Author: cpascoe

26th March 2015

Friday Talk – Patrick Benson

So this Friday is our LAST professional practice talk of the year! We hope our students have enjoyed the series and will refer to them often throughout their own illustration careers.

This week we will be joined by award winning children’s book illustratorPatrick Benson. Check out some of his work and short bio below. Patrick will also be offering valuable one-to-one tutorials with a selection of our flourishing children’s book illustrators.

Patrick studied classical drawing in Florence, and continued studying Art at Chelsea Art School and St Martin’s School of Art. He worked for a while in the fashion business before embarking on a career as illustrator.

In 1984 he won the Mother Goose Award, given annually to the most promising newcomer in children’s book illustration, for his illustration of William Mayne’s Hob Stories. He gained further acclaim for illustrating Owl Babies, written by Martin Waddell, The MinPins by Roald Dahl and since has illustrated many other titles, including The Little Boat by Kathy Henderson and The Sea-Thing Child by Russel Hoban, both shortlisted for a Kate Greenaway Medal. The Little Boat also won the 1995 Kurt Maschler Award.

To see Patrick’s full bibliography visit:

http://literature.britishcouncil.org/patrick-benson

As sad as we are to wave farewell to another brilliant year of Professional Practice Lectures, we cannot wait to hear Patrick’s words of wisdom and look forward to the next generation of the Friday Talk Series.

Mar 26, 2015

19th March 2015

Friday Talk from Jane Hyslop

This week students and staff are eagerly anticipating our Friday Professional Practice talk from alumni and tutor Jane Hyslop. The illustration department enjoys weekly tutorials from Jane in creating drawing journals, book binding and all things intricate and precise. After sharing in her vast knowledge, we look forward to adventuring into Jane’s own practice and hearing about her experience as a successful book artist and printmaker.

In her personal practice Jane has documented the decline of the mining industry, the dereliction of former mine workings and railways in parallel with the regeneration of the land in her native Midlothian. The flora and fauna that quickly populate deserted places fascinate her and recording this ongoing transformation is at the forefront of her work.

We look forward to hearing more about this fascinating ongoing project, her history with the University and her plans for the future.

See more of Jane’s work at:

Home

Mar 19, 2015

12th March 2015

Illustration Meets Comedy

Last night the Illustration staff and students ventured out of the studio and into the wild world of experimental comedy!

As their final major project for the year, our first years have been exploring a broad variety of storytelling techniques. Experiencing everything from traditional scottish tales from kilted storytellers to a chilled afternoon listening for the narratives in a folk music performance. Our budding illustrators are then given free reign to create an illustrated response to the week’s event. The finished pieces have ranged from traditional to conceptual to the completely fantastical, reflecting the vast range of interests and specialisms within the year group.

This week we visited ‘Electric Tales’ at the heart of Edinburgh’s comedy scene, The Stand Comedy Club. Described as ‘a blended mix of comedy and storytelling, a night of funny yarns and verse told by a range of performers, with the sole aim of cheering you up’ we knew we were in for enjoyable evening. The show offered our illustrators a variety of starting points for their individual projects, from risqué tales to fully costumed impersonations of Susan Boyle. Drawing throughout, both staff and students took inspiration from the venues buzzing atmosphere, producing energetic and responsive sketches of the comedians and audience.

We look forward to sharing the students’ developed illustrations, grown from this unique form of storytelling event. A huge thanks to The Stand for allowing us share in your creativity and for the endless amount of cheer and laughs (many at our expense).

Mar 12, 2015

5th March 2015

An afternoon with Sorcha Fitzgerald and Jessica Kettle

For this weeks Professional Practice Lecture we will be joined by Freelance Illustrators and ECA Artists in Residents, Sorcha Fitzgerald and Jessica Kettle.

Sorcha is a recent alumni of the undergraduate course and has had a lot of success both during her time on the course and in her graduate practice. Sorcha uses printmaking, collage and a strong sense of narrative within her work, most notably in herself authored picture book, Wolf Girl. She also works in ceramics and set design, pushing the boundaries of her illustration practice.

See more of Sorcha’s work here:

http://www.sorchafitzgerald.com

Jessica is a graduate of the MFA course, after studying a BA in Music at York University. In 2012 Jessica was awarded the Langwith Scott Award for individual creativity for ‘The Little Girl Who Dreamt in Colour’, a picture book for children with an accompanying soundtrack. Jessica continues to work in print and children’s book illustration including stories such as ‘Bella’ created in partnership with The Leprosy Mission Scotland.

See more of Jessica’s work here: http://cargocollective.com/jessicakettleillustration

We look forward to hearing their words of wisdom about surviving art school and succeeding in the creative and chaotic world of freelance illustration.

Mar 5, 2015

24th February 2015

Mapbooks

‘In order to be able to function in the world humans have found it essential to map their surroundings in order to impart information to others and to understand the world for themselves. However, it has not always only for practical reasons that maps have been made. People, from childhood, have a natural urge to make them and maps are fascinating to look at. They draw the viewer in and anyone who makes a map demonstrates their thought process through the way it is laid out and designed and their preferences in what they choose to map.’
In this project our second year students were asked to produce a piece of work in book form – this could be taken in as broad a sense as they wished. The book had to contain maps and or diagrams that explained a place. This place could be somewhere they knew intimately, somewhere they were keen to explore or learn about through mapping it, or an imaginary place. Whichever they chose, students had to make a book that gave as much information to the viewer as possible using mainly images.

The images could be made using any medium, students chose to draw, paint, print or use digital techniques to produce there final books. The second years pushed boundaries in both there thought processes and practical techniques, resulting in a unique range of beautiful and provoking books. See below for a selection of our students completed ‘map books’.

