merry christmas

I'm off for a break visiting family and friends for Christmas and New Year. I'll be back in January!

wrapping up

I love good presentation and when it comes to wrapping Christmas presents I take a lot of care over how my gifts are going to look. I've seen some fab wrapping papers lately in shops and online so I thought I'd share some of my favourites.
(From top to bottom: Pleased to Meet, Karolin Schnoor, Crispin Finn, Nicholas John Frith, Charlotte Trounce)

mugs and coasters

The latest addition to my range - mugs and coasters featuring little sumos carrying biscuits ... or are they normal sized sumos carrying gigantic biscuits?! Get them this weekend at Big Brighton Christmas Fair. Also available soon on Etsy.

christmas markets

I'm selling at a couple of Brighton's Christmas Markets again this year. Look out for my stall at The Big Brighton Christmas Fair on Sunday 23 Nov at the Sallis Benney Theatre Gallery, Grand Parade. I'll be at Craftaganza the following weekend on Saturday 29 Nov at Fabrica Gallery (corner of Duke St & Ship St).

christmas cards now on sale

With Halloween and Bonfire Night over (just), it seems acceptable to start thinking about Christmas. I love this time of year and I'm starting to get ready for a couple of Christmas markets. I'll be at the Big Brighton Craft fair on Nov 23 and Craftaganza on Nov 29. I've got a few new additions to my product range including mugs and tea towels. I also have three new Christmas card designs. Here's one of them (you can see the rest in my Etsy shop):

graphic short story

Here's a panel from my entry to the Jonathan Cape/ Observer/ Comica Graphic Short Story Prize about the Victorian menagarist George Wombwell. 

tejaideja

While travelling around Slovenia earlier this month I discovered an illustrator/ designer going by the name of tejaideja (I don't know how you say it either!). Actually I first came across one of her postcards in Motovun during a day trip to Croatia and then later saw more designs in shops in Skofja Loka and Ljubljiana.

tejaideja has worked with design studios and brands but, a couple of years ago, decided to create her own products. Her postcards are eye-catching and make a refreshing change from the predictable ones usually on offer. The designs also feature on notebooks and breadboards (I bought one - a great souvenir of the trip).

Here's the Piran postcard, which will be the next addition to my kitchen wall gallery!

noble rot

I got back from holidaying in Slovenia a couple of days ago to find a delivery of the latest issue of wine, food and music magazine Noble Rot. The magazine is beautifully designed and packed with interesting articles, fab photography and great illustrations.
Issue 5 is particularly exciting for me as it features some of my work!! Here are some wine bottle waiters to accompany a piece on how palates develop with age. If you want to see my other illustration and all the other great stuff in the magazine go and buy it!

isabel greenberg's encyclopedia of early earth

I've been unwell this week and my lovely husband bought me Isabel Greenberg's graphic novel The Encyclopedia of Early Earth as a distraction for me while I was housebound.
I first came across Greenberg's work several years ago in the form of a daily diary comic called That's Well Art School, which is filled with hilarious scenarios, awkward moments and sharp observation.
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, published last year, is a more polished work with a rich and quirky narrative, rendered in a wonderfully minimal colour palette. It's an absorbing tale of love, adventure, spirituality and storytelling itself. It is epic in scale and filled with myth and folklore. Oh, and I love the end papers.
I'll be honest - I haven't actually finished it yet, but it's just so good I wanted to share it with you now.

gangsters

My Gangsters A-Z is now available as an A3 print in my etsy shop 

sushi

A little while ago I was getting into animated gifs and I had this 'great' idea to set up another blog just showing gifs themed around food. Turns out that's quite a commitment and I only got as far as making one more before I had too much other stuff to do! Since the idea won't become a reality anytime soon I thought I'd share it with you!

illustration friday: summer

the best of see america

My poster design for Creative Action Network's See America project was chosen for their new range of t-shirts. I was chuffed to be picked from over 600 designs. There are some great images available as prints, mugs, bags and t-shirts. I looked through them all and picked my favourites:

From top to bottom: Montana by Victoria Fernandez / Montezuma Castle National Monument by Mr Furious / Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park by - Joel Kneuven / Muir Woods National Monument by Shayna Roosevelt / Mount Rainier National Park by Vanessa Rosales

brighton grad show 2014

It’s graduate show season. Again! Where does the time go? I usually get around to a few, but this year a busy few weeks is dashing any chance of getting the London shows this time round. At least the Brighton show was easy for me to pop into on my way home from work this week.

