Owls are in the Air

logo for Little Owl Urns

ad for Rockwood and Perry

Kathryn Rathke completes two beautiful owl commissions using her confident and stylish line.
Custom-designed urns maker 'Little Owl Urns' asked Kathryn to create a logo for the bottom of their ceramic and wooden pots; made for beloved pets. The second was for the wine merchant Rookwood and Perry in the Hudson River Valley to use as an advertisement for their shop. With the image of the nocturnal bird being used quite widely right now, Kathryn says "Owls are in the air!"

Scott is Uplifting

Vicky Scott uses her skills to create this positive image for Top Sante Magazine.
Asked to create two illustrations for their February issue, Vicky says "The illustrations accompany the article 'New Year No Fear', about gaining confidence and self-belief; a perfect brief for my colourful and uplifting designs."

Anne Wilson in Mac User

Anne's feature in Mac User

a selection of Anne's art used in the article

January's edition of Mac User Magazine features an article on the wonderful Anne Wilson. Experiencing the industry in times before our digital world, Anne talks of the changes, her illustration education and inspirations with some sound advice; " just do what you do".

The article:
I have been practicing as an illustrator for the past 15 years or so...the time seems to have flown past so fast at an unbelievable rate. During this time the technology I've experienced has evolved tremendously. One of my very first commissions for example was completed through to the finals stage using a fax machine! Email now is second nature, and the format now in which discussions on projects tend to take place in the main, to the point where now I cannot remember the first time I began using email! It has always been a highly competitive industry and unless, for the most part, illustrators keep an eye on the technology available to them and embrace it in their working practice, those around will most likely have the upper hand.
I love the global feel of the industry, now more apparent than ever. Often I get work via the USA and recently I have completed a few jobs for various clients in Korea. The days of hiking around London with my portfolio focusing in the main on UK based clients, has passed and evolved into an exciting mix of cultures, opportunities and inspiration on a world wide basis.
On the one hand there seems to be a constant barrage of fightingly good illustrators graduating and entering the industry today, bright eyed, fast paced and full of imagination, which is both wonderful and overwhelming for me. But on the other hand it provides a pool of fantastic inspiration which serves to keep me well on my toes year after year. As this career tends to be a rather solitary one, the reality of the competition for commissions is important, a good reason I feel to take the time and energy to enter industry led competitions when ever possible. They serve as a good tool to sharpen your creative processes and a bench mark for where you are at within the illustration world.
New creatives are certainly one source of inspiration. More and more creative collectives are appearing such as the illustrator led groups of Ohh Deer and No Brow, but global culture in the main endlessly fascinates me, from intricate details, patterns, textures, colours and beliefs people possess and live their lives by.
What would I be lost without? Well the traditional side of me would undoubtedly opt for my Swan Morton scalpel, with blade 10a, and the current side of me would say my Wacom drawing tablet and pen (teamed up with my Mac and Photoshop.) I think it is important to embrace both sides, to pick up a pencil, or my dip pen and ink and commit to a drawing, or make marks with mono prints and any other mixed media I might care to throw at a surface in the moment. Neither are seen as a separate entity and when the two working methods are brought together, exciting things evolve from their meeting. I enjoy the physical process of colour mixing and mark making according to what might be suitable for the project I am working on. These results then get scanned and imported into Photoshop to create a final image. Increasingly it is my Wacom pen and eraser tool which becomes my scalpel.
I certainly don't even pretend to be remotely wise, but if I had a little wisdom to share, I would say keep it all positive, be 'can do' in your communications with clients and get plenty of fresh air!
I have always felt compelled to draw and create something on paper or whatever comes to hand. I loved picture books as a child and as my reading progressed I would still look for the pictures! I think since school I had in my mind that creating pictures to tell a story or describe something was what I wanted to aim for, just to see if maybe I could give it a go, and maybe I might be able to keep doing it, and just maybe, if that happened I could make it my job! The funny thing is, that I still don't feel I have a 'job', so in an obscure sort of way that makes me a very lucky person!
So I progressed as follows; school, (start drawing) A levels, (keep drawing) Art Foundation course, (more drawing) Degree - BA Honours at Bath, (definitely some drawing here) and then I went to do an MA in Communication Design at St Martins College of Art in London a few years ago, where I was lucky enough to get a Distinction, (masses of drawing stuff went on here!) There was no other obvious career paths for me, in my mind it was simple, I love drawing and creating images, so all I have to do it keep creating and I felt that one day I would become a professional creative of some sort - illustration fitted the bill nicely.
Some of my favourite projects have been children's picture books, I have completed several for Barefoot Books, but other recent clients include The London Transport Museum, The Independent On Sunday, The BBC, Mojo Magazine, Francis Lincon, Feast Creative, Beam, Crocodile Creek and Save the Children.
So that's me in brief! I would add though that one thing I have learnt through time, frustration, joy and the general madness my creative world involves, is that you can over think things to the point where you just can't see...my answer, is to take a deep breath...and just do what you do.

