Profiles > Profiles D-H > Elizabeth Fuller
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Elizabeth Fuller Elizabeth Fuller was born in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. After primary school in Havelock North, she went to Karamu High School in Hastings, where she was taught art by her father, who, apart from being a teacher (now retired) was also a painter and designer. Her parents always encouraged her sister and Elizabeth to be creative – to draw and paint. When she left school after the 7th form, she attended the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, where she did a 3-year Diploma course in Graphic Design. This was an ideal place for her and she really loved her time there, doing a variety of subjects from printmaking and photography, to life drawing, technical drawing and illustration. After specialising in illustration in her final year, and graduating, she accepted a job at the Avalon Television Studios, working in the Graphics Department. After that, Elizabeth worked in an advertising agency. These were interesting experiences, but she was often frustrated that her hours of drawing or graphic design were used or shown on television so briefly, and then never used or seen again. As luck would have it, at the time, Wendy Pye was putting together a series of educational readers under the Storybox label, and she asked Elizabeth to do some trial illustrations. Her drawings were apparently good enough, and so her first two readers for children were published in 1980: Poor old Polly and Mrs Wishy-Washy both written by Joy Cowley.
After the first two publications, she was asked to do more, and decided to become a freelance illustrator, a decision she has never regretted. With her new freedom, Elizabeth travelled through Asia, the UK and Europe for two years, always managing to do some illustration en route to earn an income. Elizabeth has continued to work independently ever since, and enjoys being able to work her own hours from home.
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