Inside the Life & DIY Home of an Illustrator Who Left London for the Seaside

Never Too Small

Sign up for Milanote for free with no time limit: https://milanote.com/nts9    After years of living and working in bustling London, longing for a change of pace, illustrator Jay Cover moved to the seaside town of Hastings, UK. Raised on the Isle of Man, Jay has always felt a connection to the coast, and in Hastings he's found a welcoming creative community that has shaped his work and the way he lives. From his thoughtful, and DIY,-renovated Victorian house and illustration studio to his favourite neighbourhood café, local artists' workshops and community pubs, Jay introduces us to the people and places that make this town special. Reflecting along the way, on the importance of making things by hand, finding inspiration through everyday encounters and building a life around creativity, friendship and community. My City, My Backyard explores the places people return to, and the stories that make a city their own.  Places we visited this episode: Stooge Coffee https://www.instagram.com/stoogecoffee/  The Waves https://www.instagram.com/thewavesbookshop  Project Art Works https://www.instagram.com/projectartworks/  London Centre for Book Arts https://www.instagram.com/londonbookarts/  The Corner at Tate Modern https://www.instagram.com/tatecornerbar  The Crown https://www.instagram.com/thecrownhastings   Featuring: Jay Cover https://www.instagram.com/jay__cover  Creative Director: Colin Chee Executive Producer: James McPherson Executive Producer: Nelson Khoury Executive Producer: Luke Clark Series Producer: Luke Clark Head of Production: Lindsay Barnard Producer: Jordan Barrett Co-Producer: Olive Bilic Director: Rhys Graham Director of Photography: Sam Kostevc Fixer / B Cam: Tim Gibson Editor: Jaime Snyder Colourist: Jaime Snyder Music: Artlist.io A Soaring Swan Sister by Ardie Son Autumn Pizzicato by Veaceslav Draganov Minimal Truth by Xavi Morató Alkaline Bedtime Story by Phil David Bluebell by Woolfson Glimpse by Jamie Wright Polaroids by Willow McKenna & Santa Susana Rainbow City by Aves Endless Fields by Ian Post Songbirds by Warmkeys Dream Loop by Ariel Shalom Lighter Than Air by Yestalgia Flight of the Inner Bird by Yehezkel Raz Streets by Curtis Cole  Principal production funding from @ScreenAustralia, in association with VicScreen. Financed with the assistance of Scout Production Finance. With support from @T2tea © 2026 Never Too Small Pty Ltd

Transcript

00:00This was a gift from some friends of ours.

00:03That means live, laugh, love in Manx, the language of the other man where I'm from.

00:08We made them a blanket for their wedding, so they're kind of like one-upping us.

00:14I recall a time when me and my wife house-sit for a couple of friends.

00:18It was the first time I'd gone into a house and felt like,

00:21oh, their house is kind of like them.

00:26I think it planted a seed in my mind about something I wanted.

00:31That is hot.

00:32So I found this place where we could imprint ourselves into it.

00:37Yeah, now it feels like a home.

00:47I'm Jake Over. I'm an illustrator.

00:50I live in Hastings in the UK.

00:53I moved here in 2017 with my now wife and we just loved it.

01:00I feel like my practice actually really boomed when I moved here.

01:05I was extremely scared of making the move from London to Hastings

01:11because you're not just uprooting yourself, you're uprooting all your connections and things.

01:14And it's terrifying leaving it behind.

01:18But of course you're not. Of course it stays with you.

01:23I think what makes Hastings unique is the clash of culture here.

01:29You get a sense that people are curious about the world and that's reflected back into Hastings as a place.

01:45What attracted me first to the home was that it was like a dull Victorian carcass.

01:50So three bedrooms, around 95 square metres and we're planning to do a lot of renovations.

01:59Over the years, lots of people had adapted parts of the house.

02:03I didn't have much in the way of experience and building.

02:07The idea of doing things and accomplishing things yourself and having that challenge.

02:11I always love it, try it, give it a go.

02:14The kitchen, that was a full rip-out down to what was basically like rubble.

02:20So that was a huge, huge job.

02:24Decided to put the bin on this side in a pull-out, hideaway, space-saving in a kitchen like this.

02:31Plus, we really wanted these like, you know, like big benches.

02:35So yeah, you're kind of reducing the footprint quite a lot.

02:40We wanted a really big pantry-style cupboard water ceiling.

02:44And that, yeah, reduces the amount of stuff you need over a workspace.

02:48So we also removed the extractor fan.

02:51Bought a hob that has an extractor in it.