Foire De Lyon

Danny Allison is commissioned by Publicis Lyon to create an image for 'Foire de Lyon'.
The event in March, which will be celebrating sixty years of Rock takes place annually in Lyon, France. Danny's cool lion illustration was born from this link to the host city.

Jo Rose's Scrapbook

Based in the New Forest, illustrator Jo Rose lets us glimpse into her magical creative world. See Jo's Scrapbook.

Mt First Kafka is One of the Best

'My First Kafka' illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason makes one of the thirteen 'Best Children’s, Illustrated, and Picture Books of 2013'.
Selected by journalist and writer Maria Popover of Brain Pickings, the book is Matthue Roth's adaptation of Kafka for kids. Rohan gets much praise for his work too, Maria writes " Indeed, it’s hard not to see Sendak’s fatherly echo in Eason’s beautifully haunting black-and-white drawings." Read more on the book here.

Modern Twist Designs

children's bib and table mat designs

sea pattern table mat

Helen Lang works with San Francisco based Modern Twist to create designs for their baby and kids range.
Commissioned to supply four animal designs to be used on children's table mats and bibs, and a sea pattern for another range, Helen used her signature lines to produce these fun and friendly products. She says "This company has been great to work with. The products are great to touch and use."

Once Upon A Time

Bee Willey will be taking part in 'Once Upon A Time'; an exhibition celebrating Children's Book Illustrators of East Anglia.
Opening on 25th January, the show takes place at Ipswich Art School and includes original artwork from artists such as Edward Ardizzone, Michael Foreman,  Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone and Helen Oxenbury. Bee says "I am very happy to be showing five images here as part of a large show at the Ipswich Art School Building. This is one of the artworks included as well as older pre-digital pieces . It is great to be there amongst great illustrators!". Running until the beginning of May, admission to the exhibition is free.

Gregor on the Sherlock Set

Max at work on the Sherlock set

views of the final mural in the wedding scene

 

 

wedding invite motif

Max Gregor designs and paints a mural for the backdrop of Watson's wedding in a recent episode of BBC's Sherlock. Commissioned by the Production Designer, Max also created a black and white motif for the wedding invite seen in popular crime drama.

My Favourite Bird

Hannah Davies collaborates with NV London Calcutta to produce this beautiful silk scarf design.
'My Favourite Bird' comes in black and gold as well as some other punchy colours and is perfect for this time of year. Made by NV; a 'future friendly, award-winning, ethical accessories company', the scarves are screen printed by hand, using traditional methods.

A Big Thank you...

A big thank you to all artists and clients, and to Victoria Scott for creating our festive snow queen illustration. We would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2014!

As we come to the end of the first year of our 1 Million Trees campaign, we are very happy to announce and would like to thank you all in enabling us to plant 206,614 trees so far.

From the Illustration Team.

Reptile Brain Music

 

BoomArtwork produces an album cover for Swedish rock band Imperial State Electric.
Nicke Andersson; former front man of The Hellacopters approached BoomArtwork to create the art for the vinyl album of his new band. He asked for something bold and vintage to illustrate the record title 'Reptile Brain Music', so BoomArtwork set to work using his fabulous design and illustrative skills and made this punchy retro visual, he says "... First I drew the hand of Zeus with my brush and ink, and then the crocodiles eating each other's tail. In Photoshop I placed everything together and then started with the typography. Instead of using an existing typeface I thought it would make the album more special to create custom lettering. After finishing I added some filters to make it look like it was released in the 70's. It was so much fun to illustrate an LP album cover, as it is such a cool, tactile canvas to work on."