Cosmo Mulford isn’t chasing trends—he’s building a legacy, one inked line at a time. From hand-drawn sketches in a Shropshire village to album artwork for major music releases, his journey as a freelance illustrator is rooted in passion, patience, and a sharp eye for visual storytelling.
Armed with a mechanical pencil, a Kuretake brush pen, and a love for manga and tattoo art, Cosmo has created a style that’s unmistakably his own. In this interview, he talks about his unconventional process, the changing creative landscape, and why staying inspired sometimes just means playing video games or watching a great film.
How did you first get into the industry?
I got my start in Illustration pretty much as soon as I graduated from university. I was lucky enough to do some work for Universal Music Group and got featured in Creative Review whilst exhibiting at New Designers in 2014 and again in New Designers One Year On in 2015.
Where are you based now and who do you work for?
I live in a small village in Shropshire and am freelance at the moment.
What is your personal background and what role did it play in your career?
I was born and raised in Shrewsbury. I studied Illustration (Visual Communication) at Glyndwr University in Wrexham I have been drawing for as long as I can remember and have always wanted to do it professionally.
If you weren’t in your current industry, what would you be doing?
Outside of illustration I have other interests like music, films, books and video games. I think in another life I would have worked in a record store or a book shop. I would definitely try to use of my extensive geeky knowledge to my advantage in some way.
Can you explain your creative process? What makes it unique?
Increasingly my old school art process is becoming rarer over time. Whilst I do use Procreate to ink or edit my artwork my pencilling and rough sketch process is always done in real life on paper. In terms of inking in real life I really like how intuitive and enjoyable the process is but I will admit it is faster and sometimes easier for me to ink digitally.
How would you describe your style?
My work is inspired by Manga/comics, Tattoo art, black and white photography and Japanese woodblock prints. I hope that those influences are reflected in my work.
Which individuals do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Yuko Shimizu, Katsuhiro Otomo and Craig Thompson are some of my favourite artists working today.
What tips would you give to other professionals to get more clients?
Not that long ago I would have stressed the importance of promoting your work through social media but due to algorithm changes I think it's a lot less important now or at least not worth the effort and that you may have better luck just contacting the people and companies you would like to work with personally.
What kind of tools/kit/software could you not do without?
I'm a big fan of Procreate on my iPad Pro in fact a lot of my creative process revolves around my iPad whether its collecting references images or inspiration to putting on music whilst I draw it has definitely changed the way I have worked for years now.
Other than that, I favour Mechanical pencils to wooden and my favourite brush pen that I use on almost all of my work is the “Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen No.13”
What’s your secret to staying inspired and motivated?
I feel that sometimes sitting down and enjoying art in your leisure time whether that be films, video games, music or literature is not always wasted time if you are a creative, it can actually be considered an essential part of your creative process because it may inspire you in way you didn’t anticipate. Even if it is antithetical to the medium you have chosen to express yourself in.
I have found cinematography, photography and music have inspired much of my work. Even outside of art just traveling or observing everything around you at any given moment, recording it in a journal, sketchbook or a photograph may inspire something later down the road and its good practice anyway.
What’s the work achievement you’re most proud of?
By far my favourite project was the album artwork for the musician Dan Owen, Willow Tree from 2023. As well as the main album cover, I got to branch out and design the singles artwork too which gave me the idea of connecting all of the covers together to reveal a full intricate image that was eventually included as a fold out poster in the CD and Vinyl release.
It was quite difficult at the time because whilst I had a rough idea of what the full image would look like I didn’t know exactly which singles would be released and when so I had to work on the fly as they came out. I think it came together really well in the end.
What do you think sets apart truly exceptional creatives from the rest of the pack?
I think that if they are in the industry for the right reasons and are passionate about your craft it will show in the artwork your heart has to be in it and it also helps if you would do this anyway even without a paid commission or College assignment.
What is the one thing that you would change about the industry?
Use of Generative AI.
Any websites, books or resources you would recommend?
Perspective Made Easy-Ernest R. Norling
How to Draw Manga Volume 1
How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way-Stan Lee and John Buscema
The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics-Klaus Janson
Rendering in Pen and Ink-Arthur Leighton Guptill