Adult Colouring Book

Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Claire Powell: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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CPowell_Sleeping
Artist Claire Powell describes how coming late to illustration has been no bad thing, why dance inspired her colouring book artwork, how to make an award winning animation in your spare time and the joy of fart machines. Love meeting my featured colouring book artists!

CPowell_ColourBk_Spread
Your artwork is about the freedom of dance, can you tell us more about it?
Well I knew almost immediately I wanted to feature a variety of characters in my artwork and I chose dance because I felt I could create a feeling of happiness and movement which would be fun to colour. I wanted to capture the feeling of being lost in the moment, which is how I feel when I’m illustrating and that’s how people feel when they dance to good music… or colour in! Each character is dancing in their unique way, lost in the music. The composition intentionally starts small and grows across the page – a crescendo of movement. Hopefully this piece makes people smile, maybe they’ll have a favourite character, or identify with a dance move – one comment on Instagram was ‘my mum dances like that!’ which made me smile.

CPowell_Portrait02
How do the worlds of graphic design and moving image intertwine in your life?
I think training as a graphic designer has informed my illustration work hugely. I was taught a very traditional approach, tight grids and layouts, lots of typography, often drawn by hand and the simplicity of ideas was drilled into me – it shouldn’t take more than a short sentence to explain your idea! Those things have stuck with me and I see them appearing in my work now. Working in TV for nearly 10 years has also hugely influenced my ability to tell a story in a short amount of time. Storyboarding, sequencing, composition – all directly translate into my illustrations, especially my children’s books where I’m telling a narrative over a series of page turns. I often think of my characters moving, I imagine how they would walk or react to a certain situation (sometimes I act it out!) and then I try and capture that in a single illustration. I used to feel disappointed that I was arriving at illustration a bit later in life but now I see how the years of training in design and TV have actually been great ground work for where I’m moving to now… it’s all coming together like the ingredients of one ginormous, yummy chocolate cake!

The Scapegoat claire powell
What inspired your short film The Scapegoat and how long did it take to make?
My film was inspired by the book Arthur & George by Julien Barnes which I borrowed from Brixton library. I had no idea what the book was about when I picked it up but by the time I’d finished it I was hooked. I thought the story was so intriguing, it just felt like it would make a wonderful film. It’s based on a true story so there are several factual books written about the case, one written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, which I used as the basis for writing the script. After that followed a rough storyboard and animatic. Then I began drawing out the action of the entire film, frame by frame where necessary which took about a year. I had a huge chalk board with all 36 scenes written on and I’d cross them off one by one. I did it in every spare second of the day – before work, after work, weekends, on trains, planes… even on Christmas Day to my family’s horror! I scanned each scene as it was drawn and replaced it in the animatic. Then I started to colour each scene and add backgrounds. I’d chosen a style which was heavily textured, inspired by the Victorian era the film is set in which I always imagine to be dark and misty, so colouring was very labour intensive and took about 18 months. After each scene was complete it would get wiped off the chalk board, so bit by bit gaps started appearing on the board until there was one scene left, wiping that off was an amazing feeling. Music composition was happening in parallel and this was magical for me… Ged Adamson the composer got it so right the first time I heard his score I had goosebumps! Final stages of production were done in April 2014 – we recorded the final narrative with a voice over artist Jonathan Kidd and did a final grade. The whole film took 4 years from start to finish and I had a full time job through the entire process so there were definitely times I thought it would never be done but now it is I’m very proud I made it. You can find more including pictures of the chalk board at www.the-scapegoat.com

CPowell_Artiste
How have you refined your illustration style and what materials do you use?
Well my film has a very specific look which I chose intentionally to capture the drama of the narrative but it isn’t necessarily a style that reflects me personally – it’s a bit dark! My illustrations have a natural humour to them and they’re actually quite simple. What I’ve always wanted to try and capture with my final illustrations is the spontaneity of my initial sketches as that can be lost when translating from sketchbook to laptop. So I’ve spent a while experimenting with how to retain the texture and looseness of the sketch. What interests me most is not having perfect outlines, I love it when the edges of a line or block of colour are broken in some way… I always start with a pencil sketch, sometimes I get it right first time other times there’s pages and pages of sketches. Then I ink each element of my pencil sketch separately using indian ink and a paintbrush or old fountain pen, scan everything, put the drawing back together and then add colour to the ink scans in Photoshop which retains the texture. I can spend hours choosing colours! I’ve also started playing around with different ways of creating texture – graphite, chalk, finger painting… I even busted out a potato the other day and painted with that! It’s an ongoing process of experimentation.

CPowell_Pairs
You recently joined the agency Darley Anderson, how did that happen and how has representation helped your career?
I did a children’s picture book course last year run by author/illustrator Claire Alexander, which she now runs at the House of Illustration. As part of the course Claire organises for industry visitors, the agent that came was from Darley Anderson. I expressed an interest in finding a picture book agent and the next day they asked if I’d go and chat to them which I did and they offered me representation there and then. It all happened quite seamlessly! I’m still very much at the start of my career and that’s exactly why I enjoy working with my agent Clare, she obviously has great industry contacts and a wealth of experience in what is a very competitive industry… she also buys me cake which is always a bonus.

CPowell_Yoga Farty Marty
Can you tell us more about Farty Marty – he sounds ace!
He is quite a character! All I can say is it’s the story of a mouse called Marty who adores cheese but cheese makes Marty Farty! His flatulence problem gets him into quite a lot of trouble. I’m in the process of artworking now and I’m pleased with how it’s looking. He’s a very expressive character who you can’t help but love and some of the spreads really make me chuckle. I read the book at Crouch End library to a group of children this summer and I took a fart machine with me for dramatic effect which seemed to go down well.

CPowell_Expressions
What led you to volunteer at the hospital?
I was actually approached by the events company (AD Events). They’re screening Disney’s film Inside Out for the children at Chelsea & Westminister Hospital MediCinema and were looking for some pre-entertainment. They asked if it would be something of interest to me and of course I said yes! Myself and another illustrator will be drawing pictures for the children to take away with them. It’s a great opportunity to do something for a charity event and practice drawing live! Eek.

CPowell_Perch
Any other exciting projects in the pipeline?
As well as my children’s book work which is ongoing I’ve recently been talking to an independent card company about developing a range of cards for them and whilst it’s early days I’m really excited about it, so fingers crossed! I’m also doing a school visit where I’ll be doing character workshops with 2 groups of secondary school kids which will be great fun and I’ve been commissioned to do a collection of nursery prints too!

I’ll aim to post one interview a day until I’ve introduced everyone, so keep reading about my Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artists right here.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Monday September 21st, 2015 8:43 am

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,animation, ,Arthur & George, ,Chelsea & Westminister Hospital Medi Cinema, ,Claire Alexander, ,Claire Powell, ,Coloring Book, ,Colouring, ,Colouring Book, ,dance, ,Darley Anderson, ,Farty Marty, ,Ged Adamson, ,House of Illustration, ,interview, ,Julien Barnes, ,Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ,The Scapegoat

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Margo McDaid: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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Margo McDaid
Artist Margo McDaid captured my heart with her gorgeous sailors on instagram and has produced a wonderful double page spread for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featuring her highly decorative portraits of men and women. Here she talks about her move to the coastal town of Ramsgate, and how motherhood as fostered a renewed energy for creating pictures.

