Shebeen Festival Manchester

So the Draw North West exhibition went down a treat at Shebeen Festival in Manchester last weekend!



I arrived early to help set up the space, in a cosy corner of The Runaway Brewery. Using some seriously impressive improv skills (we were short of a few vital tools!), Alan Dalby, Andrew Jolly and I managed to hang the prints and set the table up, and shambled it together until it looked gorgeous.



I broke out my trusty brush pen to work in some hand-drawn lettering on the board, making sure all the artists were credited and nicely visible.  I'm definitely looking into working on more illustration and lettering for wall displays, it was great to work with some new angles!



The scent of street-food and local beer rolled in with the festival goers, and we were selling prints within the first few minutes of opening. I couldn't stay for much of the festival, but it was great to have a taste of the atmosphere, and hear that a good bundle of prints sold throughout the day!



If you couldn't get to the festival (or you spent all your pennies on beer!) I'll be putting a few of my remaining riso prints up for sale in my online shop in the coming weeks, and hopefully have a couple up for grabs at Thought Bubble later in the year!

If you want to read a little more about the Shebeen backstory, or my illustration for it, have a look at this blog post!

Big thanks to Andrew for the photos he took, to Shebeen Festival and the other Draw North West exhibitors: Alan Dalby, Chris Howker, Chris Madden, Benjamin Harrison, Nell Smith, Racco, Tony Westwood and Mat Greaves.

Shebeen Queen

As a freelance illustrator lone-wolfing it from a studio at home, I try to push myself to get connected with as many local creative and business groups and events as I can. It’s just healthy to get that feedback from other people and pop the stay-at-home bubble.

I’ve been going to Draw North West in Manchester since its launch in 2011, it’s a great hub of talent that meet every two months to guzzle a few beers and scribble some scribbles. This year the group were asked to produce a number of risograph prints for Shebeen Festival in May. If you don’t know what a Shebeen is (I didn’t!) it comes from the Irish “síbín” and was originally a term for an illicit bar where alcohol would be sold without a licence. The term has spread from its origins in Ireland, to Scotland, Canada, the US, England, Zimbabwe, English-speaking Caribbean, Namibia, and South Africa; and we fed off the term to submit posters to the exhibition.

After a little research, the idea that really stuck with me was the term “Shebeen Queen”.

“Originally shebeens were operated illegally by women who were called Shebeen Queens.  The Shebeen Queens would sell homebrewed alcohol and provided patrons with a place to meet and discuss political and social issues. Currently, shebeens are legal in South Africa and have become an integral part of South African urban culture. “

There’s so much illustrative potential and visual loveliness that could come from that, and I’m a fan of illustrating powerful lady characters in my work.  In the illustration I’ve hinted at the roots of the Shebeen bars with shelves full of brewed-up jars and atmospheric string-lights, whilst focusing on a strong Shebeen Queen character heading up the business.

As part of the process we were limited to using two colours: red and black. I took a bit of a risk in using such dense colour and having pretty specific alignments (which can make the print look a little wonky or patchy due to the risograph print process), but I’m more than happy to surrender to the whim of risograph and embrace any imperfections.

It’s definitely a great challenge to limit yourself to working with a restricted colour palette, it forces you to really consider the contrast of the piece and make a few visual decisions that you might not normally go for. I think it’s always a useful exercise to omit a few elements from your usual working style every so often: don’t use outlines, limit your palette, draw with your other hand etc, it shakes things up and can really push your work in new directions – give it a shot!

Limited edition riso prints will be available at the exhibition at Shebeen Festival, Manchester on Saturday 2^nd May, pop down if you get the chance! 

E3 Social Responsibility Award

Earlier this month I got a call from the E3 Business Awards to let me know that I was a finalist in the Social Responsibility category for my illustration work for charity, community and kids' workshops.

I am really passionate about using my work to support others. It's great to have been recognised for that, and I'm hoping it will encourage others to find ways to engage with their communities through art.  

