Illustration for Picture Books first-ever-exhibition!

Right, next bit of news, which I'm very excited about. I have gathered together some of the lovely students from the past 4 terms of the Illustration for Picture Books course, for their first ever group exhibition at Studio 73 in Brixton Village!

Illustration by Sam Goode 2013

It'll be an eclectic display from a talented bunch - expect handmade books, whimsical, funny and experimental illustrations, and original prints and cards. Some of the work will be for sale.

Handmade book by Clare Yerbury 2012

The show will open on Tuesday 29th July, running until Sunday 10th August, at Studio 73, Unit 73 Brixton Village, London SW9 8PS. We should be holding a private view on Friday 1st August. I hope to see you there!

Summer (school) is here again!

Roll up, aspiring illustrators! First on the agenda for a jam-packed summer will be the Illustration for Picture Books Summer School, at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, which I'll run for a whole week from Monday 21st July - Friday 25th July.

Illustration by Sally Anne Walker (former student!)

If you fancy getting stuck into a full five days of illustration, storytelling and making handmade books, see the Hills Road website* for more info and bag a space.

There are still places available and it's open to all - you might have little or no artistic experience, or might be gathering work for a portfolio, or want to realise an idea you've had for a story. Or you might just want to do something a bit fun and different. An excuse to draw and write all over a few glorious summer days!

*Please note: to find the Summer school course, scroll down to the bottom of the web page for the courses highlighted in grey. The title given to the course on the Hills Road website is Book Illustration. The course highlighted in yellow, near the top, is for the 10-week course beginning in September. 

Ghostly Bess

As I've still got a minor obsession with Tudors, I decided to make a portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1.

I've been trying to experiment with a few new techniques recently (literal translation = I've been making a mess). For this picture I tried out ink relief, where you use gouache paint to resist india ink on canvas (I found a pretty clear, unfussy tutorial about it on Craftsy). It gives a patchy, painterly effect that I really like.

I'm quite pleased with it. She's got the look of a ghost about her, which seems to fit.

I made another portrait of her a few weeks back, a linocut, which I don't like as much but it's interesting to compare the two.

Cutout cards on Etsy

Another Etsy update! Click the picture to have a peep at these colourful handmade and printed cutout Thank You / Diolch cards in my online shop.

Circuit animation workshops

Last October I ran some animation workshops for Mostyn in Llandudno, as part of Tate's Circuit project. I've just found the Circuit website (thanks to one of the lovely students who took part) - you can have a look at the films they made here!

New cards on Etsy

I've updated a few items on my Etsy shop! Have a butchers at these these linoprint 'Heart in my Chest' cards, just under £3.60 a pop, now available in purple, turquoise and orange. Click the pic to follow the link.

Come and draw all over the summer!

From next Tuesday 6th May, I'm running the summer term of the Illustration for Picture Books course, at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. 

Limited places are still available - follow the link to find out how to enrol. 

As always, thanks to all the students who have attended previously and made it so fun. 

Summer: drawing closer...

Next week I'll be back in Cambridge running the Illustration for Picture Books evening class. It starts on Tuesday the 6th of May and runs for 10 weeks.

Last term was really fun and productive; as always the people on the course were full of ideas and enthusiasm. Last week one of the students, Marion, sent me some images of a couple of finished books she had been working on during the course. One is a story of an old man and the sea, and another of a little girl who loses a yellow balloon and is very sad about it (which Marion assures me now has a happy ending!);

Photos by Marion Bellier

We also had a visit from the wonderful storyteller / illustrator extraordinaire Isabel Greenberg. She very kindly came to talk to the students about her work and gave a fresh perspective on the myriad world of illustration and self-publishing. Isabel also has some gorgeous work on display at Pick Me Up at Somerset House (on until May 5th).

Another exciting piece of news is that a previous student of the course, Sally Walker, is about to start the Children's Book Illustration MA at Anglia Ruskin. Well done Sally! I'm looking forward to seeing her intricate and thoughtful illustrations published in the near future.

Paper Boleyns

I've been print happy this week, making new stock for my Etsy shop. I usually have to work on a few things at once, though, to keep me interested. So I've been letting myself get distracted by one of the most distracting women in British history - Anne Boleyn.

I love Anne's motto - 'Plurrimi Gauisus', which means 'the most happy'.
Though, as my housemate just pointed out, 'that didn't work out very well for her, did it?'

I love Tudor history and so I made this illustration with Anne and her sister, Mary, in mind. If you've read the novel The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, you might get the picture. It's a bit of a romp, but it illustrates that period beautifully.

Ripping bodices aside, they're really interesting characters, Anne in particular. I can't decide if she's a feminist icon or not; chasing the kind of status that could only be achieved through marriage. But she certainly gave birth to one.

As for the 21st Century, here's a slither of some linocut cards, which will be up on Etsy very soon. More to come.

Peace and quiet

Every so often I need to go home and get some peace. So on the spur of the moment, I came home to North Wales briefly this weekend. I've had a quiet weekend away from the city - I've been with my dog and my folks, and I revisited the places I grew up in, including the first house I lived in when I was a baby in Rhewl.

I also went to Ruthin Craft Centre. There's a beautiful exhibition there at the moment by the jeweller Kevin Coates, and an embroidery exhibition exploring identity, Construct, featuring work by eight textile artists.

I also rediscovered the work of artist Rozanne Hawksley (it's not on display but she has exhibited there in the past).

She approaches sad and difficult subject matter, like war, death and violence, and communicates them through craft, which is sometimes undermined as a medium. The materials she uses are fragile, tactile and sometimes disturbing - lace, leather, bones and animal skeletons - but she transforms them into something enchanting and also very powerful. She appears to handle everything with great care and sensitivity, which I think gives her work more impact. Some artists will go all out to shock, or to spell things out to the viewer, but Rozanne's work manages to shock and affect you deeply and profoundly without ever giving the impression that that is what she was desperate to achieve - it's effortless. 

I thought her work was particularly poignant now, as this is the centenary year of the First World War. One of her most famous pieces, Pale Armistice (see the picture above), is a haunting commemoration and subtle anti-war statement, and is on permanent display at the Imperial War Museum in London. I've not seen it in real life, but every time I see a picture of it I can't help staring at the soft, white, featherlike gloves resting gently on top of each other, forever going round and round in their wreath. Looking at it brings another sense of peace, I suppose.