Margo McDaid
Where did you study and what happened after graduation? 
I studied at Camberwell College of Art. I exhibited at the New Designers show in Islington and was approached by a company called Babylon Design. I was incredibly naive about the business side of design but so pleased to have been approached by a really well known design company. My designs were produced and sold in The Conran Shop in London and in Paris. When I saw the product I designed in the shop I felt an enormous sense of disappointment. I had laboured over this design in my final year, months spent working on the milling machine, ensuring the product was as beautifully made as possible. The product in the shop was crudely made and lacked the integrity of design. It was a huge revelation and it really quickly made me realize, that I was not prepared to be part of this.

Margo McDaid
How did you get away from mass production and what did you do next?
I started volunteering in an adventure playground in South London. It was so vibrant and fresh and the children were so full of energy and life. It felt like a complete fresh break away form the corporate design world. I started to really love this creative journey. I wasn’t ready for the design world. I just wanted to continue a creative process. I ended up running art workshops in Islington and South London and eventually became a teacher.

Margo McDaid
When did you start drawing and creating for yourself again and who or what has inspired you?
Having a baby was life changing. I became a mother and it felt like a fresh start, a creative start. I had always kept a sketch book and would produce drawings purely for pleasure and make birthday cards for friends. One day I saw my boy drawing and I saw this amazing artist at work. He would come to me and say “I need to draw”. He needed to draw and it completely awoke a long buried need in me too.

Margo McDaid
Can you tell us more about your draw a picture a day project?
It was the daily rituals in my life that led to #drawapictureaday. I believed that if I wanted to make a difference to my artistic journey, then I would have to really invest in skill building. I would need to rid myself of preconceived ideas and just get on with it. Losing a fear of failure is essential. I wanted to discover more about me as an artist.

Margo McDaid colouring
Who did you draw for my colouring book and how did you create your artworks?
I drew two sailors for the colouring book. The sailors are together and are relaxed, they are about to sail away. You can see a boat in the back ground and lots of sea patterns adorn the page. They leave behind the dull aches of life and any expectations others have of them. They have escape. The three women standing in a forest are huddled together in solidarity but there is sadness and fear, both in their expression and body language. They look despondent and detached. They wear clothes that are rich in pattern and their heads are covered in scarves. I think the sub text is about feminism and have we as a society really made progress for women?

Margo McDaid
Where do you draw and how do you integrate your creativity with family life?
I have several tables in different spots where I draw. I tend to move around to be with my children. I set up my drawing table in a playroom/studio. I also have a table in my bedroom/family room. I read a quote recently, by Tracey Emin and she said that mothers couldn’t be successful artists. I felt really angry by that remark but having discussed it with friends I think she made a valid point. To be successful takes a lot of work and focus and as parent, it is almost impossible to give that time to ambition. So that is why I draw everywhere. I draw on the train to work, at football practice, in front of the TV. Any chance I get – I draw.

Margo McDaid
Why did you move to Ramsgate and in what way has it inspired you?
We were living in a tiny flat in Islington, North London and I felt so imprisoned by the physical space. I grew up on a small holding in the North West of Ireland, so I just could not face the thought of my children not having access to the outdoors. Ramsgate was cheap and cheerful, and we fell in love immediately. I have always wanted to live beside the sea, to wake up and just walk to the waters edge. Ramsgate is a varied and really interesting town. The overtly ornate architecture of a once golden age are beginning to be rescued one by one from decay, and even though I am a DFL (Down From London) I have a natural love for this place. Ramsgate has a long history of attracting creative people and has a vibrant art scene. I really feel at home here.

Margo McDaid
What are you currently working on?
I am working on drawings of sailors. I feel that there is a rediscovering of the golden age of seaside life. Dreamland in Margate is a really fun and inspiring place. I want to explore more about seaside aesthetics and develop them in my work. Sea.

Margo McDaid
What imagery and ideas have inspired your range of postcards?
I love the sea. I love the grey textured sea and the clouds. The Thanet skies are really incredible, so much pattern and texture. I make postcards from recycled envelopes. I was opening the water bill one day and thought of the sea. I love patterns, I see them everywhere and I like to combine the way patterns can compliment or contrast. The British Gas cross hatch looks like the November sky in East Kent with rain very softly coming in from the sea.

I have sold out of the first batch of Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featuring the work of Margo McDaid and 43 other artists, but you can preorder a copy to receive in mid January here. Make sure you don’t miss out!

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday December 22nd, 2015 3:52 pm

Categories ,#drawapictureaday, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Babylon Design, ,British Gas, ,Camberwell College of Art, ,Colouring Book, ,Down From London, ,Dreamland, ,interview, ,kent, ,Margate, ,Margo McDaid, ,New Designers, ,Ramsgate, ,Thanet, ,The Conran Shop, ,Tracey Emin

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Eleanor Percival: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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eleanor percival atalanta 5
The delicate artwork of Eleanor Percival translates beautifully into her colouring book image of a heavily tattooed lady plucking a pear. Here she talks about her love of fiction, Renaissance paintings and good quality watercolours.

eleanor percival in studio
eleanor percival spread
What would be the story of your tattooed lady?
I think she’s a tattooist herself, but a bit of a psychic too. She can see her clients’ true natures and tattoos them with symbols of their characters, good or bad. She’s covered herself with images that represent who she is (I got very caught up in the meanings of tattoos while I was developing this piece, and even added in a couple that would mean something to me if I ever had the guts to get one). She would probably be very sought after, but would also get into trouble with those who didn’t like her representation of them.

eleanor percival fftmc
Who are your favourite writers and why?
I love strangeness in fiction, the uncanny – Roald Dahl’s short stories for adults seem to be set in the real world, then something knocks the story off-kilter and it feels like another universe. Virginia Woolf is always great but Orlando is, without doubt, my favourite of her books: the way the character moves through history (and genders) is written so cleverly that it barely seems odd at all.

eleanor percival poppies
Where did you do your BA and MA courses and what were the best things you learnt on them?
I did my BA at UCA Maidstone, which sadly has been closed down since. The course had been famously good since the sixties, so attracted wonderful staff. They really taught us to have clear motivations in our work – ‘Why have you used red here?’ ‘What does it symbolise?’ ‘What will viewers associate with it?’ Etc. They were also fantastic at driving home to us the practicalities of being an illustrator – how to promote ourselves, how to approach clients, even how to do our accounts. I loved it. I chose to do an MA at Camberwell because I wanted to free up a little, and to refine my style. I’m no Jackson Pollock, but my work has loosened up so much, and I’m more confident.

eleanor percival atalanta 1
Who is Atalanta and what attracted you to her story? (see also the opening image)
I knew from the beginning of my MA that I wanted to do a project around fairy tales or mythology, but I also wanted to champion a female character who wasn’t a feeble little princess or a conniving vamp. While I was researching endless Greek myths, a woman called Atalanta kept cropping up. She was always described as the strongest fighter and the fastest runner, and was featured in lots of famous stories, but I’d never heard of her before. So I did some more reading and amalgamated all of the bits I could find about her into my own narrative. She and her lover are turned into mountain lions in the end, but I made this into a happy-ever-after for them.

