Christmas cards now available

Let It Snow

A few of us illustrators from Drawn in Bristol were asked to come up with two Christmas card designs each. These are now available from the Watershed shop on Bristol's Harbourside and at Paper Scissors Stone pop-up shop in Quakers Friars.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I enjoyed the challenge of producing two cards that complemented each other but could also work individually. I settled on the idea of producing vignettes rather than full bleed illustrations quite early on as I liked the idea of playing with the white space and the impact it has on the image - I usually produce full-bleed images but more recently have been experimenting with using more white space. A muted colour palette lends the images a softness that contrasts with the crispness of the digital lines, which is the effect I was going for (I was feeling quite muted at the time!), although it would be interesting to try them out in brighter colours. What I enjoy most is the symmetry of the borders, which I feel unifies them and reflects the spirit of cosiness and "togetherness" that we're supposed to feel at Christmas!

New Drawn in Bristol exhibition at St George's in January

Recently I've been working on some new pieces for an exhibition I'm organising in January. Beat the Blues follows the success of 2012's High Notes / Low Notes at St George's Bristol and brings together a number of illustrators from Drawn in Bristol collective for an uplifting spring show based around the colour blue. The exhibition will launch alongside Bristol Acoustic Music Festival on Fri 18 Jan 2013 with an evening of live music - more details to be found on the St George's Bristol website soon. A smaller selection of works can also be viewed at the Parlour Showrooms in the week leading up to the event, where Acoustic Music Festival organisers, Jelli Records will be promoting the festival.

Detail from one piece, as yet untitled

The 4 pieces I've been working on are designed to work as a set and reflect the exhibition venue in that they are all about the act of playing music. They are a bit of a departure for me in that rather they are more abstract than most of my work. The forms have been distilled into basic elements that suggest figures rather than literal interpretations of performers. By simplifying the content I am able to concentrate more on creating striking compositions and I have enjoyed playing with these abstract shapes to form objects the eye can read in different ways. I've tried to respond to the physicality and emotional aspects of live performance and I hope this will come across to the viewer. I'm really looking forward to the exhibition, which sets to be even bigger and better than the last one, and features some fantastic illustrators. More info to follow soon.