Teressa Ong One Foxy Illustrator !
Teressa Ong is a young (masked) illustrator (/ Superhero ?) who works for Paper Plane. In her spare time she creates modern-retro masterpieces ! I caught up with her recently to ask a few questions.
You seem to have quite a few fox and bear related illustrations, were these for specific projects or just because they made you smile to work on ?
It’s definitely because they make me smile! I’ve always kinda struggled with thinking about a subject/coming up with ideas, so even though I still love the drawing process, I wouldn’t be as excited as compared to if I were to scribble a fox watching tv now. Trying to stop myself from drawing foxes and bear cubs can be a problem at times.
Currently, I think I only have 2 projects (both personal projects) with fox(es) and bears in them . I want to create a short story/picture book type thing with a fox character as another personal project at some point.
Is your work mostly digital or do you work with scanned pieces and gouache to add depth and texture to your work ?
I wish I did more traditional paintings but most of my work is digitally done. Kyle T Webster’s photoshop brushes really help me a big ton with adding textures and is probably one of the reasons why I work digitally more often nowadays. It’s rare for me to work traditionally and digitally for the final illustration. I think I find it a hassle, haha ! I do admire mixed media works though, they are really fascinating to look at.
Who do you do work for most often and can you describe what might be classed as a typical working day for you ?
I haven’t done a lot of client work and I’ve only worked on one client project at my current workplace and most of the projects I’ve done are targeted for kids. A typical work day would start with me trying very hard to resist a second bowl of cereal while having a bowl of cereal before heading to work. I’ll spend the day (9:30 to 6:30ish) painting up illustrations for any project that I’ve been tasked with, mostly short stories. Occasionally sneaking in a doodle or two.
BOOKS! Especially children books. :B I’ve worked on a couple at work which I had a lot of fun with but I still don’t know much about making them so I’d love to hang around the children’s book community for a while and maybe one day I’ll be able to come up with a nice one of my own. Getting to be part of an animation project is a little wish (especially a stop motion project, the dream!), designing for an animation and seeing my designs come to life or getting to help create miniature props would be so exciting! But despite graduating with an animation diploma, I still don’t feel quite ready to be part of an animation project just yet.
I am so terrible at giving advice (nervous laugh) but here goes: do as much personal work as you can, draw what you love, have lots of fun with them and get to know more people in the illustration/animation/artsy family because they are very lovely and helpful people. Oh, and cute cats are a big thing on Instagram. Just sayin’. *wink*
Many thanks Teressa for the fun and honest answers and for being part of the Fishink community too. Keep creating the wonderful work, and we’ll keep our flippers crossed and look out for a foxy book in the near future : )
International Women’s Day
My third ‘day’ to mention is International Women’s Day which is today.
As my blog is all about Art, I want to pay tribute to all the female artists, designers, crafts folk and creatives that I have covered already on my blog, and those that I have yet to feature.
Particularly women who have been forerunners in the design fields of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and by gaining the roles that traditionally men would have done, have changed the future of those roles and of the design industry completely.
To all my female followers too, have a great day and ‘Make it happen’.
Alice Meynell Shorehound from the beach
Alice Meynell is a fellow lurcher owner, in fact she has three dogs and four children. When time allows she likes nothing better than to head down on the beach in East Lothian, close to her home and gather bits of broken shells and debris that no-one else wants. What she does with her finds, is something magical… she illustrates with them. I asked Alice to tell us how it all started.
She says “I walk the dogs at the beach every day and always come back with my pockets bulging with stuff I can’t leave on the shore. My children were messing about in the kitchen, having just discovered Instagram and were taking awful pictures of anything they could find. Yoghurt pots with the spoon at an artful angle, or a plate with a half eaten biscuit on it. I was trying to persuade them to make things more interesting, and drew the body of a pelican around a broken bit of shell. A lovely friend, who used to commission illustrators for children’s books, saw that one, and a couple of others and suggested I take it a bit more seriously. ”
I love the prehistoric element creeping in here and of course (it almost goes without saying) that the hounds are fab too : )
“I have always had a longing to go back to art school and do a course in illustration. So when my friend suggested I could sell my illustrations with beach junk incorporated into them, I thought I’d have a go. I started at the beginning of last summer, and now have boxes and boxes of broken shells, sea-chewed plastic, smoothed and softened driftwood, coloured sea glass and crusted pebbles waiting to be turned into things. Usually, nearly always, I see something and pick it up, knowing it’s going to end up as a rhinocerous or a bicycle helmet for a tortoise. Other times I find things and just take them home because I like them. I collect a lot of those little pink snail like shells, as they make very good eyeballs, but I also collect masses of smooth limpets, because I like the feel of them but I’ve not yet used a single one in a picture.”