eleanor percival colouring in 1
What kind of references to art history can we expect to see in your art if we look closely?
The strange perspectives and proportions that I love are definitely influenced by Renaissance paintings. They used an obsessive mathematical approach that left a lot of imagery looking quite other-worldly and, though I don’t go anywhere near a ruler when I’m working out a composition, I try to recreate that slightly wonky effect. Indian Miniatures have crept in too – the space is very organised in most of my paintings, details are purposeful and sparse. And my figures often have very gestural poses too.

eleanor percival alicante
How do you arrange your workspace and what does typical work day look like?
My studio is a tiny spare room in the flat I share with my husband in Brixton. It’s absolutely crammed with books, old work and art materials, and my desk takes up about half the room. My working day is usually much the same: I’m at my desk with a cup of tea by nine but rarely start painting immediately; I look at artsy blogs, catch up on my e-mails and make to-do lists until I’m in the right mood. I’ll then work for the rest of the day (though I often find I’ve been staring out the window for ten minutes). At the end of a project I often find I need a day wandering around a museum or gallery to refresh.

eleanor percival atalanta 2
Why is it so important to you to embark on personal projects and what have you been doing most recently in this arena?
Every experienced illustrator I’ve ever met has underlined to me how important it is to do personal projects. It’s inevitable that when working with an art director, you find yourself doing little things that you wouldn’t do if left to your own devices. And that’s an important practice, but it’s also crucial that you do projects that are more essentially yours – things only you would think of doing in that particular way. I’ve been working on my own little colouring-in book recently. I wanted to have a break from working in colour, and also from doing projects with causes! It’s very simple, barely even a narrative, just an introduction to a character who lives in a cottage and loves gardening. I’m also putting together a line of greetings cards to sell in some local independent shops.

eleanor percival thank you card
Where will we be able to buy your greeting cards, and can you share a preview with us?
I’ve got a couple of designs for sale at Green & Stone on the Kings Road already, but I’m going to be approaching shops in Brixton Market.

eleanor percival ice-skaters
What is it that you particularly love about watercolour and where did you learn how to use it properly?
On my BA I didn’t have a clue about materials – I just grabbed whatever was close to hand – but after I graduated I got a part-time job in a beautiful old art supplies shop and learned all about the properties of watercolours, fine brushes and paper. With my discount I could afford to gradually build up a collection of really good quality paints and other materials. I use Schmincke and Daniel Smith paints mostly – they have really intense colours and granulate beautifully. I love that watercolour has a life of its own; you have a certain amount of control before you apply the brush, then the paint does whatever it wants – it just rolls around on the paper. But equally, it’s a lovely medium for creating delicate little details.

eleanor-percival-recipe1
Which cook’s recipes would you most like to illustrate and why?
Definitely my friend Milli Taylor’s, because I know how amazing her cooking is! I love the way she put ingredients together, and the flavours she creates. She’s brilliant at making her dishes look beautiful too – as she says in her book ‘we eat with our eyes’.

eleanor-percival-fruit-salad-recipe
Can you tell us anymore about your own colouring book plans?
I’m going to print a small edition to take to a few children’s book publishers and hopefully find someone who wants to sell it for me! My plan is that, over time, I can build up a series of stories about the same character that are fun to read as well as colour in.

eleanor percival colouring in 2
I love how every illustrator featured in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion creates such different work. Make sure you grab your copy of this limited edition colouring book once the campaign goes online on Kickstarter!

Written by Amelia Gregory on Monday September 28th, 2015 1:50 pm

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Atalanta, ,Brixton, ,Camberwell College of Art, ,Coloring, ,Coloring Book, ,Colouring, ,Colouring Book, ,Daniel Smith, ,Eleanor Percival, ,Green & Stone, ,interview, ,Milli Taylor, ,Orlando, ,Roald Dahl, ,Schmincke, ,UCA Maidstone

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with María Andrea Miranda Serna: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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Maria Andrea Serna
María Andrea Miranda Serna is a Colombian illustrator and artist inspired by the minutae of our personal environments. Her delightful artworks are chock full of intricate detail from contemporary life and she has even imagined a wonderful story for the illustration she has made for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
You have said your work is inspired by every day objects and spaces – where do you find inspiration for your intricate environments?
I believe artsits have naturally wide open eyes, I mean we are always looking at the things are around us. So most of the spaces I create for my illustration are collages of things that I have at my house, that I see in movies, in magazines and books, in the internet and basically wherever I go. I’ve realized I’m also interested in achiving that kind of eclecticness on my images, not only because I like it but because I think its important to connect with different audiences. I want my images to work elsewhere the same way they work in Colombia.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
How do you like to work?
Most of the time I work at home in my bedroom where I have a table full of things I need to produce my images: paper, pencils, watercolors, brushes, etc. This means that my room is the place where I spend most of the time and it’s always completely full of different other things. Not only the things that I use to draw, as I’ve said before, there are also things from my everyday life, like hair brushes, shoes, my clothes, and of course my bed. Maybe that’s why I’m so interested in objects and details in every of my images, because most of the time I feel exactly like any of the characters of my illustrations.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
What is happening in the illustration you have made for my colouring book?
In the case of your colouring book I thought it would be nice to write a story and give the image a kind of narrative sequence. So to answer your question I would like to share the small story I wrote for it:
“Mary’s mom was impressed. She was in the first floor of the house washing the dishes, when she suddenly heard her daughter making the sounds of the animals that she was always playing with. That wasn’t the weird part, Mary always makes those sounds when she plays but this time they were not the same, they were extremely life like. She could even hear the paws and claws knocking her ceiling. But after a few seconds of amusement and a tiny smile she went back to those dishes. What she didn’t know was that those noises didn’t come from her girl, in Mary’s room the pieces of plastic that look so much like the thing they represent were becoming real right in front of Mary’s eyes. In fact, she couldn’t make any sounds, she was just sitting there hopping for them not to turn back to what they originally were.”

María Andrea Miranda Serna
Why do you think you are so drawn to images of solitude?
I’m not quite sure but I believe it must be related to the fact that in our generation (or maybe just me) we spend a lot of time alone and specifically in my case I’m always working in my room/studio. It might be because it is the way I relate with space and that is reflected in every image I create.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
What was the best thing about your BA in Visual Arts?
Well, I think the one of the best things about my BA in Visual Arts was that the program is extremely open to different disciplines within the art world. In my particular case, especially at the beginning of my career, I was able to learn about audiovisual art and I learned how to think in terms of narrative and in images with full details and characters. Later on I became interested in drawing and illustration, and in the multiple techniques of this discipline, such as screen print, engraving and etching. So I have been able to combine everything to create narrative images full with detail and atmosphere.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
María Andrea Miranda Serna
How easy is it to make a career as an illustrator in Columbia?
It is not easy because there are a lot of young talented artists to “compete” with and not so many scenarios to show your work. Even if you’re able to publish your work in books or magazines it is not common to be well paid. Non the less, there are new small spaces that are trying to show emerging and young artists and illustrators, so the scene is growing.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
How important is it to make contacts abroad for work and how do you set about making them?
I think this question is connected with the previous one due to the fact that the market in Colombia is really small and it’s barely growing, artists like me always have to be pay attention to what’s going on around the world. Luckily for us nowadays that task is much easier since the whole world fits into the little screen of a computer and phones. So I’m always connecting with people around the world through social media and the internet. Just like you and I; you invited me to submit to this project through Instagram.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
María Andrea Miranda Serna
Can you tell us more about your “dduoo” project? The images you have shared online are beautiful, but very different to your illustration work.
Thank you! dduoo is a project that I founded with my partner and because of this collaboration we try to combine our different styles and interest to have one unique and balanced result. Anyway, I believe that there’s a lot of me and my work, not literally in the images, but within the use of colour and palettes, composition and design. I’m trying as well to explore new and different things: sculpture and 3D objects plus screen printing and textiles.

