Book Cover

My design is based on the first paragraph from the book; a description of the main street in Barcelona, Las Ramblas, in which the author compares the bright colours of the fruit trees and flower stalls, and the noise and bustle of the crowds, with the city's darker side of immigrant pickpockets and drug dealers. I feel that i definetly picked up on both these elements while i was in Barcelona. I created the design using aluminium foil and prints, and used photoshop to arrange and edit. Overall im really pleased with this image; the three elements of 3d, print, and Photoshop design fit well together, as do the colours used. The shadow of the same image suggests the contrast i intended to achieve. I struggled a bit with the title, having not really considered it during the design process. I cant decide which of the two above works best.

I'v only just noticed that people comment on the stuff i put up here, sorry i was not ignoring you all!! My powers of observation can be somewhat limited at times. Yes Jo, i will get those reports typed up very soon!

As with the piece i put up a few weeks ago, the point of these was to create a good design that suggests the richness and colours of life that bees are helping to sustain. Theyre largely created from aluminium foil and drinks cans, with a few bits touched up in Photoshop. Still looking at Alan Aldridge, definetly will make sure i get to his London exhibition in the next couple of weeks, even if it will be 5 hours each way on a bloody coach.

Iv created this illustration with the idea of communicating the theory behind bees strange dissapearance. The signpost, made from printed paper, suggests them being lost, and the design on it hints at the reason - radiation from mobile phones. While i have printed and made the signpost, the bees and flowers were done in Illustrator and Photoshop.

This is from the Creative Review blog, its an animation promoting 4th Estate books, the entire film is made from 4th Estates books. It took nearly 3000 photos and 1000 books to produce it. I particularly like the way the trees are cut out, & the use of light & shadows.

Buy Eye

Buy the latest edition of Eye magazine (number 70, think they have it in Borders) its full of good articles about the hand made/ craft renaissance, also a good review of a book about Barney Bubbles his work can be quite strange in an Alan Aldridge sort of way, there is also a review of the Aldridge book and exhibition in Eye.

Thanks for finding this Jo, iv emailed Kate and shes sent me some really helpful advice...


1. Where do you find all the different paper used in your work?

I think I began just by collecting envelopes and using the different patterns inside (there are so many!). I also use things like paper bags and patterns I find in magazines. Actually now I just can’t throw any paper away, I’ve got bags of it - old shopping lists, chocolate wrappers, leaflets. I did quite a lot of mono-printing while I was at uni to get big sheets of flat colour for backgrounds. This worked really well because the prints came out covered with tiny white dots – perfect for night skies! Or occasionally I do paint sheets of paper with acrylic. Gardening magazines are also good!



2. When you graduated, what was the first thing you did to begin your career?

Well, I was lucky because I had interest from publishers who had seen my work at the London degree show and at D&AD New Blood. This meant I already had people to see as soon as I graduated, which was great because it then gave me the confidence to approach others. Having a website was also useful, even though mine is really simple and to begin with only contained work from my portfolio. Even having a blog or something would work I think, if it was clearly a kind of portfolio.



3. Do you have an agent, or do you promote your own work? If so, what have you found to be the most successful method of self promotion?

No, I don’t have an agent, although I did contact a few on graduating and it’s definitely something I would consider. I try to promote my own work, which has so far meant emailing lots and lots of publishers. Having said that, not many reply! I think it’s really important not to be discouraged by that. Luckily, I’ve had positive responses from the few who have. Going to see people with my portfolio has probably been the most beneficial thing for me and I really enjoy it too! I get a lot of feedback and ideas for things they would like to see me do. They’re often quite happy to be used in the same way as a tutor at university and then you can just email them things you’re working on. This does depend on what area of illustration you want to pursue though, because for editorial work for instance, I think having a website is probably as useful and you don’t need to see people as much. Web presence is obviously a fantastic way of showing your work. I’ve found IllustrationMundo a brilliant resource and also having a blog, because I can update that much more quickly than my website!


4. Alot of your work seems to be based around nature or animals, a subject which inspires me more than anything else. I was wondering if you had any advice as to where to look for work on this theme?

