Mithila Shafiq . From Einstein to Alice
Mithila Shafiq is a qualified Scientist who in 2005 decided life in the lab just wasn’t her thing.
Instead she invested her time and talents into becoming an Illustrator, she graduated from Bristol last
year and has a wonderful array of beautiful work and bubbly characters that she has already created.
Her ‘nod’ to her scientific roots were to redesign one of her favourite set of children’s books –
the Uncle Albert series, by Russel Stannard. Uncle Albert (Einstein) teaches his niece Gedanken
all about the wonders of the universe, what a fab idea.
Mithila takes on another such classic as Alice In Wonderland and plays with her own creative ideas
about the grass being greener on the other side, fish wanting to fly and birds hoping to dive, and her
lovely little dancing girl who mixes with all kinds of animals. I love the fact that she puts sketches
on her blog so we can see how much hard work goes on behind the scenes.
Some ideas about fishermen and the sea.
Some beautiful pieces from a polish children’s book Mithi has worked on. I love the colours and varied
perspectives here.
Finally I think you can see Mithi’s bubbly personality coming through in these fun pieces. The one of
the Queen on a bicycle with her Corgi on the front, promoting London Cycle Hire, really made me smile.
More beautiful work by this illustrator on her site here. All images are copyright of © Mithila Shafiq
Sandra Krumins . Printmaker, card designer and artist
Sandra Krumins studied Printmedia in Sydney, she then went on to study Illustration & Design and
used to run a site called Lino Creative but now runs Blueberry Paper as a freelance graphic designer,
illustrator and artist.
Her work reflects an interest in printmaking, contemporary illustration and children’s books.
She works primarily with linocut prints and gouache painting, digitally enhanced in Adobe photoshop.
You can see more of Sandras’ work here.
Kenneth Townsend (1931-99) managed to capture the humorous side of life through his art, drawings
and writing. He was based in Hastings and is known to have worked as a freelance designer for
Hornsea Pottery, Chance Brothers (glass), Cuckoobird Productions (textiles) Merit (games) and
James Galt and Co Ltd (toys). He was also the art director for Pickpocket Books from 1991-1998.
His cartoons are certainly endearing, whimsical and unforgettable. They are mostly found
on standard 6in. (15cm) white ceramic tiles, for which there are well over 30 known designs.
The same style is seen in the Scenes of London slumped glass trays produced by Chance Brothers,
in Smethwick, Birmingham. These were produced in 1972 and came as a set of six, plus a lone
one featuring a Scottish Piper (1973) and a rarely seen Shakespeare series (1974).
This range extended further the figures seen only on Ken’s independantly produced tiles.
He also designed Books, Textiles and Games, such as Snap, Marble Fun and Remember Remember.
A lovely quirky, fun style. Thanks to the Kenneth Townsend site for the words here and much more
visual information on Kenneths’ amazing work. Please check it out.
Many thanks to planetmithi on flickr for the kind use of her image and also to Adelle and Justin from H is for Home, for their superb images, and which made this blog possible.
Melanie Mikecz . Colour, creativity and casual brilliance !
Melanie is a freelance illustrator.
She specializes in a mixed media style that charms children and adults alike.
Originally hailing from Wisconsin, she earned a B.F.A in Visual Communications from the Washington
University School of Art in St. Louis. Since graduating in 2004, Melanie has worked as an illustrator
and designer in Boston and London. Since returning stateside, she found herself on the West coast
where she currently lives with her husband Steve and Boston Terrier Peanut.
Melanie says “I like to consider myself a designer slash starving artist. So that means I only starve
half the time (Just kidding. I do eat). In addition to making art, I am also a dog lover and a wannabe
ballerina. I specialize in a digital mixed media technique. “What does that mean?” you ask. Well it
involves sketching, painting, drawing, scanning, Photoshopping (is that a word?), more painting,
possibly some scribbling, more scanning, washing paint out of my hair, and then finally printing on my
Epson printer. What it also means is that I have don’t have any originals to sell (boo),
only prints ” (yay!) , and her prints are available here.
