Hello Summer!

Hello again! I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted! Excited to have just graduated and over the moon with my results. Going to really miss being a student though..

I've just come back from Brick Lane where we had our week long Free Range exhibition: "BRINK", at the Old Truman Brewery. Couldn't have asked for a better location! The space was huge, but after a lot of hard work from all involved we managed to fill it up nicely. Thanks to all who came to see our work and support us, it was a very busy week and the opening night was definately one to remember!

Major Project

Some interesting developments in my Major Project lately.. completed a mock up book for the Macmillan Children's Prize 2011, consisting of 4 finished spreads and 10 rough spreads. The project is based around my proposal for a picture book called "The Boy Who Drew Cats", based on a Japanese folktale, updated for a modern day audience and telling the story of a boy whose drawings come to life.

I've been working in a new way in this project, building on the experience of the Negotiated Practice unit, this time creating little sets and models in a range of different media and then photographing them and bringing it all together on Photoshop. I think the print based outcomes still demonstrate my hand made aesthetic and the three dimensional model making side of my practice without looking overly digital, although it does take a very long time to build up the layers and bring the photographed imagery together to a finished quality.

Expect to see the picture book proposal plus promotional material to take away at the show!

Free Range / Brink

Excited to be exhibiting at the illustration show 'BRINK' as part of this year's Free Range!

http://www.free-range.org.uk/cgi-bin/portfolio.pl?memberID=19207

Here's a link to the details of the show, 7th July 2011

Negotiated Practice

Entry for the Puffin Children's design award - click to enlarge. I designed this cover for James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, which was a lot of fun as the story is full of wonderful imagery. It is exciting to be developing my own style which explores the relationship between hand generated type, drawing and three dimensional elements. This image-making method has evolved from the flat papercut work I have been producing and I feel that now I have found a way of combining the two different focuses of my practice.

The peach sculpture is made from Sculpey, carving into the surface and building up the design in relief. The sculpture tells the story of James and the Giant Peach from each different side, inspired by Grayson Perry's narrative ceramics.

A Recipe For...

'A recipe to mend a broken heart' piece for the fundraising 'Recipe For...' Illustration magazine. Paper-cut out, hand-cut with scalpel. Improving my scalpel skills, but the blade does go blunt a lot when doing delicate text like this, nightmare! Some of the words are taken from a song called "Unhappy Anniversary" by Loudon Wainwright III, one of my favourites. I changed them around and added to them to make this verse which fit the working title. As I've been working a lot with papercut and paper sculpture I built on this work in my Negotiated Practice project to incorporate the intricacy of the papercut drawing with my 3-D sculptural/model-making work. More of that to come.

Silent Auction

Festive AUCB Illustration silent auction in December, sold this papercut based on some Beatles lyrics! Hand-cut with a scalpel and mounted. Really enjoying my papercutting at the moment, although it is very tricky and time consuming, especially where text is involved. Thank you Krister Selin for the photograph of my work in the auction!

Día de los Muertos

Personal project, inspired by Dia de los Muertos and candy skulls. Wire, plaster paris and acryllic.