You can read more about my charity work and illustration events on the Events & Exhibitons section of my blog.

Wish me luck for the awards! Judging and interviews are this Thursday, and the main event is in June.

Save The Date

My 'Save The Date' card was featured on the Ohh Deer twitter today.  Photos are always better with a cactus! 

Lovers, brides-to-be, pre-grooms, about-to-be-inlaws, future-gazing singles: you can grab this card here! - http://ohhdeer.com/save-the-date

Tank Instructor 1984

I often float around on Reddit, and once in a while a post will pop up and spark a hit of inspiration. That's exactly what happened with this photo posted by u/danabre in Old School Cool. The photo shows his mother working as a tank instructor in 1984, and it's pretty awesome.

There's just so much character in the photo, and it inspired me to create this quick sketch. Now when I say quick, I mean quick, as a couple of people have pointed out it actually says 345 on her helmet, but hey, I'm going to go with "artistic license" on that. 

It's a great challenge to draw in a limited time frame. It definitely energises your work, especially when you've been spending hours carefully illustrating for commissions - it's good to let loose a little!

'Hungry Roscoe' By David J. Plant

After my 'Her Idea' review post at the start of February, Flying Eye Books dropped another package of loveliness through my door with this advanced copy of 'Hungry Roscoe' by David J. Plant.

Much like Flying Eye's other titles, Hungry Roscoe is full of quirky illustration, humour and unusual storytelling. The spreads are filled with action and a nice mix of spot illustrations and full bleed pages. There's a great, chalky feel to the artwork and the illustrations are filled with character (it's interesting to hear that David is a fellow Falmouth University alumni as well!).

Roscoe's disguises actually made me laugh out loud (the only comment I would have is that it would've been great to see more of these!) and it was refreshing to have such a mischievous main character and a slightly unconventional ending to the story. 

I think that this is definitely the sort of book that kids would love. Roscoe's disguises could definitely spark some interesting World Book Day costumes too! You can find out more about Roscoe at www.flyingeyebooks.com!

New! Copper Foil Cards & Gift Tags For Ohh Deer

So I've got some more good news to share with you on the Ohh Deer front: brand new copper foil greetings cards and gift tags are now go!

The new range of copper foiled goodies features two of my greetings card designs (adapted from my Wild Ride screenprint) and three new gift tag illustrations.

It's hard to say no to shiny, shiny things - and I think these illustrations work beautifully in the foil.  I've already seen them stocked up in a few really nice places, and we'll hopefully be seeing them featured more in the coming months! 

It was particularly fun to work on the gift tags as it's something I haven't tried before.  I tried to keep things simple and flora themed, the sort of tags that would work well for any occasion (it's always great to have the opportunity to get my plants in on a product shoot too!).

The greetings cards are printed on great card stock, sold separately and come packed with a brown paper envelope. The gift tags come as a set of six (two of each design) packaged with a handy piece of twine for each tag.

Bicycle Built For Two is available here.
Keep Rollin' is available here.
..and the gift tag set is available here.

I'll quite happily give you a shameless nudge towards my full Ohh Deer collection and to the new post of these products on my Behance portfolio! 

May the shininess shine foreverrrr!

Books For Free!

Free books?! Yup, that's right. I heard about this place a while ago and definitely had to have a snoop.  Books For Free (as part of Healthy Planet) has actually been open for a while now in its Preston branch, and it's great to see it's still running.  The initiative aims to rescue thousands of books from landfill by simply giving them away to willing readers at centres and festivals nationwide!

The Preston branch nestled itself into a large closed-down shop space in the Fishergate Centre, it looks rather odd when you go in - but honestly, there are so many fantastic books up for grabs.  I spent a long time looking through the shelves at every kind of book.  It was surprising to see so many brand new editions that didn't even look like they'd been read!