I love these London images and they strongly remind me of another favourite artist Miroslav Sasek.
Melanie also creates wonderfully coloured abstracts. You can see more on her site here.
Oliver Lake . Illustrator of prints, posters and books.
I came across the work of Oliver Lake on Etsy here.
Oliver Lake is an experienced professional illustrator who likes creating illustrations that appeal to both
children and adults. He has had a number of commissions, including work for Time Out magazine and
The Independent newspaper. Another guy with a nod in his style to the 1950’s and 60’s.
He has also illustrated a number of children’s books for Jane West, more info here and has exhibited
and sold work at numerous art galleries. He has a blog and tweets about other artists too.
I can’t tell his exact age but it seems he’s an accomplished young artist who has already produced a
large body of creative work. Well done Oliver, what’s your secret ? Here’s some of his possible tips lol
I asked Oliver to add some comments himself and this is what he told me …
” I like creating illustrations that appeal to both children and adults. Animals in particular inspire me.
When I make an illustration, I often enjoy creating some kind of a relationship between two
different animals, as I find that this resonates with people. If the illustration makes you smile,
then I’ve done my job! Also a lot of my inspiration comes from looking at countless illustrations
from various artists I find on the internet. A typical day for me would begin by drinking several
cups of strong coffee! Then printing and sending out orders from the previous day or so.
Followed by working on new illustrations for whichever commission or print that needed to be
completed at that time. I like to create new illustrations as often as possible, as I enjoy the creative
process and I find that it keeps me in a good frame of mind! ”
Good to hear Oliver and thanks again for adding your thoughts to my blog.
More of Olivers’ work here.
Blanca Gómez. Spanish Illustrator
There’s a beautiful simplicity about the work of Blanca Gómez that reminds me of french
illustration from the fiftes and sixties. She works in Madrid and her lovely work came out of her
doodles and became her main business as her work took off and became recognised.
She says ” I’m not too certain what inspires me. I suppose that everything that surrounds me and
everything that I like inspires me inevitably. I’m a huge collector of objects and books. Picasso said
something along the lines of it being best for inspiration to find you working,
I happen to think that’s good way to put it ”
Blanca has a range of her prints in her Esty shop here. Also there’s a great interview with her over on
the wonderful Grain Edit site, read it here.
Manchester, What’s new and Chetham’s Library
Loathed as I am to finally admit it, summer is well and truly gone and autumn has willingly taken
it’s place. The sadness in that feeling, is to acknowledge, that it’s likely to be quite a long time before we
feel real summer heat again, but there are other delights in store in the waves of weather and winter
pullovers still to come. With that in mind autumn is actually one of my favourite seasons, and I noticed
these conkers scattered amongst the twisted orange leaves in the park and they made me smile.
I had a rare chance to spend the day in Manchester city centre so I set out to see what I could find.
Paperchase is always a draw for me. I love to see what is new and there’s always a lot featured on the
amazing Print & Pattern blog if you travel back through Bowie’s postings. Here are some of their
great papers currently available.
And beautiful hand made papers, thoughtfully laid out in a colour coded manner.
Aren’t these display chairs amazing with their paper coverings.
I noticed some of the store windows as I wandered. The mock Lowry painting in Waterstones’ window
again made me smile, wondering what the artist would have thought in seeing a copy of his work in a
Manchester shop window. Whilst the detail and work in the Harvey Nichols front window display
bowled me over, someone on their display team is working hard.
Jigsaw said ” WOOL “. I loved the sheep on the pavement and more looking at you from the inside.
I had the great pleasure of meeting the very talented Sue for lunch. Sue is an artist who writes an
informative, honest blog called simply Mouse (well worth a read). She introduced me to Chetham’s
School of music and their incredible Library. It’s just behind Urbis not far from Victoria Train Station.
The school and library dates from early 15th century. Chetham’s Library is the oldest surviving public
library in the country, with a growing collection of over 100,000 volumes, with a specialisation of
books covering the history of the North West. It’s all very Hogwarts !