“My plans for the future are to do more, bigger pictures. I’ve been enjoying the limited space of the small square ones, a hang over from having to work in that shape for Instagram, but I’m going to build some much bigger box frames. I’d like to work straight onto drift wood boards too, and I collect any sheet wood that I can find. My other plan, which will take a lot of organising, is to illustrate a children’s story I wrote years ago, about a duck who is afraid of the water. I’m thinking of doing it as a stop-motion animation so I can use the same shells for each character again and again. I’m planning some storyboards at the moment, but first I have to make a costume for my oldest daughter who is going to be a teapot in the school play, and that’s taking up a lot of my creative energy ! ”
These cakes look good enough to eat, or at least to entice a shell dog to eat !
You can see here how Alice develops her illustrations and builds them up slowly by finding the right shape, colour or texture for the exact part that she needs.
“I studied silversmithing and jewellery at Glasgow School of Art, graduating in the early 90’s but have never done anything that remotely relates to that. For a while I designed floors ( I set up http://www.harveymaria.co.uk with a friend. I designed the tiles while he ran the business side of things, which I am hopeless at. That company too, like Shorehound, was named after my dog ! My current three dogs (two lurchers and an idle terrier who hates walks) are all mixed breeds so when I’m asked what sort they are, I say that they’re Shorehounds. People go away nodding sagely. ”
You can discover more of Alice’s beach coming images over on her Instagram site or grab an original illustration here. Thanks Alice for sharing your gifts and story with us. Happy beach combing.
World Book Day
Wow two World days in one week worth mentioning !
Happy World Book Day everyone : )
Mid Week Mix
Since about 2008, I’ve been collecting images from the internet that have caught my eye. Way back then, I wasn’t so diligent in keeping records as to where images came from, or who had painted, photographed, illustrated or indeed created the artwork in the image. So I apologise in advance for their lack of referencing, but to be honest, it was purely about seeing groups of imagery together, that for whatever reason, I enjoyed.
As I have managed to amass quite a few of these ‘collaged sheets’, I thought I would share them with you, in the hope that they may also provide some inspiration to you the readers, from their shape, colour, texture or out and out randomness : )
Do let me know your thoughts and which images catch your eye for whatever reason. Enjoy !
World Wildlife Day
I wanted to say a quick hello today as it’s World Wildlife Day. YAY !
I suddenly thought that without the illustrations of nature and the animal world three quarters of my blog posts would be empty !
It’s difficult to imagine a world without animals, and to a large extent we do take them for granted. The birds in our gardens, the bees pollinating flowers and trees and of course the dogs and cats in our lives as well as the larger and increasingly rarer land mammals too.
Just a thought
Happy Day : )
Lynita Shimizu Discovering Moku Hanga Printmaking
People often ask where I find the artists and creative people that I feature on my blog and the honest answer is that I just seem to stumble upon them.
Often when I’m searching for someone (or something totally unrelated to my initial search), I will spot an illustration, photograph, piece of ceramic and that sets me off on an adventure to find out more. I can’t stress enough how important good labelling is for all of your images. It’s the one thing that enables others to help find you and your work.
The most frustrating thing, is to find an amazing artist and then discover that there is no link to their site, or that the illustration is labelled simply ‘Joe Smith’ and that when googled , there are about 120 google searches that display results for ‘Joe Smith artist’ !
At which point I often decide to follow another avenue and the search is forgotten. It was whilst looking for the work of a wood cut illustrator/ printmaker that, by chance, I came across today’s featured artist.
Lynita Shimizu has been creating woodcuts using the Japanese techniques of Moku Hanga since the mid-seventies.
Originally from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, Lynita graduated with a Fine Arts major from Westminster College in 1974.
Following a year at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she moved to Japan to concentrate on woodblock printmaking.
During her four-year stay, she studied in Kyoto with an elderly master of traditional woodblock printmaking, Tomikichiro Tokuriki, and in Tokyo with contemporary printmaker, Yoshisuke Funasaka.
These landscapes are amazing and somehow possess both a 1960’s and completely modern feel to them.
From Japan, Lynita and her husband moved to River Edge, NJ, where they raised three sons.
Today Lynita lives in Pomfret, Connecticut, where in addition to printmaking, she enjoys her favorite activities of gardening, hiking and playing piano. I think her textured, whimsical birds are also fabulous. These Guinea Fowl made me smile immediately.
Lynita describes the process behind creating the right paper to work with. Amazing work don’t you think ?
The Whitworth Art Gallery
Just a couple of weeks ago the Guardian declared Manchester not only to be a city with it’s cultural head screwed on but also stated that it is paving the way forward when it comes to Art and art establishments. With a 15 million pound refurbishment nearing completion, The Whitworth (who is a mere 125 year old) recently reopened it’s doors to the public. I popped along to have a look for myself and was pleasantly surprised.
It’s was strangely comforting to be greeted by fabrics at the Whitworth, as it’s a place that I associate fabrics with. It has always exhibited, and taken a great pride in promoting, Manchester’s manufacturing heritage in Textiles. A Lucienne Day design ‘Herb Antony’ from 1956 (top right) and others by Liberty & Co from around 1890 make for a harmonious display.
‘Display’, ‘light’ and particularly ‘space’ have always been key words I’ve carried in my mind, as I’ve previously walked around exhibitions at The Whitworth. It’s always struck me as a beautifully warm environment and I was delighted to see that it hadn’t lost that intimate feel with it’s fresh refurbishment and additional new areas.
