Illustration Portfolio
What Illustration Means to Me
Illustration is the medium I reach for when something needs to be said fast, loud, and without room for misreading. A lot of what's here started as anger: at a graffitied bridge, at a government, at the version of authority that thinks it's untouchable. Illustration is where I get to talk back immediately, in a language built for protest with nothing subtle about it.
'God Save The Queen' (2025) by Kaye Outhwaite, Digital Illustration, 297,01 x 419,95 mm. © 2025 Kaye Outhwaite. All Rights Reserved.
‘God Save The Queen‘ (2025) by Kaye Outhwaite is inspired by the single album cover: ‘God Save the Queen’ by Jamie Macgregor Reid. Reid’s artwork was based on a Cecil Beaton’s photograph of Queen Elizabeth II.
God Save the Queen (2025)
God Save the Queen, a digital illustration I created with ransom-note typography and distressed textures layered over a corrupted portrait. This piece captures a satirical reframing of political authority, inspired by Jamie Reid's Sex Pistols artwork and Keir Starmer's policies toward disabled and LGBTQIA+ communities.
I'm not going to pretend this doesn't take direct inspiration from Jamie Reid's iconic 'God Save the Queen' artwork for the Sex Pistols. Reid's original is famous for its rebellious tone and striking visual style, and I wanted this piece to channel that same energy through composition, typography, and symbolism.
One of the most direct references I pulled is the placement of the text across the face. In Reid's design, the ransom-note lettering obscures the eyes and mouth of Queen Elizabeth II, breaking the viewer's connection to the portrait. I did the same here. "God Save the Queen" sits across the eyes, interrupting the subject's identity and undercutting whatever authority the portrait might otherwise carry.
I wanted to keep that same subversive spirit punk always had. Reid used the Queen's official portrait to provoke a reaction, to question power and the symbols that prop it up. I took a formal, portrait-style image of Keir Starmer and did the same thing, drawing it out then corrupting it with distressed textures and bold alterations like smeared red lipstick, stripping away the formality the image was supposed to carry. In 2025, Starmer became known in disabled and LGBTQIA+ communities as "Starmer Harmer," because of policies I consider discriminatory and harmful. So I made the deliberate, ironic choice to turn him into a "Queen" (a word reclaimed by the very community his policies have targeted). It felt like the right way to take some of his authority back.
This piece carries Jamie Reid's rebellious energy forward while reworking its symbols into something new and mine. Bold typography, distressed textures, a satirical reframing of traditional portraiture: it's my version of punk's ongoing argument with power.
'Fuck Hate Speech' (2025) by Kaye Outhwaite, Digital Illustration, Prints on T-shirts. © 2025 Kaye Outhwaite. All Rights Reserved.
F*** Hate Speech (2025)
F*** Hate Speech, a digital illustration I created with bold, jagged, dripping typography borrowed from the visual language of graffiti. This piece captures a defaced civic landmark reclaimed as protest, inspired by the homophobic hate speech vandalism of Diest's Rainbow Bridge during Pride Month 2025.
This isn't just clothing to me. It's a statement I can wear openly, out in the world: moving through streets, shops, and everyday encounters. A travelling piece of protest and pride.
At the centre of the design is Diest's Rainbow Bridge here in Belgium. It is a civic landmark originally painted in 2021 to celebrate inclusivity and LGBTQIA+ pride. During Pride Month 2025, it was defaced with homophobic graffiti: "Fuck LGB(P)T," scrawled in white paint. I wasn't going to let that stand as the last word, so I turned the message back on itself with something clear and unwavering: Fuck Hate Speech.
The bridge sits in the background, illustrated from the same photos that ran in local newspapers. I made the typography bold, jagged, dripping red, borrowing the visual language of the graffiti itself, but taking the vandal's own medium and turning it into resistance instead.
For me, this shirt takes an act meant to hurt and reshapes it into something public and defiant. It's resilience, belonging, and visibility seen in the neighbour whenever I wear it. It's my way of insisting that hate speech gets called exactly what it is, instead of being quietly filed away as "vandalism," which the local authorities attempted to do.
“During Pride month, 2025, an act of Hate Speech was graffitied on the Rainbow Bridge in Diest, Belgium. The local authorities have only treated this horrendous act as an act of vandalism, but it is so much worse than that. It is an act of hate speech. Belgian authorities need to call these acts out for what they are – hate speech.”
Kaye Outhwaite, 08/09/2025
Description:
F*** Hate Speech is a bold, in-your-face statement piece from Kaye Outhwaite, a holographic sticker that says what it means. Made from high-quality vinyl with a mesmerising holographic effect that catches the light, it's built to stick around (literally) on laptops, water bottles, notebooks, or anywhere you want to make your stance clear.
Hot-embossed, which creates a deep 3D pattern
Size: 3 × 3 inches (approx.)
Durable vinyl, perfect for indoor use
Fast and easy bubble-free application
Disclaimer: Please note that this product is suitable for indoor use only.
EU GPSR -related product information
Age restrictions: For adults
EU Warranty: 2 years
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