Linocut Printmaking in London, SE1

I'd always fancied trying my hand at linocut printmaking, so having dabbled with screenprinting earlier in the year, I thought I'd give it a go. The bold marks you can get seem to fit well with my current style of work (all those tasty black outlines!). I enrolled on a 3-day course across a weekend (so pretty intense having the time all in one go). The course took place at The Art Academy, off Borough High Street, London SE1, and the small group of us was tutored by Nick Morley (inspiring and with a nice dry sense of humour).

Southwark 1 (linocut)

The Search for the Missing Dragon (linocut)

The City of London's Lost Dragon

I'd been wanting to do a piece involving the dragon statues that encircle the boundaries of the old City of London for a while. When I discovered that they were not all the same design or size, an idea of a leader (plus troops) began to form. So on a bright spring day, earlier in the year, I set off to find all thirteen of the dragons to photograph (or at least observe) them in their 'natural habitat'. After a lot of leg work and standing by the side of busy roads, I headed home only to discover that although Wikepedia had listed 13, I'd only established the existence of 12. Oh no! Had I missed one? Another web search revealed that I hadn't: the firebreather has been taken into safe storage whilst the Crossrail project carves it's way under London according to The Daily Constitutional. So, the final piece in getting my ideas together was found - my picture would be a gang of dragons hunting down their missing colleague.

You can read more in this feature about the work on popular London website Londonist.

Print now available to buy in my shop: the-search-for-the-missing-dragon

If you're a fan of ancient reptilian London creatures, the Victorian dinosaur sculptures in Crystal Palace Park are worth a visit. I've even had some cushions made featuring my Crystal Palace Monsters design (also available via my online store).

Crystal Palace Monsters dinosaur cushion

Drawing For Life - 5

There is a slight burlesque feel to these life drawings from Betty Frankenstien's Drawing Room session in Crystal Palace (above The Sparrowhawk). Our model wore a few vintage items of clothing, which actually helps with getting the proportions right when drawing the figure. Tried a new medium for the quick drawings this time: ink (using Faber-Castell pens).

Life Drawing 5th Aug 2013

Forage Press - Hot Concrete

I've been featured on another blog, called Forage Press. I've attached the three pictures that I created for them here. All their featured artists and designers produce the pieces of work specially for Forage Press, as a response to different pieces of music.

Hot Concrete 2

Hot Concrete 3

There's a massive variety of images up there. Read the full post, and listen to the music that inspired my summery creations by visiting the site itself.

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Borough Market Illustrations - 1

Here's the first of the Borough Market illustrations: Borough Market Veg 1 that I was researching the other day (see post). Using reference photos taken with my phone, I constructed a composition in Photoshop then worked from that. It saves having to stick a scary camera lens into people's faces whilst they work/sell/eat in London SE1. After that, a lot of colourful monoprinting ensued (using dry paper), followed by an addition of all the contrasty detail, afterwards, in ink with a pen. There are four more of these to come (Bread, Veg 2, Juice and Fish) but I'll share those when they are all complete.