Screenprint - Curry - Great British Food & Drink series

Just finished screenprinting up this spicy little 3 colour number, mimicking the style of mid-20thC public information posters. It'll possibly be the first in a series of similar prints on the theme of classic British food and drink.

I'll be adding it to my Etsy online shop very soon in case you're interested in purchasing one to adorn a loved one's kitchen wall, or even your own.

Highgate Cemetery screenprints acquired by Museum Of London

Very pleased to announce that my two screenprints of Highgate Cemetery - shown below - were recently acquired by the Museum of London and added to their Print Collection. They'll be stored with the collection and can only be viewed online at the moment, but who knows, perhaps they'll make a public appearance at some point if the museum organises an exhibition in which they'd be relevant.

Fundraising screenprint for StokeyLocal

I've just finishing screenprinting this 4 layer CMYK screenprint to help raise funds for Stoke Newington's Stokey Local campaign. It's a limited edition of 40 prints on 300g Fabriano paper, it measures 30x40cm and is available to buy for just £40.

Importantly, every penny from the sale of these hand-pulled screen prints will go to the Stokey Local Community Fund, helping them to take their case to the Court of Appeal.

So, if you'd like to buy one of this limited edition of 40 prints and contribute to a worthy local cause, please contact me via email: contact@beyondthrilled.com.

*** UPDATE 15.12.2014: 30 of 40 prints sold so far... ***

(If you're not acquainted with the details of Stokey Local's ongoing campaign against the proposed housing and retail development in Wilmer Place, Stoke Newington N16, you can read all about it here.)

For those who are interested in the process, the screenprint was printed with yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks in the order shown below:

First layer - Yellow

Second layer - Magenta

Third layer - Cyan

Final print with Black

We Built This City - revolutionising London's souvenirs

Last night I dropped in on the launch party of We Built This City, a great new pop-up shop on London's Carnaby Street which aims to "revolutionise the souvenir offering of London", offering a huge range of individual and amazing alternative souvenirs, from screenprints to ceramics, tea-towels to books. The WBTC team have done an fantastic job bringing it all together and everything is really beautifully displayed.

I'm very pleased to have five of my London screenprints included - four of my "No Underground. Get Over It" series and one of my "Magnificent Seven London Cemeteries" - amongst such great design company.

There are prints and products by Neil Stevens, Lucy Loves This, Ursula Hitz, James Brown, Victoria Eggs, Hoxton Mini Press and Alfred and Wilde, and many others.

If you're in London's West End over the next few weeks (the shop is open until Saturday January 10th) then drop by to see all the amazing London-based gifts and souvenirs that Alice Mayor and her We Built This City team has sourced.

Fights of Fancy book has a new website

"Fights of Fancy", the little book of illustrated comic verse that I published earlier this year (written by Steve Redshaw and illustrated by myself) now has a new website with a handy button to buy it from Amazon.

We've also put up a page on Facebook - feel free to go and like it :-)

CMYK halftone screenprint -Tom eating spaghetti

Yesterday I printed my first four colour (CMYK) halftone screenprint. I'm pretty happy with the result, particularly considering I printed it in my spare room with my home made exposure unit, and registered each colour using an acetate sheet. It was also quite a challenge making sure the screens were burned well enough to pick up all the halftones.

The image area is 22x27cm and individual colours are shown below as they were laid down.

Yellow

Yellow and Magenta

Yellow, Magenta and Cyan

Submission to Mail Me Art

I bought a copy of the Mail Me Art - Short & Sweet book about a year ago. The "Mail Me Art" project is co-ordinated by Darren Di Lieto, the brains behind The Little Chimp Society and Hire An Illustrator, and involves illustrators the world over posting postcards they've illustrated which will then be published in book form. Short & Sweet was the third such Mail Me Art project, and the current one is "Open All Hours" - not that the illustration has to be on that theme at all. 

I've been meaning to get round to submitting an image ever since, but I was a bit daunted by the one-shot nature of it - each submission must be on an official card, and must be hand drawn or painted rather than printed. Not much room for mistakes! I finally committed myself to it this week though, and the above image is the result. 

Below are the cover of the MMA Short & Sweet book, and the required photo of my postcard being posted. Here's hoping it arrives in a reasonable state!

Indecision - illustration

The Cow of Desire - an alternative butchery diagram

It think the title says it all.

Awkward First Meetings - #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. 

Yesterday evening the theme was "Awkward First Meetings" and I submitted the drawing above.

F C Schadenfreude - the football club we ALL really support.

The "official" badge or crest of FC Schadenfreude, with the club motto "We sing when you're losing!".

Because let's face it, a huge part of being a football fan is the sheer pleasure of gloating at another team's dismal performance and humiliating scoreline.

Consider it the visual equivalent of Nelson Muntz's laugh and feel free to use the image above to taunt friends, colleagues and opposition fans on websites, and in forums and twitter feeds. At some point I might even look into getting it made as an embroidered patch.

Hackney DIY Art Fair - 31st August 2014

The Hackney Flea DIY Art Market took place on August 30th and 31st, in Abney Hall, just off Church Street in Stoke Newington London N16. It was the first time I'd taken a stall at an event like this, and I wasn't sure what to expect so I shared a table on the Sunday with market regular Caz of Beetle and Wilde.

All in all it was a very good day - a steady stream of visitors, some great feedback and a fair few sales (my smiling chicken head print in particular sold well). I also met some great people, including Hastings-based illustrator Georgia Sawers, and Julieta and David from Stokey-based Pixel Press letterpress studio. 

It was certainly worthwhile enough to make me think I'll do it again and probably take a table to myself next time to be able to display more of my screenprints. I'll post details here and on Twitter when I know when that might be...