María Andrea Miranda Serna
What other projects are you pursuing at the moment?
At the moment I’m trying expand my BA thesis project called ‘Universos Domésticos‘ (Domestic Universes), it’s more of what I’ve been doing. New scenes, new characters, new situations where I hope people can see a reflection of their own reality, their own everyday life and objects.

Artwork by María Andrea Miranda Serna is found in my new book Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, available now on Kickstarter here.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday November 4th, 2015 11:03 pm

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Bogotá, ,Colombia, ,Coloring Book, ,Colouring Book, ,dduoo, ,Domestic Universes, ,illustration, ,instagram, ,interview, ,Kickstarter, ,María Andrea Miranda Serna, ,Pontifica Universidad Javeriana, ,Universos Domésticos, ,Visual Arts

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Eliza Fricker: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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Baines and Fricker minerals wallpaper
Eliza Fricker of design duo Baines & Fricker contributes an imaginative colouring page to Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion inspired by the weird and wonderful statues of the V&A museum in London. She tells us more about her creative life in Brighton; running a business with her husband, creating wallpaper designs inspired by the everyday, and her upcoming graphic novel.

Eliza Fricker portrait
Why did you decide to study at Chelsea and what was the best thing you took from your time there and has informed your design practice today?
My dad studied at Chelsea and it had a good reputation. It was good to travel out of my area to go there and meet different people. I liked learning actual skills such as life drawing and the lectures were great – I think these foundations are essential to becoming an artist. We were given experience in each area – interiors/architecture, photography, drawing, 3D.

Eliza Fricker worldsend
How has your work been inspired by your upbringing and how have your parents affected the way you approach your creative practice?
My dad taught me a lot – he taught me to draw and how to see things (he is a fine artist and political cartoonist/illustrator). We drew together and went along the Thames and looked for interesting things. We lived in a very conservative area and both my parents were different from the other people and they taught me to see things differently and to question everything.

Eliza Fricker frontier
Why do you currently live and work in Brighton? what took you there and what keeps you there?
I moved to Brighton when I was 19 – we had friends here and my brother had lived here already. I shared a flat with my brother and eventually my parents moved here too. I met my husband here and his family are all nearby. It’s great for our daughter to live with her grandparents around her. Brighton is a perfect combination of city, sea and countryside. It has lots of good pubs and restaurants and friendly creative people. Although it is getting more and more expensive and making it harder for artists to afford to live here!

Eliza Fricker cast
When did you set up Baines & Fricker and why?
When I met Steve we shared similar interests – I was manager of an arts cinema in Brighton and Steve was commuting to a city job in London that he had been doing since he was 16. It was a natural progression to work together and earn money doing a job we loved.

Eliza Fricker makingacomeback
How easy is it to run a business with your husband? Who does what? Any tips and tricks for keeping home and work life separate?
We work together and separately – the studio is upstairs and the workshop is downstairs. There are elements we do separately, as Steve is the ‘maker’ and I do the social media/emails etc. I also still do my screen printing and illustration stuff. Our home life and work life is quite fluid and that works because we are doing a job we both enjoy!

Eliza Fricker collage
How did you hook up with an American publisher co-produce a stationary range, and what kind of imagery have you used?
They contacted me. They are adapting my Cat’s wallpaper to create a range of notebooks.

Eliza Fricker print
When you first start to design wallpaper where do you look for inspiration?
Some of my wallpapers come from screen prints and other are illustrations developed from my sketchbooks. I like to look at everyday things – such as pets, plants and food.

Baines_Frickercushions
Where will you be shooting your next range of furniture and wallpaper designs for Baines & Fricker?
We will be photographing these will Abel Sloane and Ruby Woodhouse from 1934 which will be great as we really admire their work and style.

Eliza Fricker properjob
I hear you are working on a graphic novel, can you give us a glimpse of what will be inside?
My mother was very ill for a number of years, with various physical and mental health problems. She became a spectral person, losing all of her former self. She just sat in front of the TV and ate crisps and chocolate until she was eventually diagnosed with a huge brain tumour. Miraculously she has made a full recovery but her personal life has changed radically – she is no longer with my father and she also lost her job as a bookshop manager during her illness. I am doing the book to help us all as a family process what happened and for my mother especially as she doesn’t remember being ill. One of the lowest points of her illness was when she was referred to a councillor who said she was fine and ‘Just Getting Old’- this is also the the title of my book.

Eliza Fricker colouring page
How did you come up with the idea for your colouring pages?
My images were inspired by sketches of post classical European sculptures that I made at the V&A, focusing on the surreal and almost comical nature of their outlandish outfits, hats and hairstyles.

Baines and Fricker cement works wallpaper
What kind of design inspires you most and where do you hunt for that inspiration when you need a new dose of it?
Our holidays and outings inspire us the most – we have lots of English holidays along the South Coast and the West Country and we also love San Francisco and New York. We take lots of pictures of things we see and like and this can be anything from signs to colours and shapes. Our Pew Bench range is inspired by visiting old churches and the bench seating in them. We like to create long lasting design and avoid fads or trends and we like to create furniture to keep forever.

Find artwork by Eliza Fricker Baines & Fricker in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion alongside that of 43 other artists, available to preorder to receive in January from my Big Cartel shop now.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday December 23rd, 2015 10:14 am

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,1934, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Baines & Fricker, ,Big Cartel, ,brighton, ,Chelsea College of Art, ,Colouring Book, ,designers, ,Eliza Fricker, ,interview, ,Victoria & Albert Museum

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Nanae Kawahara: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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06-Nanae-Kawahara
Nanae Kawahara is yet another talented Camberwell College of Arts graduate who has produced art for my colouring book. Her imaginative underwater scene features mermaids and all the creatures of the sea… Find her art in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, funding on Kickstarter now!

01-Nanae-Kawahara
Why is Japanese culture so full of images and tales of the sea?
I never thought about how Japanese culture is full of images and tales of the sea… maybe because I am Japanese? I guess Japan is full of nature and technology and it has never been dominated by other countries, so Japanese people have a very different character… it’s hard to answer this!

16-Nanae-Kawahara-ColouringBook-for-web
What is happening in your fantastical colouring book artwork?
Firstly I started just drawing like brightness on the surface, and then… I could see this is in the ocean with star lights of water. Then I started seeing mermaids like ‘The Little Mermaid’. I imagined a girl… a mermaid who is shy. The ocean is so colourful, with lots of creatures living in there. There is a festival in the ocean, they enjoy dancing, eating, singing… it is a very peaceful world. A shy mermaid is so quiet, but her friends try to make her join in… the mermaid diva calls her and then they enjoy all day… I just had a dream that everyone welcomes everyone, and it makes happiness. I coloured it in like a watercolour painting to illustrate ‘in the ocean’, and the drawing is tidy to show sensitive creatures.

