creative action network: recovering the classics

We all know the adage: don't judge a book by it's cover. But, I always reach for the most interesting designs on the shelf before any others. Who doesn't? Creative Action Network has just launched it's latest campaign Recovering the Classics, which aims to capture the excitement and vibrancy of classic works of fiction that often suffer from poorly designed covers. I was fortunate to have been contacted by one of the founders and asked to participate. From their list of 50 classics I chose to illustrate Gulliver's Travels and had a lot of fun doing it. The e-book and paperback can be ordered via the Recovering the Classics website. There are some great covers to browse - here is mine (click to enlarge)...

new fashion photography

Now for a bit of shameless publicity for my husband's recently published book on fashion photography. He spent two years working on the content, gathering the images and designing the pages as well as managing the printing. The result is a visionary (and stunningly designed) book full of bold and beautiful photographs that captures the zeitgeist of fashion photography. Covering diverse styles and techniques, some of my favourite images are theatrical and cinematic such as those by Aram Bedrossian, Kourtney Roy and Ruven Afanador. New Fashion Photography by Paul Sloman is published by Prestel and is out now. My opinion might be biased but why not find out for yourselves! Buy it here! Meanwhile, feast your eyes on these photos:

From the top:
Aram Bedrossian, Kourtney Roy, Ruven Afanador

argentina

I finally got round to doing some scanning so here are some of the illustrations I did while I was in Argentina. I played around with watercolours. I love using them but hadn't for a long while. I stopped because I found it hard to get a nice reproduction from the scanner. Now I have a better scanner so the images come out a little bit better. I’m going to try using watercolour a little bit more often. I recently bought some gouache too, so we'll see what happens with that.

threeD at boxbird

I went to the private view of ThreeD on Thursday evening. It’s the new show at Boxbird in Brighton featuring 3D works by Graham Carter, Tom Frost and Helen Musselwhite. There was a Q&A session with the three artists and Simon Armstrong, animator and of Ticktockrobot Animation Studios, who worked with Graham, Tom and Helen on a set of short animations. The Q&A was led by The Enquiry Desk.

I’m very familiar with Graham Carter and have a couple of his prints on my walls at home, but his 3D work is a new approach, which keeps his work fresh and interesting. After designing the image all of the component parts are laser cut in wood. These are then coloured and put back together like a layered jigsaw, creating complex and detailed works. There are so many details in each piece that every time you look you spot something new. His work always brings a smile to my face and I really wanted to take home his Gentleman Grooming Emporium featuring a variety of fantastically bearded faces.

Graham Carter

The other work I would have bought in a flash (if I had more cash!) was a pair of wrestlers by Tom Frost. Cut from wood and screen printed, they would have looked fabulous in the living room. I am still hoping that somehow (a surprise windfall?) I can go back and get the little guys. Tom’s work in contrast to Graham’s is simpler with images printed onto flat pieces of shaped wood. There’s a really fun and retro feel to his work, especially the old-school cars, which feature in a piece he worked on with Simon for the Goodwood Revival (see it here).

Tom Frost

In contrast Helen Musselwhite works in paper. At first glance the cut out shapes are so crisp and precise that you might imagine that they were laser cut. However, Helen works entirely by hand and with such detailed and layered pieces you can’t help but be impressed.

Helen Musselwhite

Boxbird is a gallery and workspace to be envious of. Owned by Graham Carter and his wife Alice, it’s a light and airy gallery at the front and screen printing workshop at the back. I like to daydream that I’ll be successful enough to have a place like that to work one day.

ThreeD is on now until 29 May.

masterchef

Besides art and illustration one of my other great loves is food. I love cooking it, shopping for it, eating it and watching people make it on TV. Masterchef is one of the programs I try not to miss, though my trip to Argentina meant I only got to watch it from the semi-finals this time round. But it's been a good one and I've been rooting for Natalie all the way! She's great entertainment and a wicked chef. Fingers crossed for her in the final tomorrow. In honour of the end of the series and the winning chef I've made a little tribute to John and Greg.

pick me up

I went to Pick Me Up at Somerset House last week. The graphic arts festival has been going for 4 years and I've been every year. It's interesting to see the change in the kind of artists that are represented. This year there were more illustrators producing hand finished work, whereas in the past very graphic, vector-based work has been more dominant.  Now it seems that both are being more evenly represented, which makes for a more interesting collection of works. In the first year or two of Pick Me Up there seemed to be a great deal of very abstract squiggles on paper - I am happy to see that this was completely absent from the 2013 selection. Each to their own, but I'm not a fan. I came away with a very nice little print of a tattooed man by El Famoso. Here are some more examples of my favourite illustrators at the show:

Robert Sae Heng

Ping Zhu

Jean Julien

Judy Kaufmann

buenos aires street art

Back from Argentina and here are some fine examples of street art from Buenos Aires. Some drawings from my sketchbook coming soon.

holidays - yay!

I am super excited because tomorrow my husband and I fly to Argentina for a 2 week holiday in the Andes and Buenos Aires. I'll be sketching throughout so I'll hopefully return with some great drawings to share. I'm particularly looking forward to the giant cacti (cactuses?) and the llamas! So, in the meantime, here's a neat drawing of a man hiding behind a cactus by Jacob Stead - you should really have a nosey around his website, which is full of wonderful drawings like this one.

illustration friday: swim

angela keoghan celebrates life of pi's oscar success

This image caught my eye on the homepage of Angela Keoghan's delightful website. I haven't seen the film yet, but I loved the book and the film is on my list of things to see. Angela has really captured the drama of the situation in the Life of Pi while incorporating the humourous presence of the Oscar statue. See more of her witty and whimsical work on her website The Picture Garden.