She also painted scenery and made set designs for local amateur productions. In the mid-1890s she was attending classes at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Gibbs was published for the first time in the Christmas edition of the "W.A. Bulletin", 1889. Between 1890 and 1913, Gibbs made several trips to England, primarily to study art. She spent a year at the South Kensington Art School run by Arthur Stockdale Cope and Erskine Nicol, and attended classes at the Chelsea Polytechnic (now Chelsea College of Arts), studying under Augustus John and Ernest Borough Johnson. She graduated in 1905 with first class passes in every category. Gibbs' art education also included ‘half-hours’ at the studios of Victoria and Albert Museum where students could draw the nude for free, and a term at the School for Black and White Artists run by Henry Blackburn, editor of London Society. During her time in England, Gibbs completed assignments as an illustrator for George G. Harrap and Co., published a fantasy about London chimneys, "About Us" (1912), and drew cartoons for the "Common Cause", published by the Suffragettes. On her return trips home to Australia, Gibbs produced fashion illustrations for "The West Australian" and cartoons for the Western Australian magazine "Social Kodak". She became a regular contributor to "Western Mail". Her sketches, illustrations, cartoons and caricatures appeared on the cover and throughout the newspaper between 1904–1908. Notably, Gibbs illustrated an article written by Senator Agnes Robertson on the women's rights movement "'Women's Position in the State’ by 'One of Them’". Gibbs is seen as one of Australia’s first resident professional woman cartoonists and caricaturists and the first Australian woman known to have drawn local political cartoons. ""May Gibbs was a pioneer for female cartoonists, especially since she was successful,”" noted renowned Australian cartoonist Lindsay Foyle. In 1907 she exhibited five watercolours in the First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work at Melbourne. Due to ill health, Gibbs returned to Australia from England in 1913, and settled in Sydney. She took up residence at Derry, a heritage listed semi-detached house in Neutral Bay. 1913 also marked the first public appearance of the gumnut babies, on the front cover of "The Missing Button" by Ethel Turner, which Gibbs had illustrated. She produced postcards depicting gumnut babies in uniform to support Australia's role in World War One at this time.