11-Nanae-Kawahara
How would you describe the style of your work?
At first, I can say it is vividly colourful and sweet cutie characters. Recently I recognised my works are loved by each different type of people, according to attend to art events. Adults, young, kids, men and women… some of my fans gave me the comment which mentions first impression of my works is cute, and then other aspects permeates like pleasure, fear, anger etc. I gather my feelings and memories then express them on my works, so there are full of my mind to communicate with people.

04-Nanae-Kawahara
In what way do your feelings and memories manifest in your illustrations?
Be positive whenever I feel fear.
Keep going whenever I am sad.
Remember everyone around me.
Remember everyone around me died.
Keep my feelings when I am impressed.
Do not forget what I feel.

09-Nanae-Kawahara
It sounds as though you like the cute and the Kawaii but also the dark and the gothic – in what way do you try to combine both these inspirations in your artwork? 
I quite like fashion illustration (but I am now on Fashion Illustration FILE here), and am often inspired by artworks in fashion magazines or on cosmetic products. I was very shocked when I saw art by Rene Gruau, Hiroshi Tanabe and Antonio Lopez a long long time ago (maybe I was 12 or 13) because they were so refreshing to look at. On the other hand, I was attracted to cute works by Rodney Alan Greenblat and Dick Bruna. They give me lots of fun and happiness to live. My dream is that my illustration could be loved by many people and categories – I know it is difficult, but I try to show something special in my illustration. I am also influenced by my feelings and memories. As you can see by my favourite artists and my work, I love colourful stuff, shiny stars and some kawaii imagery like animals and girls. On the other hand, I also like the dark side of gothic, horror, suspense and monsters. I recently noticed they are related to death as I have experienced deaths of my relatives and pets (also animation characters – e.g. the final story of Sailor Moon) from my childhood. I often felt weird someone suddenly died as he or she was alive just a short time ago. I don’t want to think about the deep meaning of death, I believe that everyone is always alive and glowing.

03-Nanae-Kawahara
02-Nanae-Kawahara
What work featured in your recent exhibition Colourful Colourful and where was it held?
Yes I have just had my exhibition in Tokyo, the title was ‘Colourful Colourful’ and the theme was colourful elements in a negative scene. Lots of feelings compared with monsters and scenes. The artworks were darker than my previous work, but I want you to enjoy my new world. And also… I have just taken part in a group show called ‘Imo Hori’ with Hiromi Kado and Natsuko Oshima. (Imo=Potato / Hori=digging – so it means ‘Find good arts!’) If someone is in Tokyo, please visit us!

08-Nanae-Kawahara
Is the big white poodle yours? Is she/he a muse? What is their name, can you tell us more?!
Yes! I sometimes post photos of my dog Nana, she is a Standard Poodle, coloured white with a little brown, female, age 7. Actually this dog is the third in my family, the previous dog was also called Nana and she came from a divorced couple. She was mixed breed and had black hair so we call her Black Nana as opposed to White Nana. We gave the same name because Black Nana was so kind and beautiful but suddenly dead by cancer, and I hoped the next one would also be a good dog. Muse..! I do not think Nana is a muse. But thanks for that. She is just normal and my best friend! Her power is so strong and she always punches me.

05-Nanae-Kawahara
Why did you head to the UK for your MA in illustration and what was the best part of studying at Camberwell?
After my BA I still wanted to research illustration with an MA, so I thought I should go to another country to study and chose the UK for its mixed culture. Art and design in London are similar to Tokyo (but Japan is more chaotic and closer). I also think there is a quite friendly and mysterious atmosphere which Japan does not have. I chose Camberwell College of Arts because it gives great freedom for creative works and it has an illustration course. I felt I had enough of graphic design as I studied it for my BA at Tama Art University, Tokyo. Camberwell gave me the freedom to re-think how to create my illustration.

10-Nanae-Kawahara
Why do you feel it is important to raise your profile abroad and how do you set about doing so?
I longed to go overseas to see the reaction to my illustrations in another country. I think there are no borders in the creative world, but it is not possible to feel another place by just communicating on the internet. I needed to be in there.

07-Nanae-Kawahara
What do you hope for in the coming year?
I hope I can do more new things; challenges and find new opportunities for work. This year I have done illustrations for books and magazines, fashion and greeting cards. I wish I could do covers for magazines, books, and also illustration for advertisements. I think there is no limit for the possibility of illustration. I want to try anything, so my work can keep developing.

12-Nanae-Kawahara
13-Nanae-Kawahara
Nanae Kawahara is featured in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion alongside 40 other artists, make sure you grab your early bird copy for just £12 on Kickstarter now!

15-Nanae-Kawahara
14-Nanae-Kawahara

Written by Amelia Gregory on Sunday November 8th, 2015 1:27 pm

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Antonio Lopez, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Coloring, ,Colourful Colourful, ,Colouring, ,Colouring Book, ,Dick Bruna, ,Fashion Illustration FILE, ,Hiromi Kado, ,Hiroshi Tanabe, ,Imo Hori, ,interview, ,japan, ,japanese, ,Kickstarter, ,Nana, ,Nanae Kawahara, ,Natsuko Oshima, ,Poodle, ,Réne Gruau, ,Rodney Alan Greenblat, ,Sailor Moon, ,Tama Art University, ,The Little Mermaid, ,tokyo

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Erika Rier: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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Durga-Slaying-the-Buffalo-Demon-Erika-rier
Portland based Erika Rier is a multi disciplinary artist with a unique vision. I am so glad she entered my colouring book open brief, with an amazing and unusual narrative artwork based on the struggle of womankind. Here she talks about her inspiration, how language and place informs her art, and the joy of homeschooling her daughter.

Portrait-erika-rier
How did you find the colouring book open brief and why did you decide to enter your work?
I’ve been following Amelia’s Magazine for ages and had been wanting to contribute to an open brief for some time but the timing was always off. I’d even got a sketch together for the That Which We Do Not Understand brief but was in the middle of a time sensitive project that prevented me from getting my submission done. When I saw the colouring book brief I was so excited. I swear I get at least 2 messages a week from people asking that I do a colouring book. I haven’t had time to draw a whole colouring book but I could definitely manage the two pages for this brief!

Til-Death-spread-Erika-Rier
What inspired your piece and how does it tie in with ongoing themes in your work?
As soon as I read the brief I knew that I wanted to draw some sort of stand-off between the two pages. I wanted the drawings to work together as a whole but to also work on their own as well. In my self-directed work, I have been exploring themes of violence, war, and struggle. The idea of a standoff definitely played into the themes I’m currently obsessed with. I also draw a lot of strange creatures, women who are half bear or have butterfly wings as well as centaurs and satyrs. I decided one side would be winged creatures facing off against land creatures. While I was working the piece it came to me that the two main figures were obviously at some point best friends, but things had gone south and now they’re battling it out on these two cliffs.

