All the Little Things — Illustration

A quarter of a century ago I graduated with a BA Honours in Illustration. I had a head full of stories and looked at everything in detail, breaking down colours and shapes in things that flashed before me; glimpses on trains, someones brief stance, the ever changing skies.  Twenty five years on I realise I will always look at the world this way. My old college at Edinburgh hosted an alumni day on last Friday and everything felt full circle. It was so inspiring. There were lots of talks including ones from my old tutors; Jill Calder and Sarah Ogilvie. ...

These past few weeks I have been redrawing and painting the notes on summer originals that got lost in my studio. Notes on Summer was a book I made last year (all the pristine books arrived in my studio just before the fire!) It has taken me such a long time to do the drawings again but I am finding some joy in that they look better second time round. Practise makes perfect!  I made the drawings with the idea that I wanted them to have the feel of my sketchbooks.To be a bit free! I painted washes in watercolour...

It has been a long time since I have drawn a moon in pen, so the other week I did! I drew it with a view to screen printing it. I have been mulling over how to draw a crescent moon with some kind of circle background as I really loved the sphere motif. I started sketching, not really sure how it would turn out.. I knew the circle in the background would need to be dark, but I still wanted some detail. This would prove tricky to print but I didn't know that for sure yet. My first attempt...

I began drawing birds at Art College. We had been set a project to make an artist's book based on whatever we liked and I very much liked Barry Hines "A Kestral for a Knave" at the time. I was in a strange stage of life where I had grown out of the small northern town where I came from but I was yet to find my feet in in this new and strange place; Edinburgh. I was reading a lot of northern literature as I liked to be transported to the comfort of the hills, yet most of it...

It never crossed my mind to be a screen printer before my degree. I loved drawing, a bit of collage maybe, but that was it. However the print making department at Edinburgh College of Art was a very special place. It opened up a whole new world to me. I had already fallen in love with the concept of an artist's book and this was a place where I could print my primitively compiled words and illustrations. I did most of my lettering with letraset or words printed from my friends computer and then cut up and collaged, or even...