02:53So you don't have to have these above.

02:57I see all these kind of translatable skills from things that I do quite often.

03:02I've always made models and things like that.

03:06And quite a lot of it's about scaling that up.

03:08Quite a lot of it's just watching tutorials on YouTube about six times.

03:14I made this shallow shelving unit.

03:17Feels like it extends the kitchen out into the hallway.

03:19There's a nice sort of connection between them.

03:21And then we had this like drop back underneath the stairs which I've turned into a place to put our

03:27coats.

03:28Some storage.

03:29So I recessed some of our shelves into the space to make use of all the space.

03:34And then the gas unit you can get to from this side.

03:38And under the stairs with the other extra bit of space.

03:41And it has loads of shoes.

03:43So it's a good way to get rid of some of the clutter in the house.

03:52I like to walk to work.

03:54Get some fresh air.

03:57There's a coffee shop just below my workspace.

04:01And I go there every single day.

04:03Yes please.

04:05Stooge is my favourite cafe because it's a really good sort of community hub.

04:10There's a lot of people I know.

04:13One person just walked past and nodded to me there.

04:16There's a lot of like creative people around this area.

04:18And we sort of congregate.

04:20The staff are really friendly.

04:21It's just got like a really nice relaxed sort of atmosphere.

04:25Thanks guys.

04:27See you in a bit.

04:29And then I make my way upstairs to my studio.

04:34I work on quite a broad spectrum of illustration projects.

04:38When people talk about my work, they tend to mention how minimal it is.

04:44Shapes, forms, line.

04:46And the way I work, I use an 8B pencil and Xerox paper.

04:50I use the same thing every single time.

04:53If I just use one type of pencil, I use one type of paper.

04:58Narrowing those options means I can focus on what I can do with those two things.

05:04I feel like if the world is like open and you can do anything, it stifles your imagination slightly.

05:11My studio window faces the same way out onto the street, so I quite often see a friend set outside.

05:17And if I'm getting bored of my work sometimes, I need a break.

05:20I'll just take the opportunity to go and have a conversation.

05:24The idea of community and stuff, like getting to know somewhere properly, more intimately, like walking allows you to do

05:31that.

05:32I don't use references that much.

05:34Quite a lot of it comes from memory.

05:36Every time I walk, like you're gaining more information about things or you're noticing something.

05:46To help organise the creative and production planning for our latest My City, My Backyard shoot, we turned to Milanote.

05:53Milanote is a free visual workspace where our team, crew and Jay could share ideas, organise locations and plan the

06:00shoot.

06:01Milanote allowed us to collect all of our notes, links, reference images and videos together and organise them in a

06:07way that made the best sense for this project.

06:10We even embedded a walkthrough of Jay's home, so the whole team could explore the space without leaving the board.

06:16And we used tables, direct links and photos to map out our filming schedule, shots and locations.

06:23Keep your creative projects organised and your team connected.

06:27Milanote is available for free with no time limit, using the link in the description.

06:36I grew up on the Isle of Man, which is a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea.

06:40And I come from a long line of fishermen.

06:43My grandad, he's like a hero of mine.

06:46I think as I grew up around the seaside, I've always felt this kind of like connection with nature or

06:51comfort in it.

06:53There's been quite a lot of change in Hastings since I moved here.

06:57There's a lot of affordable property.

06:59And I really like how Hastings preserves aspects of heritage.

07:03There's a lot of preservation of things for the fishing community.

07:07And there's a lot of new shops, boutique shops, restaurants opening.

07:12There's a bookshop just opened called Waves, really nice.

07:18Has he signed it or not?

07:20Well, no, he's doing the signings tonight.

07:21I love the creative community here.

07:23It's unpretentious.

07:25Everyone's quite grounded and appreciative of what they've got.

07:29Thanks very much.

07:30Welcome, Jim.

07:30Yeah, see you soon.

07:31Yeah, bye.

07:32Thanks, Jamie.

07:36Project Artworks, which I just fell in love with,

07:38it's this amazing hub of artists being supported.

07:41And it's like a full-time residency for artists making really amazing work

07:46and finding how they want to make work.

07:50This quite charming idea of being under the railway arches

07:54and making use of those spaces.

07:56Look at that, this combination of like flowers and berries

07:59and nice leaves, shapes and all sorts of stuff.

08:02Cow parsley, I think.

08:05Visual feast.

08:07Colourful feast.

08:10Hello, Jay.

08:11Hi.

08:12Good to meet you again.

08:13Yeah, you too.