I noticed the slightly less formal way of hanging the art too. Mixing the old with the new and somehow being a little less precious when showing tapestries next to etchings and drawn illustrations snuggling up to oil painted masters. I feel that it all makes things a little more accessible for a modern audience.
Being situated in a park and having such huge windows, always allows the interior and exterior of spaces to meld together. Almost suggesting that mother nature is also exhibiting here lol The long glass cafe block, even extends out amongst the trees, so you can almost feel you’re having tea and cake with the birds and squirrels !
The above photo (taken from the Whitworth website) shows the cafe stretching away into the distance.
Seeing such warm, calming interior views, for once I was thankful that I hadn’t gone to the opening, alongside the other 18,000 people who turned up !
This marble couple don’t appear to be too bothered by their modern string bindings, and I liked the colourful reflections from this rotating glass hanging too.
I also enjoyed Cornelia Parker’s ‘Rorschach’ (Accidental 1), showing 52 silver plated objects that have been crushed by a 250 ton industrial press and then suspended on wires just above the floor.
Also her ‘Cold Dark Matter’ An Exploded View (1991) currently on loan from the Tate. For me the objects themselves were immaterial but the shadows and that feeling of an explosion caught and momentarily frozen in time, were amazing. Lovely to see school children in the room trying to draw sections of it too.
And staying on the theme of explosions, or rather gunpowder, is the fabulously huge art piece by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. The process of making gunpowder drawings is extraordinary. After laying out large sheets of paper on the floor, Cai Guo-Qiang arranges gunpowder, fuses and cardboard stencils to create forms on the paper’s surface. The spontaneity of the resulting explosion, flames and fumes are controlled through the use of wooden boards, rocks and various other materials, which influence the impact of the explosions that create the final work. The landscape forms of Unmanned Nature (below) reference 14th-century Chinese ink and wash paintings, while the scale of the encircling installation parallels Monet’s Water Lilies. Serene and truly beautiful and possibly my favourite piece of the day’s visit.
With not one but two little gift shops and a fine new range of Whitworth stationery products, you’re certain to go home with a little more than you came with. I also had a chance catch up with Simon and Angie Lewin who were there admiring the new gallery space, how’s that for timing.
I took a stroll in the woods afterwards to gather my thoughts and be watched by the eyes of the trees.
A splash of sunlight to make the raindrops on the branches shine like crystals, and perhaps, just perhaps the early feel of spring maybe in the air ! There’s always hope : ) A grand day out Gromit !
Mid Week Mix 7
Since about 2008, I’ve been collecting images from the internet that have caught my eye. Way back then, I wasn’t so diligent in keeping records as to where images came from, or who had painted, photographed, illustrated or indeed created the artwork in the image. So I apologise in advance for their lack of referencing, but to be honest, it was purely about seeing groups of imagery together, that for whatever reason, I enjoyed.
As I have managed to amass quite a few of these ‘collaged sheets’, I thought I would share them with you, in the hope that they may also provide some inspiration to you the readers, from their shape, colour, texture or out and out randomness : )
Do let me know your thoughts and which images catch your eye for whatever reason. Enjoy !
Fishink New Illustration 2015
Good morning one and all. I wanted to begin first of all by wishing a very Happy Chinese New Year to all of my followers. I hope you had a wonderful weekend of festivities and fun wherever you were.
For the past few weeks I’ve been joining in a friday evening event which ‘happens’ on twitter using the hash tag #colour_collective. It begins every saturday, when a new colour is ‘revealed’ which then becomes the colour theme for that weeks illustration.
At 7.30pm on the following friday night, everyone taking part uploads their illustrated entries and consequently likes, retweets and comments upon each others work. Depending how many artists are involved, you can sometimes see between 30 and 90 illustrations, all using that weeks colour to influence or appear their work in some way. It’s the fab idea of Penny Neville Lee and you can read alittle more about it on the Magpie That site.
It’s just a little light hearted fun, but interesting to see how your work compares to that of your contemporaries and also great to feel part of a team of illustrators who assemble online just for this event. You can also see the results on the Colour Collective Facebook page. Here’s a few of my recent ones for the colours Sap Green, Brilliant Violet, Powder Blue, Orange Lake Light and Flame Red.
I’ve been playing around with some new brushes and combinations of hand rendered and digital artwork. It’s a fresh look for some of my work which I quite like. Any thoughts readers ?
Subconsciously, I must be willing ‘Spring’ to be in the air, by creating these two new prints. I’m going to be offering these illustrations framed for £45 each, do let me know if you’re interested. More options on my Fishink site here.
I’m never far from my sketchbook too.
Here’s a potential new range of art cards, that I’m looking for a distributor for. Again let me know if you’re interested.
I’m really enjoying my new artwork phase and finally I’m also on the look out for a new art agent, if any are reading this. : )
All suggestions welcome. Private commissions undertaken too. Please share Fishink blog with your friends and check out my range of stationery products, stamps, stickers and framed artwork here. Many thanks.
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