Visual Snacks, creative cupcakes & thoughts of fashion...

If you’re planning what to do this weekend then look no further than the summer Comica festival at the Pump House Gallery in Battersea, London. It’s run by Comica (Paul Gravett) and there have already been viewings, exhibitions and talks going on – but this Sunday – it all becomes art and crafts with independent and small-press publishers like myself, selling our art prints and booklets!

I’ll be there with a full stall, selling postcards, ‘zines, booklets and A4 prints at a purse-friendly – half price! So please come down, say hi, grab a coffee, cake or enjoy the BBQ and let’s chit-chat. Alongside me will be the UK Alternative Press peeps and other independents to check out!

For more information please visit the Comica site, or the Pump House Gallery site. If you have any enquiries for me, just drop me a message.

Don’t forget – I’ll also be visiting the Japanese Art Festival on the Saturday to teach Manga Workshops!

Over and out…

Zx

Heads up all! I’ll be hosting a series of exciting Manga Workshops at this summers’ Japanese Art Festival held on Saturday 21^st August at the Conway Hall in Holborn, London.

Each of my sessions will be a snack-friendly £3.50 or £10 for unlimited access. In return you’ll get a cute little collectable ticket, illustrated by yours truly as well as free session worksheets and don’t forget, the opportunity to show me your artwork and improve on your drawing skills.

The sessions I’ll be hosting are as follows:

-          Draw your own kimono princess (11:00am to 12:00pm Artists Room)

-          4-Koma comic creation (13:20pm to 14:20pm Artists Room)

-          Manga facial expressions (14:40pm to 15:50pm Club Room)

-          Manga inking techniques (ink pens provided) (15:40pm to 16:50pm Club Room)

I will be outside the classes about 10 minutes before the sessions start to collect tickets and answer any of your queries. For the full details please visit the official Manga Workshop page here.

Although the times of the sessions haven’t been published yet, do visit the Japanese Art Festival site, and follow their Facebook and Twitter pages to keep updated! Please also note that the festival has an entry of £5. We’re only about two weeks away folks!

If you have any other queries relating to the workshops, just message me!

Over and out…

You may (or may not) have heard of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration by Amelia’s Magazine. If you have and have submitted work for their consideration then good luck! If you haven’t then let me explain what it’s all about! >_<

As with their first anthology of illustrators, the folks at Amelia’s Magazine are putting together another anthology for the end of this year, of up-and-coming fashion illustrators under an ethical labels theme. I thought this would be a great chance for me to illustrate for Beautiful Soul (one of my favourite ethical labels that combine vintage kimonos into luxury pieces) and submit something and see how it goes. So here are my illustrations, and some lovely photographs of the actual pieces, passed to me kindly by Nicola Woods, the designer of Beautiful Soul:

Obviously the final illustrators haven’t been picked yet, but I thought I’d share with you these illustrations and throw more awareness to the growing family of ethical fashion labels out there who are creating sustainable pieces and fight against third-world labour exploitation and “cheap” fashion (which seems to have consumed our high street shops of late). So here’s a big whoop to ethical labels like Beautiful Soul! >_<

To read Amelia’s original brief visit Amelia’s Magazine website here. To view and buy Beautiful Soul, please visit the official site here.

You can view details of these illustrations on my Facebook page. Comments and feedback welcome! >_< x

Hi Hi! I know, it’s been a while – but I’m finally getting through my workload and can see a vision of pimms-sipping and sunbathing in the Serpentine in the not so distant future-weekend >_<

But first, a roundup of my current projects and exciting things to come!

You may (or may not) have spotted my illos for the well known NYC to London-based fashion blogger The Clothes Whisperer – if not here is a snapshot of the final piece:

This was a really fun project as I created looks around her personality and incorporated her journey from the big apple to the big smoke through the inked skyline as well as illustrated her love of writing through the book and the floating text. If you know about The Clothes Whisperer then you’ll also know that she’s never apart from her adorable, super-cute Pomeranian Butters – how I could not include little Butters in this illustration?! More of Butters below:

Yes, I also illustrated miss cuteness for her own fashion blog and after a few draft sketches we agreed that I should meet Butters to say hello and get to know her more. Now, I’m not really a dog person (you must know how much I heart cats!), but Butters really blew me away with her beauty and cuteness – let’s say, to date, she is the loveliest dog I’ve ever met*. You can’t help but love her – it’s a mystery to me!

To view these illos in context of the blogs please visit The Clothes Whisperer and Butters the Fashion Dog sites. For fellow fashion lovers out there I’d also like to recommend Kristin’s latest book Alexander McQueen, Genius of a Generation. I was very sad to hear about his death earlier this year, I also felt that he was a pioneering artist as well as a designer and this book is a lovely piece complementing his life.

Other news in the pipeline – more fashion illustrations coming very soon to talk about! Plus my online shop is finally opening for business THIS MONDAY! Yes, THIS MONDAY – put it in your diary peeps!

OK, I’m going to sign off now and remind you to read Le Mime’s hot weather antics here!

Zx

*Although before Butters it had to be Max (RIP Max x)