Girls Who Draw present Masquerade

Summer has been very busy because, as well working on a new series of screen prints, I have been putting together the fifth Girls Who Draw postcard book. The theme of the book is Masquerade but I left this open to interpretation so the 12 illustrators involved have all done something completely different. There are some masks but also  theatrical characters, traditional costumes, animals in disguise and even camouflaged insects. 

Initially I wanted to produce a series of mask designs but after seeing some vintage stamps featuring Bulgarian and Romanian costumes I decided that was what I wanted to do. My original designs are A3 but because they are quite bold they also work at A4 for screen prints and even smaller for postcards. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is very difficult to do my own work as well as manage a group of illustrators and get a book to print. I don't get paid, I don't really know what I'm doing and it takes up alot of my time an energy. In the end it is worth the effort because I get to work with some very talented illustrators. I'm really happy Sandra Dieckmann agreed to contribute two new postcard designs for the book. But even better than that she also illustrated and designed this beautiful cover for the book.

More Bulgarian Folk Costumes

This is my favorite Bulgarian folk costume so far, I really enjoyed doing the research, drawing and printing. Working from images of actual costumes and trying to retain some authenticity pushed me to use colours and colour combinations I would have previously avoided. Printing four colours was also a challenge as I normally only use two but it wasn't as difficult as I expected and I'm happy with the results. It seemed fitting that she should have a male companion but he was more of a problem mainly because the a lot of the men's costumes are either black and cream or black and red. I try to avoid using black because to me screen printing is all about colour. After trying out a few different combinations I mixed red with a bit of purple and decided to go with that.

Bulgarian Folk Costumes

Over summer I wanted to challenge myself and push both my drawing and printmaking as well as continue to develop more folk art themed work. So I have been working on a series of new screen prints inspired by traditional Bulgarian folk costumes and also Bulgarian wooden dolls. There are many different costumes, all of them are colourful and very ornate so to begin with I found it difficult to make sense of them. Looking at the simple wooden dolls made it much easier for me to interpret the folk costumes. I was able to identify the key elements, simplify them and produce black and white artwork for four colour screen prints. Although I have already printed this design it isn't finished and as well as redrawing some parts I will probably add a fifth colour.

More Mythical Creatures

Much of this year has been taken up with creating, organising and installing the Mythical Creatures exhibition. In April the exhibition finished at Here Gallery in Bristol and then there were just a few weeks to get it ready to go to Hereford College of Arts in May. Alot of the work had sold including some originals and the exhibition space at HCA was much bigger than at Here so it meant framing more prints and in some cases even making new work. I had screen printed card mobiles to hang in the windows at Here Gallery but there were more windows to fill at HCA. It was a real challenge and quite daunting, I spent hours screen printing, folding, gluing and cutting recycled card to make sure I had enough mobiles. I also created a series of simple floral designs which were cut from vinyl to make colourful wall and window decals. It took about a day to hang the mobiles in the windows so there wasn't enough time left to install as many of the vinyl decals as I would have liked to. I also forgot how difficult it is putting decals in windows and on a hot sunny day it is especially torturous.I'm looking forward to doing more large scale installations combining screen printing and vinyl decals, but perhaps not quite as big in future.

Folk Tail Cat and Kittens

First of all I reworked my original Folk Tail Cat drawing, rescanned the artwork, reprinted the acetates and then at last was able to print an edition of the finished design. Next came a litter of kittens, actually just mini versions of the Folk Tail Cat on A4 Fabriano paper. Some of the kittens have already been packed and posted to shops so I hope they find new homes soon.

Tale of the Folk Tail Cat

I decided to combine my interest in folk art with something else close to my heart and this is is the result, a new three colour screen print inspired by my little ginger cat. Of course a ginger cat means there has to be orange and lots of it, but this time I've also included my newest favorite colour, buff titanium. 

A Cornucopia of Cards

This year I've been working hard to add to my collection of cards and these are some recent designs. There are more to come but hopefully no more orange, it's definitely time to try out some different colour combinations.