The books used to be chained to the shelves (see the holes in the shelf edges) and you could pull up a
stool, pull out a shelf and read the book right next to the volumes. When the library was extended
and higher shelving was added, the wooden gates were included and the books can now be taken out
one by one into the reading room. There is a alcove in their reading room where Friedrich Engels
and Karl Marx sat looking out over the poverty of the Manchester City Centre. This inspired Engels
to go on the write an account entitled ‘ The Condition of The Working Class in England ‘ (1844).
As you wander the halls and passageways you can hear the concerts and practising from the School of
Music next door. There is a wonderful exhibition on called “Curios and Curiosities: A Very Peculiar
Assortment of Treasures ” This brings together some of the more surprising and unexpected items
in the Library’s collection, the majority of which have not previously been displayed.
Here are just a few of the bizarre pieces from the collection.
Thanks to Sue for her lunchtime company and for revealing the delights of Chetham’s too.
They have an open day with a guided tour on October 16th, details here, go and experience it for yourself.
Nottingham Trent University UK. Textile Degree Course
I made a mad dash trip back to my old place of study, Nottingham Trent University last week.
I used to work in this beautiful building, the same one that D.H Lawrence used to study in.
Sadly the old high roofed, glass ceiling print rooms had been demolished,
to make way for this new Atrium. I have many fond memories of long weekends and late night
‘shut in’ printing sessions in that old space . (sigh)
I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some of the MA Textile and Innovation Degree show work.
And Stephen Hepworth from the MA Photography course.
Ramsbottom Festival , The Waterboys, Capercaillie, Mike McGoldrick
Just a few catch ups today. I got some informative feedback from you guys re the blog I did on
Mark Hearld and Robert pointed out these great new cards of Marks
available soon through Art Angels, so many thanks for that.
Last night was the final day of the Ramsbottom Festival. The first of it’s kind and boasted some
fine music and a great crowd of walking boot and wellie wearing eager listeners.
The highlight of the day was the final three big name acts Mike McGoldrick, whom I’ve seen
many times and am still slightly in awe of his flute playing skills. Capercaillie, and the beautiful voice
of Karen Matheson, I know their music well, but have never seen and the Waterboys,
who were highly entertaining and full of quirky zest and life. With an electrifying encore of
Fisherman’s Blues, Mike Scott stole the show for me, in a zany Mick Jagger concert sort of way !
For their fans they have a new CD out today based on the poems of WB Yeats, info here.
Here’s a reminder of their sound from the Tall Ships Festival earlier this year.
Thanks to Kennyu272 for posting this.
Mark Hearld.
Right image from Maraid on Flickr taken in Marks’ Open Studio Exhibition.
I try to keep up to date, whenever possible with artists’ whose work continues to inspire and amaze me.
Mark Hearld is one of those artists and I discovered that he has recently completed commissions for
Faber & Faber and Tate Museums (of which I have a lovely mug) like the one featured here.
I’ve found a few images on the internet for posters etc that I’ve not seen before.
Apparently A children’s book illustrated by a series of Mark’s unique collages will be published
by Walker Books in 2012, something, no doubt, we will all be looking forward to.
A few more of Marks more recent collage pieces can be seen here along with a Wooden Cockerill, part
of a collaborative piece. There’s a lovely image of Mark and Illustrator Emily Sutton below too.
As a entrant for the Elle Decoration British Design Awards 2011, Emily’s design “Curiosity Shop” has
been shortlisted, please help by adding your votes for it to win here. Both Emily and Marks fabrics are
available from the lovely people at St Judes Fabrics here. I think it’s time for a book of Marks’ own
work to be gracing the shelves, anyone else agree with me ?
Also new out some lovely Bird cards, check them out here, from Art Angels.
More older blogs about Mr Hearlds’ work here, here, here, here, here, oh and here .
Did I mention that I liked his work again !
fishinkblog.com 