My other life: Iain Hamilton, Crawford and Company, card maker

How did your interest in art start?

I’ve always scribbled and doodled for as long as I can remember. At age eight, I won the Farmers Weekly magazine colouring competition and came away with a toy combine harvester. Thankfully my skills have improved slightly since then. 

In the last few years, people began to officially commission me and I’ve been in gallery exhibitions. It quickly got to a point where, to keep up with demand, I reduced my days at work as an agricultural loss adjuster to part time. Crawford has been incredibly supportive and allowed me the opportunity to work flexibly.

How did you build up your skills?

As you might expect, practice is a big part of how I constantly improve my art skills. However, another big factor is being challenged to draw all sorts of things from farm tools, to pet portraits to animals driving cars and so on. I get some very odd requests at times.

What’s your next project?

The list of upcoming designs is ever-growing, but I will be doing a Labrador illustration soon. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked for something themed around a Labrador. Also, I have several Valentine’s Day card designs for this time of year.

Any crossover between card making and your insurance day job?

As an agricultural loss adjuster, a lot of my insurance work involves going to farms, and a lot of my drawings are inspired by rural life and the countryside. It helps that I can sketch the damage on claims reasonably accurately too.