Kitty-Mommy-erika-rier
How has your crafty upbringing affected your current approach to illustration?
I come from a family filled with textile enthusiasts so from a young age developed a passion for sewing, embroidery, and knitting. For a long time I created a line of handmade clothing which I sold in NYC and stores around the country. I love the texture, colors, and patterns in textiles and those are what influence my illustration and drawing the most. I love bringing the flat, repeating patterns of textiles into my drawings, creating landscapes made up of repeating patterns.

I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten from my history of labor intensive craft work that I bring to drawing is patience. Threading a loom or hand stitching a quilt are massive, patience-sucking undertakings that have helped me develop the ability to stick through a very detailed drawing and to spend most of my days sitting at a desk creating work.

Sit-Still-erika-rier
What does your series Of Monsters & Women explore?
Of Monsters & Women is an open ended, loose series I’ve been working on for most of the year. I’m not even sure when it started, me drawing monsters and battles but now it seems to be the entirety of my self-directed work. In the most basic way these pieces explore struggle. They depict scenes of hybrid creatures and women in battle, often over trivial things. The series is exploring the internal turmoil I experience in my daily life as a woman, mother, and human. I’m also very interested in pushing against the trend in pop culture art of women being depicted as very passive and empty in pretty portraits. Life is full of battles and struggles but art depicting women seems to be all vapid stares, sexy poses, serenity, and/or maternal softness. I want to create art that shows the part of being a woman that is a battle between one’s self and one’s culture.

Rest-Area-erika-rier
Why are you learning Norwegian?
When I was very little, my grandmother whom I lived with, had a friend who visited regularly from Norway. She somehow sparked a strong desire to go to Norway in me. I’m not really sure what it is that I find so fascinating, pictures of it remind of where I grew up on the very Northern tip of the state of coastal Maine. I started learning the language so I could visit there but ultimately, after moving around America so much, I feel as though I’d like to live abroad especially in a country where English is not the primary language. I’ve also been learning Spanish because I like the idea of Peru as well. Norwegian though, has totally captured my imagination, I’ve never been so excited about learning a foreign language since I started learning it. The words are at once so familiar and so crazy sounding that I can’t help just saying random sentences just to hear them spoken.

The-Escape-erika-rier
Can you tell us anything about the children’s book you are working on?
Yes! This book has been a long time coming for me. It started with a funny name my daughter called herself when she was very little, the Crispiest Turtle. That name just stuck with me, I wrote it down and doodled some characters of it. She also told me a very enchanting story including a seagull and some very unfortunate whales and octopus. I’ve had a difficult time deciding exactly how to write the story but have finally finished a rough draft which pleases me.

Turquoise-is-for-Protection-erika-rier
You create dream artwork and family portraits to order, what have been the most memorable commissions? (I want one, such a great idea!)
I love creating custom artwork for people, I learn so much about them and their families. One of the first family portraits I did is still one of my favorites. The woman sent me pictures of her family and pets and then a stream of consciousness list of things that were meaningful to her family such as goats, poetry, elephants, mangoes, Hindu goddesses, unicorns, feathers…. The list was quite long but I managed to fit in everything, except for the goats. Another one was a woman who asked if I could read her favorite book and do a drawing of some of the creatures from the book. I just received a new commission to illustrate a story a woman has written for her boyfriend. When it is finished, she’ll have a single copy made and bound to give him for his birthday.

And-the-Boat-That-Goes-erika-rier
Why have you moved so much and what is your favourite bit of America?
I was born in Northern Maine and since then have lived in Vermont, Connecticut, New York City, Arizona, Washington state, and currently reside in Portland, OR. I move for many reasons, it started just to get away from my tumultuous family. Since then it has developed into a desire to experience new places. Lots of people love travelling but I kind of despise travelling. I feel like it gives you such a superficial, romantic view of a place. I love living in a new place and learning all of it’s intimate details. There are also practical reasons. We recently left Washington state and a big part of that was wanting to live someplace with a better public transportation system. I never learned to drive and Portland, OR is much easier to get around without a car.

New-Day-erika-rier
How do you fit everything in around family life and how does being a mother inform your work?
It is really hard to fit in everything so there are things I let slide, like cleaning the apartment or having a social life. Right now my family and my art are the most important things in my life so I focus mostly on those and let the other things slide. Attachment parenting has been the thing that I feel like makes my current life possible. My daughter is 12 now and homeschooled. She is a patient, focused, and self-directed young woman and I really feel like attachment parenting is to thank for that. The first 5 years of her life were hard, all I really did was parent, I did draw and sew still but not like I can now. That time I put into attachment parenting has paid off tenfold and helps me to pursue art while raising my daughter the way I’d like to raise her.

Being a mother affects my work so much it’s hard to even tease it out of the whole. Being a mother has changed how I look at the world and how I look at myself. The struggle to bring up a child who can survive in this crazy society but has not lost her magic is the biggest battle I wage everyday. Trying to figure out when to protect my child, when to let her wage her own battles, when to expose her to the ugly parts of life, these are all things that make up my real life battles every day and seep subconsciously into my drawings.

Many thanks for such an informative and interesting interview Erika! I love that my open briefs attract artists from all over the world as well as artists closer to home. Look out for plenty more international talent in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday September 17th, 2015 8:25 am

Categories ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Attachment Parenting, ,Coloring, ,Coloring Book, ,Colouring Book, ,Crispiest Turtle, ,Erika Rier, ,Homeschooling, ,interview, ,Motherhood, ,Of Monsters & Women, ,OR, ,portland, ,That Which We Do Not Understand

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Nanna Prieler: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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NANNA Prieler - man vs crab
I discovered Nanna Prieler‘s work on instagram and invited her to submit her work for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion. I’m so glad she took me up on the offer, contributing the engaging Creative Life in her unique style.

Nanna Prieler portrait
Where are you from and where do you live now?
Originally I’m from a small village in the South of Austria. I left my home very early, so that I could attend an art school in Graz, one of the bigger towns in Austria. After my graduation I started working as a graphic designer for several agencies in Vienna. But it was not enough to fulfill me. After a busy day of 8 hours working as a graphic designer, I tirelessy developed my illustrative style. Finally in 2014 I decided to found my own illustration business in my current hometown Vienna. Now I’m very happy that I made this big step.

NANNA Prieler - strangers in the park
Who do you work for and how do you set about finding work?
I’m working for national and international clients in different fields. Fortunately I don’t have to search for work, at the moment. The projects are coming by themselves. But it hasn’t always been like this: I’ve worked a lot and tried to use the internet to spread my work all over the world. I will keep on working hard in the future, but always with a lot of passion. I really love to work as an illustrator and can’t imagine living another life.

NANNA Prieler - Horse dressed as butterfly
I hear you’ve got a children’s book on the way – can you give us a brief glimpse inside?
Yes, at the moment I’m working on a new children’s book called „Ganz schön super“ (in German), which will be published in Spring 2016. That’s quite exciting! Each book is a new challenge. Especially this one because it is a lot of work; I have written and illustrated it myself. The main character is a little cat, which meets a lot of other animals. In short it’s a book about tolerance and acceptance, of course told in a funny way.

