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Toni Hargreaves was born in Lancashire in 1965 and has been keenly interested in both art and the natural world from an early age. She spent five years at Blackpool and Fylde College of Art, studying first technical illustration then specialising in scientific illustration.
A college work experience placement at the University of Manchester's Medical
school interested her greatly working on a series of thoracic anatomy illustrations
for use as teaching material. Here she learned model making under the guidance
of Richard Neave, the renowned forensic sculptor. This led initially to a career
in medical illustration working for a publishing company of professional medical
journals. It provided an opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of print
and to further her knowledge of anatomy and physiology.
After two years, Toni decided to return to the work she most loved, wildlife,
and to pursue a career as a freelance illustrator eventually signing to a London
illustration agency. Much of her commercial work has been for natural history
books and partworks for older children and adults. She has also worked in the
field of advertising which included a series of backgrounds for a TV commercial.
Computer based illustration and digitised artwork were beginning to affect the role of the wildlife illustrator and the type of work available. It was then to prove a turning point in her career when, in 1997, she met international wildlife artists whilst exhibiting at the British Falconry Fair. She changed from painting in gouache to acrylic and found that it added a new dimension to her work giving a sense of atmosphere, control and satisfaction which was not always possible in pure illustration.
