Festival Nightmare - #QuickDraw submission

Each Thursday at 7pm OFF LIFE magazine posts up a topic on Twitter using the hashtag #Quickdraw - the idea being that illustrators and comic book artists produce and post up an illustration by 8pm, ie within the hour. 

I'm not particularly fast at illustrating, often drawing an image two or three times before I'm satisfied with it, plus I'm often busy at that time on a Thursday. But last week I found the time to have a go and the picture above is my submission on the theme of Festival Nightmare.

Chasing invoices

Taking part in "The Great Invoice Chase", a tedious but necessary event in the life of every freelancer.

"Fights of Fancy!" a book of illustrated comic verse.

Who would win a fight between a potato and a halibut? If a beagle squared up to a cockatoo, who would be the victor? What would be the outcome if a pirate fought a parrot?

The answers are all contained within "Fights of Fancy" - a small hardback book of illustrated comic verse that I collaborated on with my friend Steve Redshaw over the past few months. It's my second venture into publishing (the first was my Football Phrasebook, "Do you speak football?") and was printed by Ingram Spark.

It's currently on sale from my Etsy shop for £6.

"Let it rain!" - new screenprint

Hand pulled limited edition two colour screenprint of my "Let it rain!" illustration. So what if it's raining, you won't melt. Put away that umbrella and dance! Live life! A print for all of life's optimists and non-conformists in an edition of 10. 

Available as always from my Etsy shop.

"I'd kill for a coffee right now!" - illustration

Mid-afternoon slump? Coffee's your man. Just a quick mid-afternoon doodle.

New screenprint - Existential Reassurance

Yesterday I pulled this new black and silver screenprint. It provides existential reassurance by gently reminding you exactly where you are. It's the perfect print for the bedroom for those early morning "where the h*ll am I?" moments. Alternatively you can hang it in the hallway so that arriving and departing guests know exactly where they are.

Carefully printed by hand on white Fabriano 5 "Liscia" paper. Paper size 300x400mm and available from my Etsy shop natch.

As an experiment I also printed a version on a spare laminate floorboard I had knocking around. It's the first time I've screenprinted onto wood. I had to raise the screen as the wood is around 15mm thick, and registration was a bit tricky but I'm quite happy with the result. However because the floorboard was laminated the ink hasn't taken properly and scratches off quite easily. I'm going to look into lacquering or varnishing it as an experiment and I'll also try printing on other - untreated - pieces of wood. Watch this space.

Carpet design - weaving in progress!

Just over a year ago I posted about the non-profit social business Node and the great fair trade project they've set up with Kumbeshwar Technical School in Kathmandu, Nepal, which I visited when I was there last year. Basically, Node in their own words "work with the worlds best designers and illustrators and convert their images into the highest quality hand-made fair trade carpets", providing training and employment for disadvantaged people, mainly women.

I decided when I visited the school that I'd like to support the project and have a rug woven to my own spoecification, but it took me a few months to come up with a design I was totally happy with. (Because the thread that they use is Tibetan wool which is hand-dyed, there's a specific palette of colours available, and also, any lines within the design have to be a minimum thickness so that they can be translated effectively into the woven design).

Because the rugs are carefully hand-woven, and because all their rugs are made to order, it takes a while to produce each one. My design's currently in production and Chris Haughton from Node has just sent me the photos below of the rug being woven. It's looking great, and I can't wait to receive it - obviously I'll post photographs of it when it arrives.

Other beautiful rugs woven through this fair trade scheme (by design and illustration luminaries like Chris Haughton, Sanna Annukka, Lesley Barnes and Donna Wilson) are on sale from the Design Museum Shop.

"Do You Speak Football?" A handy book of illustrated soccer phrases in 7 languages,

"Do you speak football?" is a handy soccer phrasebook with 22 key football phrases translated into seven languages - Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Dutch and Italian.

It's the result of my first foray into the world of self-publishing. I wanted to make a small hardback book partly to find out how self-publishing works and to understand the actual process, and partly just for the fun of holding my own little book in my clammy little hands. (I'm planning to write another post soon about the experience as there's not much info out there, and specifically my experience of using Ingram Spark's self-publishing Print On Demand services).

Thus far I've only printed up a handful of books for family and friends, but it is available to buy from my Etsy shop if anyone's interested.

New screenprint - Cassette Hounds

So, here's my new limited edition 3 colour screenprint - Cassette Hounds.

Remember cassette tapes? Of course you do. Remember how they needed walking twice a day? Probably not, everyone conveniently forgets that detail. This little baby comes in two bright colourways and is a very limited edition of 6 prints in each. It's the first completely new screenprint I've done in a while, as I spent a lot of last year reprinting the open editions of my "No Underground. Get Over It" series.

For those interested in the technicals, it measures a handy 30x40cm, is printed on lovely 300gsm Fabriano 5 Liscia paper. Each print is signed and is available to buy from my little old online shop.

Goodbye to Elphick's in Columbia Road

Very sad to hear the other day that Elphicks in Columbia Road will be closing. The shop's been there since 2007 and has been a showcase and outlet for a great number of printmakers and artists. Sharon who owns the shop has been stocking and selling some of my pieces for the past couple of years, in particular my London Fields screenprint. The shop will be closing in just a few weeks and all prints are reduced by 20%, so if you're in that area then drop by and grab yourself a beautiful bargain.

Say Hello to 2014

Happy 2014. Another year is upon us - let's hope 2014 brings us all what we want and hope for, rather than what we deserve. Even those of us with monkeys for brains.

The Great Christmas Sprout Divide - which side are you on?

Sprouts or No Sprouts? That's the big Christmas question. Which side are you on?