NANNA Prieler - travel memories Norway
Where do you find inspiration?
At the beginning I was inspired by amazing illustrators like Blexbolex. He was my first hero in illustration and still gives me so much motivation. Now I’m using instagram and other social media platforms to discover the current flow of illustration. But my favourite source of inspiration is nature, I love drawing outside. There is so much beauty everywhere around, I could draw for hours and never get bored.

NANNA Prieler - Horoscope cancer
How do you put your illustrations together?
My work is a mix of the handmade and digital. For me the sketch is the start and it is the most important part of an illustration. In the next step, it gets scanned and I go over it with the path tool in Photoshop. There I can paste in my typical structure as well. Working with the computer is perfect to try a lot of different colour combinations.

NANNA Prieler - Colouring Book Preview
Can you tell us about the title of your double page and what it means?
The title of my artwork is Creative Life. It’s a composition of an artistic mind’s world.
Living together – creating and inspiring each other. Working on this project was a lot of fun, hopefully that’s noticeable in the illustration.

NANNA Prieler - raspberry
How would you describe your studio space and routine?
My cozy little flat in Vienna is also used as my studio. Working from home is a great opportunity to wear pyjamas during the day! There is no exact daily routine. The work is quite different, that’s the thing I love about being an illustrator. Generally it’s a mix of illustration work, social media, interviews and unfortunately a little bit of bookkeeping as well…

NANNA Prieler - kids
What else do you like to do in your spare time to relax?
I enjoy the amazing peace of nature, as often as possible. Cooking over an open fire, sleeping in a tent and drawing in northern woods – that’s my favorite pastime. In Vienna I try to relax myself with preparing extravagant meals with ingredients in rainbow colors.

NANNA Prieler - Animal pattern
What motto do you live by?
Try to do everything – however small it may be – with love and passion. For me that’s the simple secret for a happy life.

Follow Nanna Prieler on instagram here. She is featured in Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion alongside over 40 other international artists, funding for just 8 more hours on Kickstarter today.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Monday November 23rd, 2015 1:15 pm

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Blexbolex, ,Coloring, ,Colouring Book, ,Creative Life, ,Graz, ,interview, ,Kickstarter, ,Nanna Prieler, ,Vienna

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Feronia Parker-Thomas: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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feronia parker thomas
Feronia Parker-Thomas is yet another graduate of Camberwell College of Arts. She is now qualified as a teacher herself, signed to The Bright Agency and has just produced the illustrations for her first children’s book How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow. Her fab piece for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion features one of her favourite animals…

feronia parker thomas
feronia parker thomas
Would it be fair to say that you liked bears? What is it about them that appeals so much?
Yes, I am incredibly in love with them! I have done since a young age but have never really thought about why I find them appealing. Thinking about it now, there are two reasons that jump out at me. Firstly, they are lovely to draw, their fur is a fun texture to render and their shape is full of beautiful curves. Secondly, I think humans have always been fascinated with bears; there are examples of bears in prehistoric cave paintings and there are lots of bears in myths and legends. They have quite human features and I think we project whatever we are feeling on to them.

feronia parker thomas
How did you settle on your idea for my colouring book?
I love picture books and this is the area of illustration I am drawn to and mainly working in, so I wanted to do a narrative piece about a girl and her ‘imaginary’ bear. I was thinking about my sister and I when we were children sitting under tables creating imaginary worlds. I liked the idea that the girl was collecting food for her bear and then we get to see the big feast that ensues.

feronia parker thomas
What is your preferred method of producing an illustration?
I draw out a loose sketch of what the illustration will look like and then flesh it out in pencil, I then use my lightbox and the original as a template. I will usually do a watercolour base and then add pencil over the top for detail. I have dabbled in digital colouring recently but I am still not sure; I like the flexibility that digital can give you, but something doesn’t feel quite right for me. There are some amazing digital illustrators out there doing a much better job that I can! I work in the flat I share with my boyfriend in Streatham, and we have lots of books and plants and artwork on the walls; it is a lovely space with lots of light.

feronia parker thomas
Since graduating from Camberwell College of Arts in 2010 what have you learnt about the business of being an illustrator?
It is a rollercoaster; it has highs and lows. A high has been signing to The Bright Agency, they are going through quite an exciting time at the moment so it is great to be a part of it. I have learnt you have to put yourself out there; your work can’t be found if you are hiding it! If I was to give one piece of advice it would be to join Twitter and Instagram and share your work, get your work seen by anyone. There is a great community of illustrators on Twitter that support each other, it is lovely to be a part of.

feronia parker thomas
Why do you enjoy teaching so much and how do you balance being a teacher with being a working artist?
I love teaching because it forces you to look at art in different ways. It sounds incredibly cheesy but I love seeing the new generation of artists develop (insert puke noise here). The arts in schools are under threat and I think it is important to try and show young people that art can have so many different applications in life, I really enjoy winning round unwilling kids. It has been hard at times to balance the two, especially when you might have a tight deadline, but I love illustrating, so when you love doing something it isn’t hard to motivate yourself.

feronia parker thomas
Can you tell us more about your first picture book? it sounds great!
How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow is about an argument between the Sun and the Clouds. Without them working together there are no rainbows, so some very determined crayons work together to try and fix the problem; it is a great story about team work. The book was really fun to do and took me out of my comfort zone a little because they wanted the illustrations in crayon, which isn’t my usual medium. I had a great working relationship with the author and editor; so it was a really positive experience for my first book.

feronia parker thomas
How is development of your own ideas for a children’s book coming along?
Slowly but surely! I am trying to develop characters for several different ideas at the moment, it is nice to have the freedom to flit backwards and forwards and have space and time to develop. I am huge fan of David Roberts‘ illustrations for Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect. They are wonderfully detailed illustrations, I seem to be drawn to illustrators who use lots of detail. I love Carson Ellis‘ work and Janet Ahlberg‘s illustrations were a favourite of mine as a child. I loved Peepo and The Baby’s Catalogue; I could still look at the Jolly Postman for hours.

feronia parker thomas-highgate
I love your drawings from Highgate Cemetery – what prompted this personal work?
The Transport Museum’s ‘Places and Spaces‘ theme for last year’s Prize for Illustration my starting point for these images. I didn’t end up submitting an illustration in the end but it was great to work to a brief. I am fascinated with cemeteries; I went to Paris last year and spent a large proportion of my time looking around different cemeteries there. In many ways it is an unfinished project, I thought I might do illustrated maps for ‘The Magnificent Seven‘ cemeteries in London but never got round to it; watch this space!

feronia parker thomas-pirate
Who are the Pirate Kids?
The Pirate Kids were two characters I created about a year ago as a portfolio piece. I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t developed them more, at the moment they are frozen in time!

feronia parker thomas
feronia parker thomas
What else do you love to draw and why?
I really enjoy drawing people, I get an intense satisfaction when I do a portrait and it actually looks like the person I have drawn. Last year I did a series of portraits of women I consider to be icons, feminism is an important cause to me and I wanted to celebrate them.

feronia parker thomas
Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion will be available to preorder on Kickstarter VERY SOON, so watch this space!