My absolute favourite, by a long margin, was Angela Hadrill. Her bold watercolours were the most eye-catching works in the room, even more so thanks to her stunning 3d piece – a multi-faceted, hanging object featuring views of seaside cottages, winding streets and sea creatures, with a lighthouse perched on top. I also loved Vivarium, a vivid and luscious concertina book featuring an Adam and Eve-esque couple living in man-made jungle surroundings, much like one of the glass houses at Kew Gardens. Stunning work.

I really enjoyed Tomas Rooney’s work as well. His pencil and ink drawings had a great sense of narrative and the characters and settings were instilled with mystery. I could see it working well as an awesome graphic novel or animation.

Here are the pics...

Angela Hadrill

Tomas Rooney

tweet tweet

I'm on twitter now! Follow me for tasty morsels from the illustration, art and design world - @NaomiSloman

the weird and wonderful illustrations of Inca Pan

I chanced upon Taiwanese illustrator Inca Pan while trying to find work by someone else and I'm glad I found him. His surreal work is eye-catching and colourful and it was hard to pick just a few examples to show here. There's a strong sense of narrative in his illustrations, almost as if each image captures a moment in a story. He doesn't seem to have a website as such, so the best way to see more of his work is on flickr or facebook.

jack hudson's little people

One illustrator I really wanted to feature in my Pick Me Up post was Jack Hudson, whose colourful illustrations from his 'If I were Small' project were some of my favourites from the show. At the time I couldn't find the images anywhere online and I was annoyed with myself for not taking photos while I was at Somerset House. Happily, he's now updated his blog with them - the cactus and jelly are my favourites:

house of illustration/ folio society book illustration competition

I only just got around to looking at the longlist for the annual book illustration competition run by the House of Illustration and The Folio Society. This year's book is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I've entered the last three competitions, but took a break from the challenge this year as I thought my style was ill-suited to the book. However, I enjoyed looking at the really diverse mix of artists that made it to the longlist and these are my favourite images:

Enzo Peres-Labourdette

Katerina Chadoulou

Gareth Courage

asparagus season

Oh man, I love asparagus and never more than when British asparagus is in season. As a salute to this magnificent vegetable here's a new little animation I cobbled together this morning. It's a visual recipe, albeit a very simple one, and darn tasty!

pick me up 2014

I went to Pick Me Up, the annual graphic arts festival, at Somerset House last Saturday. It was a mistake to go on a weekend as it was so very busy, but it's a sure sign that illustration is maintaining it's popularity and credibility as an art form. I spotted some familiar illustrators there as well as some that were new to me. I bought a delightful black and white print by Eleni Kalorkoti to add to my kitchen 'art gallery' wall. I also enjoyed works by Isabel Greenberg, Nick Alston, Thomas Dathony and Claire Scully. Here they all are:

'Good Witch in her Garden' by Eleni Kalorkoti

'The Great Dag' by Isabel Greenberg

'N' by Thomas Danthony

'Escape' by Nick Alston

'Valley of Cape' by Claire Scully

nancy liang

I came across these illustrations by Nancy Liang on Illustration Friday. The look and feel of the illustrations remind me of one of my favourite illustrated books: Un lion a Paris by Beatrice Alemagna (100% worth checking out if you aren't familiar with it already!). The images have a real sense of depth while at the same time having a flat, stage set-like quality. The loosely drawn pencil work and the cut out shapes give the works a real sense of freedom and I love the use of textured papers. Sadly there's not much more of her work to be found online but I really hope we see more like this from her soon!

johan thornqvist

Johan Thornqvist draws on photographs. I think it's a really difficult thing to get right, but it's clear that he's sensitive to the contexts and the colours. The results work incredibly well and I love the exciting new worlds that he creates from very ordinary photos.