bookartsbookshop

I'm pleased to say that the beard book is now available at bookartbookshop near old street tube station. Also, the shop has kindly requested to display the book along with some prints and other beard related paraphernalia in the front window for two weeks in May (7 - 21) in celebration of all things pogonological! I'd better get sewing :)

A book for my mother

I've been a bit of a hermit this past week as I've been working on this book as a surprise present for my mother. She's a primary school teacher and has just retired. She  worked for 34 years in St. Clare's N.S. in Ballyjamesduff, mainly teaching junior and senior infants - she even taught me! 

The book is a souvenir of her time working at the school and captures the highlights of her career there. Over the years the school has changed and grown from being a 4 teacher convent school attended by only Irish children, to a multi-cultural 20 teacher school. I collected lots of old pictures and stories from staff and former pupils at the school and made the illustrations based on this material. Here are some of the spreads - it's 50 pages in total. 

It was great fun to make and I hope she enjoys her retirement - she deserves a rest after all that teaching!

Jotta - featured artist

This week I'm a featured artist on the jotta website :)

Illustration Friday - Wilderness

This is my first submission to Illustration Friday which I'd been meaning to join for about a year! The theme is 'wilderness' but I suppose my illustration is more of a domestic wilderness.

EARTH

I recently attended the 'Earth: Art of a changing world' exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The theme of the show was the way in which human activity is affecting the natural balance and physical cycles of our planet. I found it particularly interesting because a lot of the ideas were similar to what I'd been reading up on and looking at for my MA paper last year. I was especially thrilled to see the work of Edward Burtynsky whom I'd written about in the paper. His photographs represent the landscapes of oil -  from extraction, to how we use it, to it's entrophic end.  

The above image 'Spring in the City' by Chinese artist Yao Lu was my favourite work in the exhibition. At first glance it looks like a traditional Chinese painting but when you look more closely you see that it's something different entirely. 

Wemakegreatthings

I've started a collabarative project with my good friend and fellow illustrator Lizzie. We met at college in Camberwell but now she has abandoned the northern hemisphere for the sunnier climes of her homeland, Australia. It's all very sad here in London without her (sniff), but thanks to the wonders of modern technology we can continue work together in a cross-continental collaborative way (yah!).

Wemakegreatthings is the title of our joint blog. We picked the name because we both have a strong craft element to our work and we share an appreciation for hand-made processes. We both approach illustration in a mixed-media kind of way, employing lots of different techniques including print-making, collage, sewing and (more in Lizzie's case) 3d elements.

I'm really excited about our collaboration!

Sherlock Holmes - end credits

I recently saw the Sherlock Holmes movie (which I thoroughly enjoyed) but my favourite part of the whole film was the end credits. It's a really nice mix of live action footage and hand drawn illustration made by Prologue.