08:14Good to see you again.

08:14Lovely to see you again.

08:16Yeah, you too.

08:17Come in.

08:18Thank you very much.

08:19Here you come.

08:20Artist Charlie, she's made this amazing portrait of a cat

08:23and I recently got a cat, adopted a cat.

08:25So I was really drawn to this painting

08:28and I'm really excited to pick it up.

08:30That's amazing.

08:31Thank you very much.

08:32How are you doing?

08:33That's incredible.

08:34Yeah, thank you.

08:34My name is Charlie Lee Stevens.

08:37I'm an artist and I'm one of the boards here too, I am.

08:43I've worked here for nearly 15 years.

08:46Mainly I support the artists that come here to find pathways that they want to do,

08:52whether that's exhibitions or just to make work.

08:56It is bloody fantastic.

08:59Yeah, it is.

09:01What makes a good day here working in Project Uplex?

09:05Probably painting.

09:07Painting makes it good.

09:09It would be quite nice to paint this building one day.

09:15So I'm going to find a nice place in my house and I'll send you a photo of it on

09:20the wall.

09:34A lot of my work is tactile because I like to get the feel of something.

09:38Me and my wife in the evening sometimes we'll be working on like a little thing,

09:44crocheting or making something out of wood or playing with some materials.

09:50I hope they've got a shot of your beautiful cross-stitched cushion.

09:56Like I don't get a sense of meaning out of things that I've completed quickly, ever.

10:02Things that take quite a long time.

10:04I tend to get a better sense of meaning out of the work.

10:08I did this literally about two weeks ago.

10:11I had a new internet installed and I was like, I want to hide some of this stuff, house it.

10:16Just making use of that material that we had left over from some of the kitchen jobs.

10:21The approach to the whole bathroom was we've sort of moved into this room from a different room.

10:26So it was a blank canvas, apart from it was a bedroom before.

10:33I did all the woodwork myself, had someone help me with the plumbing and the tiling.

10:38I'm always trying to do two things with one thing.

10:41These kind of structures like sort of break up the room a little bit.

10:45It also has the utility of housing, some of our soaps and things.

10:49The problem with baths quite often as well is that you don't have any space on the side of baths

10:56to like put things.

10:57And this felt like a nice way of responding to that problem as I seen it.

11:03Yeah, it's been a really amazing sort of journey, like making all this stuff.

11:12I grew up by the sea in a pub.

11:15My creative appetite was like forged in that kind of space.

11:22My mum was working in the pub quite a lot, so she was busy all the time.

11:27And me and my sister were just upstairs kind of inventing.

11:30We had very little furniture in there.

11:32So it was an amazing place to start to use your imagination.

11:36Drawing video game characters, cereal box characters.

11:43I moved to Leeds when I was 21 years old.

11:47A big culture shop.

11:49Whilst at university I met some people that I formed a collective with called Nuvu.

11:57Then over time I started to develop my own illustration practice.

12:01I think I'm actually pretty bad at taking photos.

12:04I feel like I should be good at it.

12:05A big moment for me was a book called Flat, which featured a lot of furniture.

12:11I made these strange illustrations of furniture I documented.

12:15And my way of owning them felt like I'll just draw a picture of it and it's like I've got

12:19some ownership over this thing.

12:22Then I started to just get lots and lots of commissions and that was fantastic.

12:26And my career kind of took off.

12:32Going to London became the next stage.

12:36I loved the hustle and bustle of that when I was there and it was great.

12:41Quite important as an illustrator to be observant and to be around the riches of different types of characters and

12:47people.

12:53I used to live quite close by London Centre for Book Arts.

13:04I always got on with Simon and Ira. They've always been like quite good friends.

13:11I've had a relationship with them since they started.

13:14They bought a risograph printer and I remember they asked me to come in and show them how to use

13:19it.

13:20And they let me use the machine to print a few books and things in return.

13:24And yeah, I just kind of drop in and like make some stuff with them.

13:31We are an open access centre for book art.

13:34People can join us for a workshop, they can join us as members and they can come work on their

13:38own book projects at the studio.

13:40You know, there's just the two of us that run the space and it's a slug but then it's a

13:44fun slug.

13:45Yeah.

13:46It's not like going to work in an office, which I don't know.

13:50Not that there's anything wrong with that.

13:52It's fine.

13:53We always give really negative answers.

13:56Yeah, sorry.

13:57They had such a massive interest in these old print techniques.

14:01You know, it's one of those things where you're like,

14:03is this going to work?

