It’s Fathers Day this Sunday 21st, here in the UK. I’ve just spent ages scouring the web for some inspiring vintage Fathers Day or Dad related illustration or design but I didn’t find anything suitable which was a bit disappointing. I was about to give up with today’s post when I remembered some greetings card ideas I was developing a couple of years ago. I was quite pleased with them at the time but completely forgot about them.
Here I was aiming for a modern, sophisticated alternative to the usual beer related offerings. Back then I was using slightly different textures as my ‘trademark’: a scan from a loosely painted board - nowadays I opt for a scanned water colour wash.
In the process of forming my Etsy store (it is coming along-gradually) I came across the delightful prints of missbrigette’s shop. These are all from original gouche paintings and collages and they sell at such fantastic prices too. Her style, colour palette and quirky subjects are all so mid-century and right up my street!
I’m one of many Miroslav Sasek admirers and I am trying to build my own collection of his series of illustrated childrens travel books. Each book gives a charming introduction to various cities of the world from a child’s point of view; what a great assignment.
The ‘This Is..’ series was originally printed in the late 1950s and into the 60s but you can easily pick up copies of the recent re-editions that Universe have published; I thought I would share a few snippets from ‘This is London’ with you. ‘Delicious’ is the word I keep thinking when viewing these illustrations!
I just love his loose ink washes combined with fine linear detail. He observes patterns, textures and characters beautifully and it’s clear that this illustrator is in his element when painting architecture. Mr Sasek is no longer with us, if my maths are correct he died in 1979.
No not that silly ’80s Eddie Murphy flick - my illustration work has been selected by 3×3, The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration to feature in their showcase. They call it a magazine but it’s actually more like a high quality soft back book and it’s out 3 times a year. Distributed mostly throughout the States but if you’re in the UK we have them in Borders and the ‘posher’ book shops.
This is great as I am hoping to get more exposure in the U.S and internationally, so far I’ve kept things pretty local in the South of England but with a spot on illustrationmundo, an Etsy shop in the making and this, I will begin to go global. An American illustration agent would be great too if anyone out there is interested!
When I first started out on the self employed journey, I had some help from the lovely Princes Trust. They are worth approaching if you are just starting out with your own business and if you fit their criteria, they provide support in the form of a business loan and mentoring to get you launched.
The Prince’s Trust has teamed up with Strathmore Spring Water to launch an exciting design competition for Trust supported businesses. The winning entry will be featured on limited-edition bottles of Strathmore sold in all branches of Starbucks during August.
I’ve submitted my design which I’m quite pleased with but have no idea what happens next - all information has disappeared from their website. Here it is anyway…
Any idle moment browsing the net soon leads me to a search on mid-century illustration (it’s that or 1950s furniture-I’m currently lusting after a vintage cocktail bar for our new flat). The best place to find great examples is a splendid blog todaysinspiration which is updated pretty much every day.
It was here - via another link - that I found a flickr group of the most beautiful kids book illustrations. The pics that caught my eye were by one Aurelius Battaglia. A bit of googling will hopefully shed more light on this artist but for now feast your eyes on these pages as found on flickr. I can’t get enough of the stunning colours and elegant, angular styling so typical of this period.
These images are a little blurry as they seem to be photos rather than scans but view the slideshow to see a bigger version in all its Techni-color glory.
