From watercolours to Snakes with Legs: illustrator Beth Bennett on her work so far

Plymouth-based illustrator and graphic designer Beth Bennett is a fairly new face in the creative industries, having only graduated last year in 2024, but one of her recent projects caught our eye, and we just had to know more.

The work in question is Bennett's Snakes with Legs museum series, which reimagines classic artworks with snakes (yes, you read that right). Of course, seeing Leonardo da Vinci's iconic Mona Lisa and The Last Supper depicted in this way is hilarious. Still, Bennett explains how it taught her a lot about background painting techniques and encouraged her to experiment with different brushes.

She says: "The combination of studying traditional art and giving it a playful twist was incredibly fun and helped me push my style to the next level.

"Arms play a key role in expressing emotion and action, so creating a design without hands has pushed me to think outside the box." For example, when redrawing the Pulp Fiction poster, Bennett had to figure out how to depict the snakes with legs holding things in a way that still looked accurate and natural.

This involved taking her work off the page and into the physical world through clay models, which helped her to understand anatomy and perspective. As you can imagine, this experimentation made the process even more enjoyable and rewarding.

"It's been an absolute game-changer," says Bennett. "I also have a rule to never settle for a sketch I'm not happy with, and I'll keep tweaking and reworking it until it feels just right."

Before Snakes with Legs was even an idea, Bennett painted more traditional subjects in her childhood. Some of her earliest memories are sitting in the garden with her grandma, sketching birds and chatting about flowers. "My grandma was an incredible artist—our house was filled with her beautiful Biro bird drawings, which I admired so much," she remembers.

On weekends, Bennett would spend time with her grandad in his home-built studio, learning about watercolours and painting landscapes of dainty trees while he shared stories about his adventures skiing and sailing. It was these small moments that Bennett felt really shaped her as an artist, as she came to see it as a medium for connecting with loved ones and telling stories.

"I think that's what drew me to illustration because one image can tell so many stories, open to interpretation, or it can present a vision so clear that it helps people see things in a new light," she says. "It's endlessly inspiring."

Bennett has explored many styles over the years, taking inspiration from all sorts of techniques, from watercolour and anime to graphic novels and cartoons. Then, during university, Bennett fell in love with Midnight Gospel, started rewatching SpongeBob SquarePants, and began experimenting with unique character designs, like tree people and pig-like dragons.

"I realised if an idea made me laugh, I wanted to draw it," she says.

For her dissertation, she studied Hello Kitty and started favouring a simple, smiley face style, which made her feel "silly and joyful" and suited the characters she wanted to create. That style naturally carried over when the idea for Snakes with Legs came along.

Bennett's first big commission was for EEK! Film Club, which hosts monthly horror movie nights at Bulletproof Brewery in Plymouth. The club invited artists to reimagine the movie posters for each event, and Bennett was thrilled to be asked to do so herself. Having been to a few screenings and even having some of the previous posters on her walls at home, Bennett was thrilled to be asked.

Her piece was a mono-colour poster for Tucker & Dale vs Evil, and Bennett carried out a tonne of research into the film, incorporating hidden Easter eggs into the illustrations. Learning to make a design work with just one colour was an interesting challenge for her. "Before that, I hadn't really explored art inspired by existing media, but this project made me fall in love with it," she says.

"It inspired me to create pieces like my Godzilla Snakes with Legs design and my current Pulp Fiction Snakes with Legs project, and it also taught me so much about contrast, which has been invaluable."

One of Bennett's biggest influences is Andy J. Pizza, the New York Times–bestselling illustrator behind the popular podcast Creative Pep Talk. She often turns to his podcast to help her work through creative blocks and particularly admires his Invisible Things project, where he imagines and illustrates things that aren't visible. "His illustrations constantly push me to think about things differently and approach my own work with a fresh perspective," she explains.

Right now, Bennett is focused on getting her name out there through passion projects and new commissions. In addition to reworking the Snakes with Legs Pulp Fiction poster into a design for hoodies, Bennett is also developing a children's book with snakes that form the shapes of alphabet letters.

She says: "It's been so fun balancing projects for both older and younger audiences – switching between different topics, line weights, and colours keeps my creativity buzzing."

Another goal of hers is designing packaging featuring Snakes with Legs. She also thinks that the snakes could make a great plushie toy. "I think it would translate so well—maybe with little boots and a cowboy hat?" she adds.

Bennett believes that all new and established illustrators should "approach creativity like a child, always experimenting and doing what makes you laugh". She adds: "It's easy to get too serious about art, but sometimes you just need to step away from a piece and come back with fresh curiosity."

She also urges other younger creatives to embrace the power of networking. "The creative community is so friendly and supportive, so don't be afraid to reach out – most people are happy to help."