You know, I’ve never actually thought about that! It’s actually really obvious isn’t it? I suppose it’s being a country girl at heart! That’s quite a difficult question. The really easy (and not at all useful) answer is everywhere! It depends what area you would like to go into. If it’s more editorial then just go to Borders (or newsagent of your choice!) and look through the magazines, find where you think your work might fit, write down the art director’s name from the front and ring them up/ send samples. I say this as though it’s something I’ve actually done, which I haven’t! It’s something one of my tutors at uni always said we should do, because you often find magazines you never would have thought of. Of course children’s books often deal with these themes/settings and publishers I’ve met say that mostly their illustrators are known for either doing animals or people because they’re usually better at one than the other, so this is an area where you naturally pursue your area of interest. While it’s good to have a wide portfolio, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being identified with a certain subject/theme. I don’t know if you’ve seen Rob Ryan’s work, but he came and gave a talk at Kingston and basically said that everything he does has trees/birds/bells in! He does quite a lot of book jackets and… well everything really, so it seems to work for him. He’s definitely worth looking at anyway, one of the illustrators I first looked at when I started cutting things out and just shows you that there aren’t really any boundries with where illustration can be used. Although if you are doing more 3D work you do have to think about where it will fit. I used to make all these chaotic structures and then tutors would tell me I had to get it photographed to see how it would work flat. The photography/printing side of things took me so long to get right, and it’s still something I find difficult. When I’ve been working on something really big and 3D for ages, it doesn’t always look how I expected printed out flat.

I really haven’t answered that question have I? I will let you know if I think of anything better… Honestly, I did a project where I had to contact people for advice last March! It’s so strange to have someone ask me these things. It was useful though, so I hope I’ve helped a little bit - it’s lovely to be asked!

I created this piece using a flower print i did from textured card. Iv changed the colours digitally, and the stems and boxes are also done in photoshop, but the leaves are printed directly from leaves. The influences on the style and colours used in this piece are Alan Aldridge and James Marsh, i looked at these because i wanted to create a good design that suggests the richness and colours of life that bees are helping to sustain. I think the very organic technique of printing directly from a leaf has mixed quite well with the artificial look of Photoshop design.

Iv made these bees from beer cans, inspired by the models i found at camden.

Alan Aldridge

Try to get down to this exhibition at the design museum. See this link for more info:

Alan Aldridge   You could also look at James Marsh an illustrator from the 70s/80s who was obviously heavily influenced by Aldridge. (especially his work for a band called Talk Talk see above)

Kate Slater

I found Kate Slaters' work on www.illustrationmundo.com. She makes her illustrations by suspending separate, collaged elements from a framework on the wall, and then photographing this image to create the final illustration. This unique way of working came about while she was experimenting with cutouts and shadows in a sunny window. She has always enjoyed working in 3D and thinks she has discovered the perfect, if peculiar, combination. Yet despite being a paper-hoarding collage-holic, Kate also fills sketchbooks with pencil drawings. For her degree show she made elements at a much larger scale.

Mexican Wood Carvings

I thought this Mexican wood carving was like the work you found at Camden market. I have a book with them in at home. A lot of skill must go into carving and painting them.

Don't forget to use your blog to document correspondence with people in industry, show that you are engaged with current issues in the profession by reading journals / magazines and document what is relevant to you or has had an impact on your work.

Keep up to date with reviews of guest lectures such as Gillain Blease's, this should be thorough and should include: following up some of the leads that she gave of her influences, how she got a foot on the ladder as an illustrator, how she promotes her work and how she has diversified.

It would also be good to see you posting some of your own work on her with reflections on your progress.

Personal Project

My personal project is based on Symbiosis; the relationship between two diferent species that are interdependant, in some cases relying on each otehr for survival. Iv chosen this because i was interested in studying nature or conservation but wanted to look at it from an interesting angle. The first example i thought of was Bees and Flowers, which seemed too obvious and boring, untill i read further and found that Einstein had predicted that if bees were to die out, humans could be extinct within four years. It had never really occured to me that bees gave us any benefits other than honey, when in fact most plants rely on them for reproduction, including everything we eat, feed out animals on, and make our clothes from. As reports of bees declining all over the world have been in the media recently, i felt that this would be a fascinating subject to study.

I found these at Camden market, the girl selling them was asleep so i didnt bother waking her up to find out who did them..... i liked the idea of making stuff out of cans though.

Carlo Giovanni

Iv always enjoyed making things but its only in the last six months that iv been illustrating in this way, so obviously the whole idea is fairly new to me. Work like this is so inspiring because it reminds me to experiment with different materials, not just what i know is safe. These are brilliant in their simplicity, i love the sweet potato pig!

Peter Callesen

Its not just the skill of these paper sculptures thats attracted me to Peter Callesens work, its the fact that theyre more than just an attractive piece - each one looks as though theres a story behind it; i think the idea of the skeleton contemplating his former self is brilliant, and i love the way theres almost a feeling of suspense about what will happen to that little house.

Jen Stark

I love these explosions of colour! All made from paper, she produces alot of geometric shapes and has done some kaleidoscope style animations. Iv always been into psychedelic stuff , i think this is amazing when you think shes made this whole thing out of coloured paper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHCGN2nGusI

Hiroko Ohmori

Japanese artist Hiroko Ohmori creates pop up designs for cards, sculptures and accessories. This piece is so delicate and complicated, i cant imagine the amount of time and patience it must have taken to produce. The backlighting allows the shadow to be in front of the image, contrasting with the white of the page; i really love this technique.