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday October 7th, 2015 12:12 pm

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,bears, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Carson Ellis, ,Coloring, ,Colouring, ,David Roberts, ,Feronia Parker Thomas, ,How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow, ,illustration, ,interview, ,Janet Ahlberg, ,Mindful colouring, ,Pirate Kids, ,Places and Spaces, ,The Bright Agency

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Percie Edgeler: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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percie edgeler
Percie Edgeler is another recent graduate of Camberwell College of Arts, (see also Tiffany Baxter) whose work caught my eye at the graduate shows. She contributes an unusual and wonderful piece for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion inspired by a Japanese folk tale

percie edgeler
What kind of artwork will you be creating on the theme of magic and rituals for your upcoming group exhibition?
I’m not entirely sure yet. I have a few different ideas I need to figure out the layouts for. We’ve been given some guidelines by the lovely people at Treadwell’s Books (the venue) and we can’t have anything three dimensional due to size of the space, so that’s definitely not an option. Luckily it’s with a very friendly group of people from a mix of disciplines, including Tiffany Baxter, who’s being included in the colouring book, and we can share our ideas quite easily and get feedback on what we think is best collectively.

percie edgeler
Why have you decided to push your artwork into 3 dimensions and how are you progressing?
I trained and work now as an illustrator, which most would assume is primarily a two dimensional way of working. Three dimensional work has never been my strong point, and by making ceramics I’m trying to push myself not to be limited to one skill. I guess in part it’s also a question of style: if I’m limiting myself to working in a certain way, my two dimensional work won’t evolve from what it already is because it’s not being challenged. It’s slow progress because I don’t know much about three dimensional forms, but I’m learning. I chose to start with ceramics because to me it seems the most natural. I’ve always worked quite traditionally with my hands, so being able to hold and lump of clay and form it makes more sense to me than any other three dimensional form for now. At the moment everything I try to shape is quite wobbly, I’ve made a fair few wobbly dogs, but they’re getting better over time.

percie edgeler
In what way does the built environment inspire you?
At the risk of being too political, my generation is limited in terms of housing; so it’s hard for us not to notice the built environment more than ever. It’s interesting when you go to other countries and see their architecture how in comparison the UK has a mixture of old and new that is juxtaposed. The spaces in which we work and play can no longer be limited to a building. I’m lucky in that the area I live in is the greenest borough in London, and for me it’s easy to go into a park or field without losing my connection to the city. But now we need more housing and infrastructure, those green areas are increasingly under threat. There’s a balance of being part of something man made and something natural which I really enjoy, though recently in what I’ve been drawing I’ve been erring towards the natural. Often we don’t take the time to consider what’s there already because we’re used to it, and I think now as an adult I appreciate that environment a lot more.

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Why did you decide to focus on a Japanese fairytale for your colouring book page?
There’s something very honest about Japanese folk stories. There’s so many different ones, and in the Japanese culture it’s not just a fairy tale, it’s a part of life, a tale of a time before our time. The way they’re told is mostly through spoken word; more reportage than storytelling like we have in Europe. And the way someone tells a story verbally is very different to how one may draw one, with the storyteller adding their own inflections or details which others may not. That culture of storytelling is still there now, I think; if you read a novel by a contemporary Japanese author, say for instance the ever popular Haruki Murakami, the facts are given with such detail that it’s fascinating. In 1Q84, Murakami writes about two people who have loved each other for years and in one scene they miss each other by minutes. That pure feeling expressed in folk stories is still there, and that’s absolutely lovely. I chose to base the artwork for my colouring book page on a folk tale for this reason. I wanted to give my own take, and share a story in a new way that people could interact with.

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Which cultures are you most enjoying learning the folk tales about and why?
I enjoy learning the folk tales from most cultures, be it from European cultures or further afield. I think my favourite so far is a Maori one talking about how Ta Moko, a form of facial tattooing, came to their tribe as there is no distinguishing between what happened in the story as fact or fiction. Icelandic folk tales are also quite enjoyable as they can be quite traditional by Western standards but also feature dark elements.

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What is it that you love about books and what kind of books do you hope to make yourself one day?
As childrens’ books are an escape. You can live a hundred times through all those characters and have all of those adventures through reading them. As an adult, the same can still apply on some level but they also help to challenge a lot of issues in society and reflect on society at that time. Precisely because of that, my long term goal is to work with books. Every opportunity I’ve had to work with books has just confirmed that. I want to make books for children that they can enjoy, but also want to make them accessible for adults; reading to children and encouraging them to read should be something to have fun with, though very few books achieve that.

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How did you get involved with Four Corners Books and what did you do with them?
Through my university in our final year we had a choice of external projects for a range of different people; e.g. the BBC, Tate Modern, Nexus. I chose the Four Corners one because I wanted to make something outside of my comfort zone of something narrative. By creating animal images from the Edwardian short story of Saki’s Sredni Vashtar, I was pushed to do something different but still work with books and illustration in a way that I felt made the project fun and exciting.

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What happens in your story about a man and a dog?
A boy loses his dog after the dog runs out of the house because the dog is tired of never being played with. The boy, desperately sorry for his actions, chases the dog out and follows him on his adventures around the world only to miss him and his incredible feats each time. It escalates and escalates until eventually, unable to find him, the boy goes home and gives up – but luckily for him, that’s not the end of the story. I don’t want to give too much away because it’s something I definitely want to complete and put out into the world. Maybe that’s a little self indulgent. When I started it for the Macmillan Prize in 2014, I felt like giving up on illustration. It made drawing exciting again and forced me to keep going.

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What was the best thing to come out of your graduate exhibition Rock, Paper, Scissors in Hoxton?
I think the best thing to come out of my graduate exhibition was the experience of doing something on such a large scale. I managed the Kickstarter for it with a small group of people, and that was insanely difficult. We raised about two hundred pounds over what we needed in that in the few hours before it finished, so it allowed us to cover a lot of extras which really made a difference to the exhibition as a whole. Also the venue let me recreate a mural I did inside the university, albeit on a smaller scale, which was really enjoyable. I also ran a paper marbling workshop while there and that was really fun to do, especially with little kids. It was messy though so their parents probably weren’t too pleased!

What else have you been doing this year, it sounds like you’ve been super busy!
Two weeks after I graduated I was offered a job interning at Kritical Mass, a company which works with charities and businesses trying to make a change with their products in a positive way; so through them I’ve been given some work for clients such as BirdLife International which has been great. For them I’ve made a set of illustrations concerning the decline in vulture population which has been really interesting, I’ve learnt a lot from it which I wouldn’t learn in any other job. I’ve been quite lucky this year in that I was also featured in Secret 7” which was held at Somerset House for the first time, and also had work in Belly Kids’ ‘Milhouse From Memory’ exhibition. I have a few projects in the pipelines as well now which are something a bit different to what I’ve done before; so from here I’m interested to see where I can go and what I can do, I’m excited for what’s to come.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday September 30th, 2015 12:00 pm

Categories ,1Q84, ,26 illustrators, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,BirdLife International, ,Camberwell College of Arts, ,Coloring Book, ,Colouring Book, ,Four Corners Books, ,Haruki Murakami, ,illustration, ,Kickstarter, ,Kritical Mass, ,Macmillan Prize, ,Milhouse From Memory, ,Percie Edgeler, ,Rock Paper Scissors, ,Secret 7”, ,Sredni Vashtar, ,Ta Moko, ,Tiffany Baxter, ,Treadwell’s Books

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