Throughout my work on the Masters in Illustration, I’ve spent a fair bit of time trawling blogs, searching out images and really analysing postmodern picture books of the late 50’s/60’s. Miroslav Sasek was one particular illustrator along with Abner Grabroff…
I’ve been on my Masters course for almost a year now and the work I am doing at the moment is in relation to my style. Adding textures, depth and movement into my work through techniques applied with a theoretical…
Although I’ve never really thought of myself as becoming a publisher of Greetings Cards, when the opportunity came up with Showcase I thought I may as well test the water. Showcase Greetings offers “a simple one-stop service for great new designs”. So…
An exciting time this month as I am officially underway on my Masters program in illustration. Having done my degree in Graphic Design and then meandered into Illustration I wanted to gain a little more insight into pushing my work…
A really great project that really followed on nicely from the Popadeli web pages that we were doing. The US franchise Images4Kids wanted a fresh new look and so worked through a range of ideas with myself to create a…
East Lancashire Railway contacted myself to help them create the mascot for the new Kids’ Club. They ideally wanted a station cat which could be turned into colouring books, stories and puzzles for the children as well as the life sized mascot and webpage.
It’s early morning on 18th September and I arrive at New Spitalfields Market, Leyton, London ready for the launch of Popadeli. Yes we have finally reached this stage where the website has been 99% finalised to stage 1.
Finally after months of sweating over the night light, the midnight candle and developing little ideas that could go into the website, the nooks and crannies of all the rooms and the characters that take up the main stage. The day was planned with a school visit, press launch, visits from the Children’s Air Ambulance and Dame Kelly Holmes.
The publicity was great, Dame Kelly Holmes chatted with me about the illustrations and the children were intrigued by how I created the illustrations. I’m in the process of adding in the development sketches of the creation of the winning character Rad Ratabaga by Noshin.
The article talks about your online presence, the brand you develop and the way in which your website speaks for you when you’re not available to do so. I’m really pleased they mentioned my website in the branding section as I find developing a brand for myself the most difficult as a creative. It becomes hard to decide what clearly shouts to the audience without either being too vague or too full on. I’m happy now that this approach works. Clients tend to say they’ve found my site and enquired about work because it clearly shows my style, target audience and is simple to navigate. Well navigation is key on websites for sure.
Whilst I spend all of my time on a commercial basis illustrating pictures digitally (well the final artwork), I love it. it does sometimes feel like there’s the messy part of art missing.
You know the experimentation, the testing process, the repeat of a piece because its not quite right. The playfulness of the artwork. None of this is captured with my digital illustrations unless you save it as a new file each time. As you correct the bits as you go along. The undo button hides any little imperfections and any stray points I add with the pen tool.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
― Pablo Picasso
Home Start is a charity aimed at improving lives of parents and children around the UK through education and advice. When they approached me to work on their charity calendar I was eager to help out, as our work as children’s illustrators serves to inspire and help children in every way. The charity are great as they support the whole family through what can be a tough time. How infuriating must it be but also comical for a small child to be happily helping you to finish the painting in the way they’ve been taught at nursery or school. It also combines the dad and daughter relationship that so many single parents lose sight of or cannot have due to unforseen circumstances.