I found this brilliant looking 'A Book Of Princesses', a Puffin book of old (and unusual) princess themed fairytales. It's going to be fantastic for inspiration! I took the book to the counter, the absolute legend of a staff-member had a quick chat with me about the book, stamped the inside back cover with a Healthy Planet 'Pass me on when you've finished with me' stamp, and I took my new sort-of-purchase back to its cosy new home on my bookshelf.

My Uncle was Sir Francis Drake?

It's definitely worth having a look on the Healthy Planet website to see if there's a Books For Free centre near you, it's such a great ethos - and who can say no to amazing free books? Give them a home!

The Museum Of Wigan Life: Kids' Art Trail Illustrations

Last week I received copies of this arts trail booklet I've been working on with The Museum Of Wigan Life.  It's been one of those smooth little projects that flows nicely from sketch to final, and it's been a pleasure to work on.

I absolutely love museums (learning's cool!).  They're just so full of treasures, in both a literal sense as well as on a smaller personal scale - there's something about reading long lost love letters, or looking at dusty old photographs which can really spark the imagination.

The brief was basically to illustrate a number of the objects on display at the Museum Of Wigan life, integrating them with characters and games as well as the essential information needed to record the child's progress whilst completing the art award.  The booklets needed to be practical, but also have that 'to keep' element, so I worked with a bright colour palette and relatable child characters.

It was great to get out and visit the museum for research (it's not all that often my commissions come with physical reference!), and to work with Lynda from the museum and Kevin Lloyd as graphic designer.  

The booklet features games in which the children are encouraged to complete patterns of objects found around the museum and the building (designed by the same chap who designed the Natural History Museum, so you know it's interesting!), as well as drawing tasks, a map of the museum, and an illustrated version of Edward Haytley's 'Sir Roger and Lady Bradshaigh in front of Haigh Hall' painting (which was a lot of fun to do!).

The Museum Of Wigan Life is definitely worth a visit (in particular if you have kids thinking of taking part in the arts award!) and you can find out more about it here.

Yeti - Giclee Printing Review

I've known of Yeti for a while and had always heard really good things about their screen-printing service. So when I saw that they were branching out to offer giclee printing as well, I thought it would be great to write a quick review and see how the quality stands up to other printers I've used in the past.

Giclee printing is a term used to describe high quality Inkjet printing onto fine paper stock. Yeti use a 2 colour Canon ImagePROGRAF 6450 large format digital printer using the LUCIA EX 12-colour pigment print system - meaning the prints are archival quality (so they're light-fast and won't fade!).This makes it a really good option for illustrators and artists creating prints for exhibitions or sale, it's great quality, but still cost effective.

I chose to print one of my 'Illustrated Advent' pieces as it features some colours which can be a little tricky to reproduce vibrantly (or so I've found) - maybe that's a little mean, but I think it's good to put up a bit of a challenge! It's also one of my favourite recent illustrations, so it was a fitting choice.

The prints arrived carefully packaged in cardboard, brown paper and tissue paper - so absolutely no complaints. They even survived a rather forceful shove through the letter box (I think my postman was having a bad day!).

I spoke with Ed from Yeti, and we decided it would be great to try out the print on a variety of paper stock. (I love that this feels like writing a science lesson methodology!). I did find quite a difference between the paper types; and although they all came out beautifully, I definitely had my favourites.  

Here's what I found -

This first paper type (above) is 'Hahnemuhle Photo Rag at 308gsm' - it's lightly textured and has a nice weight to it. I was really surprised with how accurately the colours of the illustration were reproduced, the brights were vibrant and luminescent (in a good way!) and the very pale colours showed up well. This paper stock is a really good all rounder, I'd very happily use it for exhibitions, prints and products.

The second is the slightly more textured 'Hahnemuhle German Etching at 310gsm' (the thickest paper we tried).  It is quite similar to the first paper, although the texture is definitely more pronounced.  I don't think I would choose this level of texture if I was exhibiting a piece, but I think it would work beautifully to give a really bespoke edge to prints for sale, or for trimming into postcards/greetings cards. I think it's got that tactile quality that demands it be felt rather than just looked at!