Ryan Hamill

Rachel Donaldson

Ann MacLeod

William Hughes

Arran Stamper

Many thanks to the University Special Collections for inviting us to view a selection of rare books that have inspired many of our students to develop there book binding skills.

Feb 24, 2015

23rd February 2015

David Roberts Professional Practice Talk

This Friday we will be joined by acclaimed children’s book illustrator David Roberts. David will be sharing his experiences in the illustration world and words of wisdom with our ambitious students.

After studying fashion at Manchester Metropolitan University, David worked in fashion illustration before exploring his ‘true calling’ as a children’s book illustrator. David signed up with Christine Isteed at Artist Partners in 1995 and his first book ‘Frankie Stein’s Robot’ written by Roy Apps was published in 1998. This book was shortlisted for the ‘Mother Goose Award’ for emerging illustrators.

Since then he has illustrated works by some fantastic authors such as Philip Ardagh, Daren King, Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Tom Baker and Chris Priestley. His most recent works include ‘Iggy Peck, Architect’ by Andrea Beaty, ‘The Troll’ by Julia Donaldson and ‘The Dunderheads’ by Paul Fleischman which was shortlisted for the 2010 Kate Greenaway Award.

We look forward to learning the ins and outs of David’s successful career, and to enjoying another unique perspective of life as an illustrator, as we do each week with our Professional Practice Lecture Series.

Feb 23, 2015

23rd February 2015

Meet the Residents 2: Sorcha Fitzgerald

Hello! Here are some of the things I have been getting up to recently:

Currently I am working on a personal project illustrating The Girl Without Hands, which is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. I am using mono print to make these (this won’t be a surprise for those of you who know I spent pretty much my entire fourth year solely working in this medium and have somehow managed to avoid becoming averse to it). I’ve really enjoyed having the time to experiment a lot more with this process and feel I have discovered various new ways of working in mono print. I also now have a large stack of predominantly dodgy prints that will probably be used to wrap gifts for unlucky family members and friends for years to come!

I have just created a piece of work that will be in a permanent exhibition at Simpson House, a counselling centre in Edinburgh that helps individuals and families who have been affected by drug abuse. I am delighted to be able to donate my work to an organisation that provides such a beneficial service to the community. For no particular reason, I really wanted to make a collage of a jungle scene, which fortunately is well suited to the décor in the children’s therapy room.

I’ve also been keeping my ceramic work ticking over and made some decorations just before Christmas, which you can take a peek at in the photos below if you so wish.

Sorcha

Feb 23, 2015

18th February 2015

The Last Great Voyage of Discovery

One hundred years ago, in 1914 Ernest Shackleton set sail with a team on the last Polar expedition of its kind, his aim to cross Antarctica via the Pole. This was the last great adventure of discovery, exploration today is rooted in scientific endeavor, and it is a story littered with intriguing details of reindeer skin sleeping bags, penguins, tinned food and lots of ice.

First year students from the Illustration Programme at Edinburgh College of Art were asked to respond to the story of the Endurance expedition and create an illustrated map of the journey. In addition to this they were asked to construct an artifact that illustrated an element of the narrative.

Maps come in all shapes and sizes. They are made for a specific purpose and include particular information that informs us, or take us on a journey. Students were asked to draw as many ideas as they could from the maps they studied in the immense collection of the National Library of Scotland – this included colour, textures used to mark terrain, timelines, lettering, borders, contour lines, latitude/longitude grids, references, size, shape….and of course the frying pan shape of Antarctica!

The results are currently exhibited in the National Library of Scotland, giving students the opportunity to share there illustrated discoveries with the public. A huge thank you to the National Library of Scotland for collaborating with us on this adventurous, challenging and greatly rewarding project.

Feb 18, 2015

12th February 2015

Student Exhibition at Simpson House

Simpson House Show

Illustration students from Edinburgh College of Art are collaborating with the Simpson House counseling center to meet their desire to have some fresh, original artwork to permanently fill their center. Twelve illustration students have created work to donate to the center, which will be installed during Innovative Learning Week.

To celebrate these artists contribution and to raise awareness for the wonderful services the Simpson House provides to the community we are holding a showcase evening at the Simpson House. The show will be on Thursday, February 19th from 5:30-7:00 at the Simpson House, which is located at 52 Queen Street. All are welcome to attend, have a cuppa, a chat, and see some lovely illustrations.

The Simpson House center provides counseling and support for individuals affected by alcohol and substance abuse within Edinburgh. To find out more about the center you can visit: http://www.simpson-house.org

If you have any questions regarding the illustration show email: froggatt.sarah@gmail.com

Feb 12, 2015

11th February 2015

Friday Talk – Anna Wright

This Friday we will be joined by the wonderful Anna Wright for our weekly professional practice talk. We are proud to say that Anna is an Edinburgh College of Art Alumni graduating in 2006, we look forward to welcoming her back to share her journey with our current students. Since graduating her illustrations have been sold worldwide having been featured in House and Garden, Country Life and Artists & IIlustrators.

Anna works in pen and ink to create lively illustrations of birds, animals and costume. Her diverse portfolio of work combines drawing with a flamboyant mixture of fabric, feathers, ribbons and other found materials. Focusing on colours, pattern and humour Anna has built a large range of collectible prints, cards, mugs, tablemats and bags with much more to come.

Students look forward to hearing about the obstacle and rewards of working in the Illustration industry and sharing in Anna’s many successes.

Check out more of Anna’s work at: http://www.annawright.co.uk

Feb 11, 2015

ECA Illustration