14:04Because it's like such an old fashioned printing thing.

14:07But they breathe such new life into it.

14:12Jay bought us a lino block that he's carved and it has to be made the correct height for printing

14:18letterpress.

14:18So we've shimmed it with some board, locked it into the bed of the press,

14:22and then it's fairly quick and immediate.

14:25It's a bit like pancakes.

14:27The first one might be awful.

14:29Letterpress, it's almost like an endangered crafter.

14:31There's not that many people doing it.

14:33Are you going to pull one?

14:34Do you remember how?

14:35Yeah.

14:36Hand on here, hand on here.

14:38Walk with it.

14:39Walk with it.

14:40Walk with it.

14:41All the way to the end.

14:42Grab it.

14:44Ta-da.

14:50It's like riding a bike.

14:52I love it.

14:53I think the main thing that anchors us together is the Making Books book,

14:56which is quite a good informative guide to book making.

15:01I remember I made a drawing and they really loved it.

15:03And they sort of adopted it as a motif character.

15:07I feel like people like Simon Nara don't get enough credit.

15:12Like always like the artists are the people who are the spectacle of exhibitions and things.

15:17Actually being people that facilitate people making work is really quite important.

15:23You're in places like this and it gives you more ideas and these guys will be able to help you

15:27figure things out.

15:29Yeah, it's just amazing that Simon Nara set that up.

15:33That is alright.

15:34No problem.

15:35Nice feeling of being here again.

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15:59I'm very interested in community building places that offer a lot to different types of people.

16:07At Tate Modern we're doing a live drawing event at the same time as a tap takeover in their corner

16:15bar.

16:17I'll be designing labels live.

16:20Guests there will be able to draw on a label, submit them and we might print it onto an actual

16:26can of beer.

16:28When I used to work as a teacher working in London at Camberwell College of Art.

16:33That was amazing.

16:35You're in an environment with young people who have energy and you're just talking about illustration.

16:41Helping people become who they want to be.

16:44I really like that process.

16:50London, I loved it whilst I was there.

16:53But then eventually I kind of was like, oh, I'm feeling a bit tired.

16:57Getting into my late thirties and I was kind of just yearning for something a bit more like quiet and

17:03slower, a bit more like where I'd come from.

17:09I saw an opportunity in Hastings to slow down.

17:14And also just getting back to the seaside felt very therapeutic, restorative.

17:23I don't feel like a fisherman, but I feel like I'm, I know fishermen very well.

17:28And there's something comforting about that.

17:32Hastings is full of really amazing pubs.

17:35My favourite pub is The Crown, which has been like a staple since I moved to Hastings.

17:42Tess and Andrew do such a nice job.

17:45We're a community pub.

17:47We're serving great local produce, great food, cooked seasonally.

17:51It's not just about food.

17:54It's not just about drink.

17:56Pubs are community spaces.

17:59The events, they have an artist program where they show different local artists all the time.

18:05I had a show quite early on when I moved here.

18:09It just feels very wholesome and nice.

18:15I think it's special because we kind of feel supported by our neighbours.

18:19We feel supported by our customers.

18:25I think that's very important for people to be part of community.

18:32As an illustrator, you're kind of on your own quite a lot.

18:35And it's important for me, once I step out of the studio, to feel like I have friends and people

18:42who care about me and people I care about.

18:44And this nice reciprocal thing you have with those people is very inspiring.

18:51And it feels like that's quite easy here in Hastings.

18:59I've been living here in Hastings for nine years now.

19:03I don't crave busyness or excitement anymore.

19:07Now, day to day, I want quiet.

19:09I want to be able to think, to have time for myself and my loved ones.

19:16Friends are as easy to make as stepping out of your door.

19:19Everything is walkable.

19:21And there's lots of fun things to walk to.

19:27On our first night in Hastings, we laid in bed and noticed seagulls squawking into the late hours.

19:33I imagined for most it would be irritating.

19:35But for me, it provided a profound comfort.

19:39It felt like where I grew up, surrounded by sea.

19:43It felt like the natural world was speaking to me again.

19:51I feel like I had a bit of fun here and I went a bit crazy.

19:54And as we were talking earlier about, sometimes you have regrets.

20:00I feel like this feels a bit like I got this wrong.

20:04Or like I made a mistake.

20:07Or it's a failure in some way.

20:09It works, but I'm not sure it fits with the scheme.

20:13And I was just kind of having a bit of fun and interested in things.

20:17So I might re-approach this at some point.

20:19It's not important.

20:20It works.

20:22Some of the bits are great.

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