The 'Origin Matt 230gsm - Coated Paper' had a smooth finish and was the more 'standard type' of the lot, although personally I think it was my favourite. The colours came out so, so beautifully on this (and I'm a picky one with colour), and the finish is understated but vibrant.

The final paper type was the 'Origin Lustre Pro 270gms - Photo Paper'. Now, I'm not really a fan of photo paper as I don't really appreciate the shine on it, especially with illustration. But if you were thinking of using giclee printing for photography work I think this would be a solid choice - the colours and print quality were still crisp (although maybe the colours were a tad less saturated than on the non-glossy papers), and the paper was nice and weighty.

So! Experiment over, and what's my conclusion? I can honestly say it's rare for me to be this impressed by print quality - just, the colours being so accurate to the illustration and the sheer vibrancy (although, yes, a little less so with the photo paper). Illustrators: I completely recommend using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (380) and Origin Matt (230). 

Yeti have a price list on their website here if you want to find out a bit more, or here's a quick word from Ed about Yeti's background -

"My love of print started when I studied screen printing at Norwich School of Art and Design. I joined a digital printer’s shortly after graduating and in the 6 years I worked there my knowledge of the digital print process became extensive, so I decided to put my skills to better use by starting up my own printing company, using a combination of both traditional and modern methods.

I started Yeti just over a year ago and have seen the company go from strength to strength. I have had the pleasure of working closely with some very talented artists, illustrators and designers, building up a portfolio of print work.  Finally seeing my dream come true is very humbling."

If you want to know more, you can get in touch with Ed at hello@yetiscreenprint.co.uk, he'll help you out!

Just to let you know, I wasn't paid to write this (although I received the samples for free), so I've gotcha' back and I'll write my honest opinion for you.  Give me a shout if there's anything else you'd like to see me review and I'll try to make it happen!

New Card Range For Ohh Deer

I've been with Ohh Deer since their launch in 2011, but over the last few months I've been working hard with them to put out a brand new range of products! These two are the first of a big batch that should be trickling out over the next year.

I wanted to keep things simple and graphic with these two Save The Date and Congratulations cards; opting for a focus on colour palettes, floral designs and hand drawn typography.

You can browse the rest of my Ohh Deer products or grab yourself a card or two here. I'll keep you up to date with the range as new pieces are released! EXCITING!

'Her Idea' Picture Book Review

It's probably a little obvious considering my profession, but I'm a huge fan of picture books. My shelves are stacked full of them and I can barely walk out of a bookshop without a few in tow.  Flying Eye Books (an imprint of Nobrow) publish particularly gorgeous pages of loveliness, so I was more than happy to receive a copy of Rilla Alexander's new picture book 'Her Idea' to have a chat about.

The thing that really grabbed me about Her Idea is the theme - the trials of seeing an idea through to completion - it's something that we all encounter at some point in our lives (professional creative or not), and it certainly hit home for me.  I know that I have sketchbooks full of little drawings and story scribbles that have remained stuck in closed pages for years.  It can be tricky to avoid losing motivation when you first snag a concept; but 'Her Idea' definitely inspires you to grab hold of those little flashes of inspiration and run with them.  

I wanted to find out a little more about Rilla's working process, and she so eloquently described the peaks and troughs of creating (as well as a few other inspirational gems) -

‘Her Idea’ comments on the theme of the struggle to follow through on the first sparks of ideas – is this something you struggle with in your own work? How do you stay motivated?

"I love thinking up ideas – they’re so full of potential and I just can’t wait to be able to give people the finished book/drawing/story/thing. Unfortunately, that initial creative adrenalin can come to a screeching halt once you’ve started work. It might be the moment you put pencil to paper or maybe it doesn’t come until half way through a story when you realise you don’t know how it’s going to end. For me, it is often when I am committing to a final line with ink. Whenever it is – there comes a moment when you you are confronted by the fact that you are not the genius you were hoping you were and that it might be a harder, longer road than you had envisaged.

