A Tale to Tell

I was lucky to be able to get involved with a great project called A Tale to Tell created by the illustrators Jane Richardson and Jamie Mills.

ATTT is a collaborative, illustrated storytelling project, which began with a extract from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Each week a new illustrator is invited to create the next part of the story (an illustration with accompanying text). Each Illustrator responds to the previous entry, taking the story in which ever direction they like, as well as leaving it open for the next person to carry on the story.

"A Tale to Tell: Creating an elaborate, imaginative tale from the minds of some of the most creative people around."

Below is my Illustration:

The Wolves slept soundly. Their sleep was filled with primitive dreams, of a time before there were secrets.

 

Lomography

Often when I'm out and about I think I should have a sketchbook with me, but mostly in this type of situation I am to be found with a Lomo camera in my hand rather than a pencil. As someone who has always worked in a tight considered way, Lomo allows me to loosen up in a way that I rarely (and probably should do) with my drawing work. I thought I would begin to share some of these 'shot from the hip' lomographs as a regular part of my blog.

The following images were taken with my vintage LC-A on expired Fuji Provia 100 in September 2010, London

A Right Royal Pop Up

I'm very excited to have been chosen to be included in Lovely Pigeon's 'Right Royal Pop Up Show'. The show will run between the 28th of April and the 9th of May to coincide with the wedding of Kate and Wills, and will be held at the Murray Library in Anstruther, Fife.

(Image from Fifedirect.co.uk)

My Illustration will feature in the 'Beards and Tiaras' Exhibition within the show. I will be featured alongside 24 other really great illustrators including one of my favourite illustrators Jen Collins. You can see Jen's piece here.

This is my piece - "For the Love of Beards"

I will make this print available to buy very soon :-)

Happy Post Day

Its so nice to get lovely things in the post. Today I received a great little screen print from Nikki McWilliams the 'artist, maker and cake baker'. I won her Kettle Compendium print in a giveaway she had on her blog, you can buy your very own kettle print here.

Shop News!

I am very pleased to announce that you can now purchase my Limited Edition Cycling Prints online! (as well as framed versions in store from the excellent specialist Cycle shop Twenty3c in Stony Stratford, UK)

Click here to browse the available prints

This is my most recent Cycling illo: Manx Missile

Notes on Illustration from Martin Colyer

On the 3rd of February this year Readers Digest Design Director Martin Colyer visited the University of Northampton to give a lecture and look at 3rd year Illustration portfolios. In his lecture Martin discussed his experience in the publishing industry since graduating from The Chelsea School of Art in 1979.

His first job was a junior in the design department of The Radio Times before moving to The Listener flowed by a brief stint as a freelance art editor for the Sunday Times magazine. He then worked as Deputy Art Director at The Observer magazine for three years before taking on his current position at Readers Digest.

In his lecture Martin showed a selection of slides from Readers Digest to demonstrate the variety of illustrators that he has commissioned, from Gary Baseman to Brian Cronin and Noma Bar. He talked about his “neutrality on style” because there are more important things that he looks for in an Illustrator. Namely, an Illustrator should be able to bring a alternative point of view to a publication. 

In his position at Readers Digest he aims to use “intelligent illustration in a mainstream context”. When considering the design of a monthly magazine Martin spoke about the need for “freshness” which can be achieved with the use of illustration. It was fascinating to listen to Martins’s thoughts on the current state of illustration. He spoke about how the genre of illustration is becoming blurred,with so many multi-disciplined practitioners working within the industry in a multitude of mediums. He also spoke about the difficulty that illustrators face in finding your own style, because of the abundance of visual influences. I would agree with this. From the visual media of television to the online media of Flickr and other websites to the beautifully published compendiums of Illustration ( like my favourite Illusive: Contemporary Illustration and its Context) it can be overwhelming. It makes it very difficult to see what makes you stand out as an individual in the melee.
 
Food for thought...

 










Heres a link to Martin’s Website and Blog

Welcome

This is the new home of my illustration blog! More posts are on the way!