NEW PRINTS!

Amongst all the jobs and workshop planning, I have been trying to get some new prints done. I sell my work through two galleries, Funky Scottish and The Outbye Gallery, as well as during East Neuk Open Studios and it is about time I made some lovely new work to hang on their walls!
So, I am expanding the ongoing series of large, animal themed prints which I call "Not Cute", which so far comprises of Baboon & Owl, Like a Rabbit in Headlights, Forest Deer, Urban Fox, Hibernacula Woods and Bird Puddles (I may have missed a couple out...). New Not Cute prints will include lions, otters, horses, fish, more birds and possibly a dog. The lion print is looking seriously good, I have to admit :-) I'll post it when it is completed.

BUT...I do love my fashion-y, girly-wirly illustrations and so am adding to that series too (which I  call "Hair Girls" for some bizarre reason). The above image ,called Frisco, is one of 3 new prints in that series.
Image area is 28x28cm and with a nice crisp mount will measure 50x50cm, perfect for ready made frames from Ikea etc. Of course, if you prefer a bigger version and want it custom framed, then we can talk about that too!

The Theatre/Theater, dahling!

New York City? Iconic skyline? Wooden water towers?  Flyers swirling in the Midtown breeze? Girl in cute little ankle boots picking one up? Yes, all elements in a new illustration I was commissioned to do by John Smart at Collaborate  for the lovely Green Room Musical Theatre Company.
As you can see from the website, I also did the artwork for a previous production called "The Last Five Years", as well as draw portraits of all the company members. 

THIS production is called "Ordinary Days" by Adam Gwon and here's what it's all about:
"Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days is a refreshingly honest and funny musical about making real connections in the city that never sleeps (but probably should at some point). It tells the story of four young New Yorkers whose lives intersect as they search for fulfillment, happiness and love.
This is an original musical for anyone who's ever struggled to appreciate the simple things in a complex place.  With equal doses of humor and poignancy, it celebrates how 8.3 million individual stories combine in unexpected ways to make New York City such a unique and extraordinary home."

Style-wise, I am trying a few things out at the moment and a projects like this is a great opportunity to experiment a bit, as the designer and the client are both open to my doing that and positively encourage it - love that! I love my ink but am really obsessed with texture and surface pattern at the moment, as well as a kind of printed/collaged aesthetic (does that make sense?) The girl is drawn with ink but the building and flyers are "drawn" with the lasso tool in Photoshop, selected from files of hand-made pattern and texture that I create and keep a database of. Sometimes I find a fabric or bit of old monoprint lurking in my plans chest (yes, the Tardis one!)  and just scan it in and keep on tap. Using the Wacom pen to draw with the lasso tool feels very natural to me, and I don't consider it to be any different from drawing with a dip pen. My line still comes through - though you lot can be the judge of that!

 The Ordinary Days tour continues at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Thursday 21 June 2012, 7.30pm - contact Michael at Green Room about tickets!

All The Things I Should Have Blogged About But Didn't

No blog post since August is pretty shoddy, I'll admit -  but there have been a few good reasons for my focus to be elsewhere. First and foremost is that my sister very nearly popped her clogs in September but is on the mend slowly but surely, thank goodness!  Family commitments became a priority whilst still keeping understanding clients happy and so self promotion, studio sort-outs and blogging/tweeting were put on the back burner.
However, some great projects and events have still happened between August and now, so I thought it might be better late than never to write about them in one epic post. So, gird your hirdies, pop the kettle on for a brew then hunker down because you may be some time getting through this beast of a blog...

Images 35: Best of British Contemporary Illustration Awards, London.

In August I travelled down to the Big Smoke with my husband to attend the Awards  and opening night of Images 35.
It was particularly nice as I received a Bronze Award for "Forest Deer" in the Self Promotion category and took the opportunity to catch up with Jonny Hannah who won Gold in the same category! I finally got to meet Sarah Habershon and Roger Browning, art directors at The Guardian, who ask me to do draw pictures for them every so often! Finally, I was really really chuffed for my friend Glen McBeth who deservedly won Gold in the Editorial category - easily one of the best illustrations in the whole show! Nice skull, Glen.
The new Images venue at the Bankside Gallery is a wonderful space and being right beside the Tate Modern really pulls in the crowds too!



Also in August: After much swithering, umming and ahhing I finally made the decision to leave my teaching post at Edinburgh College of Art. I had taught there for 16 years and enjoyed every minute of it (well, apart from the crappy admin and form filling and lots of other things I won't mention) but decided to move on and concentrate on other challenges and before I became too stale as a teacher. I received lots of lovely messages from students, ex-students and staff, which brought a wee tear to the eye.  Thank you ECA and everyone in the Illustration Department, especially Jonathan Gibbs, who is a complete gem.

The Secret Members Show at Factory Road Gallery

Boy oh boy, luckily I had this little show to create work for which took my mind off no longer receiving a regular salary from ECA! Leigh Adams and Sarah Coleman invited me to create a new piece of work for a top secret show at their cracking Factory Road Gallery, which was to be themed around the male member, yes, the penis. Not a smutfest but a serious show which invited an eclectic group of artists, designers and makers to respond visually to male genitalia.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt I'd like to create an illustration that was ALL about the penis but not actually featuring a penis, or indeed a man.

Here's the blurb I wrote for the exhibition:

Title of piece: "You Know What They Say"

"I decided not to draw a penis because there was a whole other story to tell about how we interpret penis size in relation to a man's possessions, lifestyle and physicality. This cliche can be used to joke about, insult, deride, mock, tease, gossip about and even compliment a man(big hands, big feet...you know what they say). It can also put a man in his place if we are not sure about him. But, just how often is it true?
I want to keep you guessing but make you aware of how you judge this modern hunter gatherer as a man. With a penis. Or not..."