When you are disappointed by how things are turning out, it can be tempting to simply start another idea and go back to the excitement fuelled energy of beginning. But, of course, that idea looks better – you haven’t discovered its flaws yet!

Instead of thinking about the overwhelming and impossible goal of my finished idea being a masterpiece – I have learnt to concentrate on each step of the process and be satisfied by reaching each milestone. The more small goals, the more satisfaction! I also remind myself that even if I’m not completely satisfied by the finished result, by completing one idea and getting started on the next I will only get better."

When you’re starting work on a book, does the story first spark through visuals or through words? Do you follow a set structure for story creation?

"Ideas for stories normally come to me in words. My idea book is full of notes about things I see around me, memories from dreams, interesting comments I hear on the radio and collections of words I like the sound of. 'The Best Book in the World', for instance, came from seeing a little boy reading a book while sitting on a pile of suitcases on a trolley being pushed by his father through a busy airport. And as I wrote 'Her Idea' I was feeling every bit of the rollercoaster of creation that Sozi (the main character and my alter-ego) was experiencing. 

The process of writing these books was very different – though I am very drawn to meta ideas and writing about my own experiences. No matter what the structure of the story, though, I find writing directly onto spreads (whether you’ve already drawn anything or not) very helpful in solving the story." 

What steps did you take to have Her Idea and The Best Book in the World published?

"Years ago I started a book I never finished because I allowed myself to be overwhelmed by the search for a publisher. Now, I would never start a book if I didn’t want to make the book no matter what. Finishing it is the most important thing – even if you don’t have a publisher you can always print it yourself and have an exhibition. I met Nobrow (who published both books) just by making and sharing my work."  

Her Idea features strong, graphic illustration with a limited colour palette and a lot of movement.  Rilla has such a distinct, arresting style that it's instantly recognisable as her work; it's a story with a bold visual voice. There's a great atmosphere to the book and the pace and flow is spot on - you're with Sozi every step of the way!

Nobrow and Flying Eye Books publish a lot of cutting edge illustration, and this number is no different - there's a simplicity to it, which works well with the crispness of the linework and a strong sense of dynamic shape. There's just so much character in 'Her Idea', you really feel for Sozi and her story.  Physically, the book's got gorgeously thick, textured paper and vibrant printing.  You can really appreciate how well made it is (and it's one of those books that smells amazing too!).  There's definitely been a lot of care put into it at every stage.

I won't deny feeling a little emotional after reading this, it's just such a great reflection of what it's like to be a creative person, or, in fact, a human in general.  Letting ideas slip away because of a dip in motivation or confidence is so universal - and it takes a leap to go and chase them down.  I wanted to ask Rilla how she tackles her own creative burn-out and how she stays positive and motivated whilst working:

"This year marks my twentieth working year and I have been self employed for 15 of them. I think the most important thing is to keep changing. What might be the perfect situation for you right now, may not be next year. I work very flexibly and probably solve most of my ideas walking my dog or having a rest. I always take weekends – they are just not usually the same days as everyone else’s!"

I don't often write picture book reviews, but I just loved how relevant 'Her Idea' is to a lot of the freelance advice articles I've written recently, and it's a great flash of inspiration if you're struggling for motivation on a project.  

There's so many things that come together to make this book as lovely as it is - and you can tell the story has been written from the heart.  As a creative person, I'm definitely going to be grabbing this book from the shelf when I'm feeling particularly Page 19, and I know I would've absolutely loved reading this when I was little! 

Well then...I'd better go and track down some of my old ideas!

Huge thanks to Flying Eye Books, and to Rilla for the answers.  You can find out more or grab yourself a copy on Rilla's page, or the Flying Eye Books website!