Please tell us more about your background and how you got started in the illustration world.
I went down a pretty conventional path really, after A levels I did a foundation course and then went on to study for a degree in illustration in Kent. After graduating I moved to London and started promoting my work by taking my portfolio around town, this was the pre-internet 90s! I got my first commission from Marie Claire and it went from there really. My work has taken many different directions over the years, I made 3d and collage work for a long time and then reinvented my work when I bought my first Imac ten years ago. For a few years I was doing fairly tight work using lots of layers in Photoshop but I now enjoy working in quite a simple way, drawing with a pencil and just using the computer to scan, colour and put my drawings together.
I've only recently just come across your lovely work, but I adore the 50's style that you have about your pics. Are the 50's a particular obsession of yours?
I've always been a fan of that period, probably influenced by my parents. My dad was a big Buddy Holly fan and I used to listen to his old records as a teenager and our family car growing up was a 1960's Riley with fins, I always loved it but It was quite out of step at the time with what my friends parents were driving around in. I've always been a total hoarder and although my tastes are quite eclectic the 1950's is definitely my favourite era for design. I love old pottery, particularly Midwinter and Hornsea and also old packaging and ephemera especially old matchbox labels. As you can probably imagine I have lots of little collections filling up my studio! I love ebay and I can't walk past a charity shop without taking a peek, you never know what treasure you might find! I'm also a fan of the movies from that era, especially anything by Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger and the technicolour melodramas of Douglas Sirk.
I think your work is also very witty, you obviously have a keen sense of humour! What things in life make you smile?!
On the subject of films I also enjoy comedy and one of my all time favourites is Jacques Tati's 'Mon Oncle, it's so funny! I just went to see Toy Story 3 and that was terrific with lots of comedy moments! I've had lots of laughs over the summer spending time with family and friends and our crazy cat always makes me smile with his antics!
What with the recent Vintage festival at Goodwood and the current fashion for all fifties and sixties clothes, do you think that retro & vintage is becoming something really huge in Britain right now?!
There does seem to be a real revival at the moment which is great, Vintage at Goodwood looked amazing and it's definitely one I'd love to get to next year. I am going along to the Twinwood festival in Bedfordshire at the end of the month which is a 40's/50's themed event. I went last year and it was really good fun, and nice to dress up a bit too as working from home I tend to wear jeans most of the time. I am totally hooked on Mad Men and I can't wait for the new season to come out over here, the writing and characters are great and the set design and fashion is so evocative and totally transports you back to that time.
The Paisley picture that you submitted for Illustration Friday and recently posted on your blog is totally gorgeous - tell us more about the ideas behind that!? (I've put this picture on twice as I love it so much!)
I enjoyed working on that one, a quick and quirky response to the word 'paisley'. I thought it would be cute to make a whole family from the distinctive paisley shapes. I find that I'm simplifying my work a lot more these days, paring down the colours and just letting my drawings exist on their own a bit more. I'm thinking this might be a nice one to make a gocco print from so am reworking it a little at the moment with that in mind...
Are there any other illustrators that particularly inspire you - either in the UK or overseas?
I do love a lot of the work from the 50's M Sasek and Charley Harper to mention a few and I also enjoy J Otto Seibold's work who really was one of the first digital illustrators working on children's books. There's so much great work going on at the moment and as a new blogger myself I'm currently enjoying discovering other artists work through the blogging scene.
Us Brits like our bands - who are your favourite music artists, and do you find that music is a source of inspiration for your work?
I am a big music fan, I'm not sure it inspires my work directly but it's a big part of my life and I enjoy going to see bands live. My taste is pretty eclectic really, spanning Elvis and Etta James through to contemporary bands like Band of Horses and Midlake. I've always enjoyed music with clever and witty lyrics, I'm a particular fan of Morrissey, Divine Comedy and Edwyn Collins and am looking forward to his new album coming next month. A current favourite band of mine is Cherry Ghost whose latest album 'Beneath the burning shoreline' is amazing! I've been playing it non stop and I'm looking forward to seeing them live again in October.
Are there any blogs out there that you think that illustrators starting out might find inspiring?
I've recently been submitting work to the Illustration Friday blog and that's a good one for new illustrators to get involved in, I also like to check out the Grain Edit blog as that's full of inspirational work from the past and also features contemporary illustrators with a mid century influence. The Pikaland blog is another inspiring blog and very supportive of new illustration talent. Things have changed so much since I started freelancing and now there are so many avenues for new illustrators to get noticed which is great.
Do let us know about any exciting projects that you have coming up!
Over the Summer I've been excited about some personal work I've been doing with my Gocco printer. I'm enjoying the craft element of making the prints which is taking me back to where I started, making things by hand. I would love to do some larger scale screenprinting at some point but Gocco is great as it's something I can do in my studio at home. I've been busy filling up my Etsy shop with prints and this is a new avenue for me which I hope to build on for the rest of the year...
Watch. This. Space!
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