To read a review about the show by Ed Garland  and see pics of the opening night and some of the other work go HERE.



Wildcard Stationary!

I have been approached by quite a few card and stationary companies in the past and for one reason or another have never quite had the enthusiasm to sign up with them. However, when Chris and Amanda at Wildcard Company initially got in touch in June something felt a bit different about their approach to their artists, and so I signed on the dotted line! I am really enjoying experimenting and trying out new lettering designs for cards, wrapping paper and all sorts of other stationary goodies. My first range came out in September and I am working on all sorts of new ideas for future ranges too!
My friends and fellow illustrators (and ex-students of mine), Holly Surplice and Vicki Gausden, are also producing ranges for them too. Nice one!




Hong Kong: Artist in Residence workshops

I returned to Hong Kong in November, having been invited back for a second year by South Island School to run artist in residence workshops with both BTec Design & Technology students and IB Fine Art students.
The students at SIS have a pretty full on timetable doing a wide range of subjects but many told me that they really like the freedom they get from these workshops to concentrate on one project over a number of days, without having to drop everything after an hour to go to another class. I have to say that they are an incredibly hard working, talented and focused bunch of people and great fun to teach them!

I set a Make a Book lettering project with the fashion and product Design & Technology students, where each student was given a name of a fashion designer, a product or industrial designer, a random word and also a random object (carried all the way from Scotland, so they were pretty tiny objects, such as safety pins, a balloon etc). They then had to research, concept, design, illustrate and make and bind an eight page book which illustrated an imaginative creative collaboration between the 2 designers they had been given, using the word and object as inspiration. It was quite a complex brief but the results were stunning, involving lots of ink, hand-made and digital elements with some highly covetable little books being produced indeed!

I set a short, sharp 2 day project for the Fine Art students, called "I'm A Survivor", which asked them to create a Magical Survival Kit... all with a twist of course.
Here, the students collaborated in pairs (something they had not done before and were a little nervous about) and again, each pair were given one of the 5 senses, an element from the Periodic Table ,  a name of a country and finally a time of day. For example: Bolivia, 2.15a.m, Sight and Oxygen. They had to think on their feet and really plan to get all their reserach and creative thinking done, as well as source materials to make the box. the sourcing was great fun, as we headed into deepest, darkest downtown Hong Kong, to Wan Chai street markets, where you can pretty much get anything. The students came back with things like a ukelele, various herbs and spices, musical boxes - even a cheeky pair of underpants! All this was adapted for use in the final artwork.
...some photos will say it better than words, I think!

The CIA Calendar 2012: The Alternative Games

Such, such fun doing this! Of course, it is Olympic fever here in the UK (well, London anyway - it has not quite reached Scotland) and my lovely new UK reps, Central Illustration Agency, decided to ask their artists to think up Alternative Olympic sports and events. "Gladly!" I said, and thus felt the need to incorporate some canines in my effort. All dogs love a ball - especially chasing and fetching one. Combine that with some tabards and a watery theme and hey presto, I give you Competitive Fetch. I do actually have a dog that does a good impersonation of scuba diving, so was inspired by that.


Well, that wasn't so bad was it?...
There are some things I have missed, I know but at least this is a catch up of sorts - if only to show that I have not been a lazy, daytime TV imbibing slattern. I do have a few good projects up my sleeve and I promise (fingers crossed) that I will blog about them as they happen - or are about to happen. These include an epic print self promotion for the USA, a surfboard design and even a book!

Oh...and to tidy my studio...

Happy 2012 everyone

Guardian Work cover : The Happiness Business

Been meaning to post this job for ages, especially as I was asked to do this by my Facebook page fans/likers/you know who you are!
Sarah Habershon asked me to illustrate the theme of happiness at work, called The Happiness Business written by Cary L Cooper and Stephen Wood. Basically the article discussed that a lack of workplace wellbeing costs the country £26bn a year and questioned the government’s new measure to make our offices nicer environments.
I must admit, I was inspired by all these groovy (yes, I said groovy) open plan offices, such as at Mother, London and well, all the places I see in my stockpiled copies of ELLE Decoration and Living etc. Everybody is happy, hip and they rollerskate to work, you know the type. Please don't dry boke :-)

Stylewise, this is developing a slighty new approach: drawing with special pens (not pen and ink) but also having some quite geometric, sharp-edged shapes in there - the desk, the laptops, paper etc to act as a contrast.

I am quite obsessed with drawing with calligraphy pens and have developed a serious habit buying them up. They give a great line and I don't have to wait for it to dry before scanning! Textured, sharp areas of shape and colour come from I do not know where, but I am doing a lot more digital collage - basically drawing shapes with the lasso tool in Photoshop but using all sorts of textures I have scanned in.
I'll be honest, It's rather refreshing to be developing my style and trying new things, but at the same time not scaring off clients who love my loose line and inkiness. I do love ink and it will continue to make a special appearance in both illustration and lettering but in the meantime I am having fun experimenting.

On a completely different note, I am also quite obsessed with this food blog I discovered called Recipe Rifle written and cooked by Esther Walker. It is full of lovely stuff, honest opinions and swear words and I would recommend checking it out.

Gary MacKean's Beasties

I just wanted to promote a great exhibition by illustrator Gary MacKean, currently a MFA student at Edinburgh College of Art, which opens tomorrow!


Gary's work is dark and quirky and well worth going to see, especially as the show is tied in to two of his soon to be published books, "Scottish Beasties" and "Leviathans: A Guide to Sea Monsters"

Just don't go into the water...!