I’ve accepted my style and that people like it, although I will always have a touch of the good old imposter syndrome I’m sure!

It’s been incredible to me that people who like a certain style will just find and resonate with you as an illustrator and author – things don’t always have to be just so. I’ve had my fair share of people ask if my foxes are cats, and my badgers are racoons… but it’s all good, people generally get it, and I think there’s something to be said for a more naïve and whimsical style of illustration.

I believe that what’s made my work so popular with many is that there’s something comforting about the children’s book illustration style that’s sensitive and encouraging in a world where reality can seem all too real sometimes!

People often ask me why I chose a fox as my main animal character – there are a few reasons for this. The simple one is that when I’d mastered illustrating skies, stars and moons, having a nocturnal animal to add to the pictures seemed like a logical step. I have also always had an affinity to foxes – they’re intelligent animals that are often wrongly persecuted.

Finally – as ‘woo woo’ as it sounds, foxes always seem to appear to my husband and I at important times in our lives. When we took the life-changing decision to sell our house and leave our careers behind in 2018, on our final evening in our house we’d left the French doors in our lounge open as it was a hot summer night – a cheeky fox actually found it’s way into our living room! It felt like a nudge from nature that we were doing the right thing, at a time when we had no idea if that was the case!

When I posted my first Fox Under The Moon picture on social media (a very old style now, painted with watercolour and Acrylic) I saw a fox the same day in the fields near to where we were staying. There are so many stories like this I could recount – so, foxes are just special to me, really, and it seems to be the case for many others too!

They all have meaning for me in different ways. If I had to choose, I’d probably say that ‘Being There’ (FX02) is my favourite, because I believe that the message of being with someone at all times in life, not having to speak, just sitting side by side with them to support and encourage them through a difficult time, is the very essence of what ‘Fox Under The Moon’ is about as a brand. The illustration for this card is also the front cover image for my book ‘The Longest Night’, so it’s a special one for me.