Author: cpascoe

Meet the residents: Megan Elizabeth Taylor

Hello there!

So this month I began my post as Illustrator in Residence at Edinburgh College of Art. Having graduated two years ago, it still feels a little strange yet wonderful to be in an academic, busy studio environment. So far, I absolutely love it.

I have spent the past few weeks getting back into the swing of life drawing, and I find having two and a half hours each Monday morning really sets me up for the rest of the week!

Every other day, I am fully committed to working on my long-term project to ‘dissect’ space, architecture, time and narrative in existing films through drawing and animation. My ambition with this project is to take the experimental drawings I create throughout the year, and put them back into film space and time, by painting directly onto a television thus creating new narratives and an experimental animation from something pre-existing. I am really excited about it, and have been experimenting with rule-based drawing using gouache on acetate.

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If you would like to see more of my work or processes, visit

http://betweenhereandnowhere.wordpress.com/

Talk from Lucy Roscoe

This afternoon our students will be enjoying a talk from Edinburgh based illustrator and Illustration tutor, Lucy Roscoe. After graduating in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art in 2008, and then again after finishing a Masters in 2010, she now works for various clients illustrating books, cards and all kinds of interesting projects, as well as publishing artist’s books under the imprint The Book Tree Press.

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A Mark in Time, 2013

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The Beach House, 2011

Observer Cape Comic Competition

Recently a selection of our talented third year students have entered the Observer Cape Comic Competition. The brief was to create a 4 page comic, with the freedom to base their comics on any theme that our inventive illustrators could imagine. The esteemed judging panel includes Peter Serafinowicz (actor, comedian and writer) Isabel Greenberg (author of The Encyclopedia of Early Earth), Rachel Cooke (The Observer), Dan Franklin (Publisher, Jonathan Cape), Paul Gravett (Director, Comica Festival) and Suzanne Dean (Random House Creative Director). Our fingers are crossed and we wish our students the best of luck.

Take a look at some fantastic examples from Paige Collins and Mhairi Braden below:

paige 1 paige 2 paige 3 paige 4 Paige Collins

mahiri 1 mhairi 2 ns3mhairi 4 Mhairi Braden

Talk from John Fardell

This afternoon our excited students will be having a talk from cartoonist, illustrator, designer and author John Fardell. John Fardell is the author of three children’s novels, including The Seven Professors of the Far Northand The Secret of the Black Moon Moth.  A regular contributor to Viz (he is the creator of The Modern Parents and The Criticsamongst others), his work has appeared in the Independent, the Evening Standard, the New Statesman, the Glasgow Herald and the List. We are looking forward to learning from his experience in the world of illustration.

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First Year Printing Project

A fresh new group of first year Illustration students have arrived, all of which have just recently moved to Edinburgh and are very keen to explore their new home; and how could one do this better than through a drawing trip?
So we set out to discover parts of the city, and our tour took us through the Meadows, up to the National Museum of Scotland and St. Giles Cathedral, ending with a panoramic view from the Castle. We stopped in each of these places to do some observational drawings and some students also gathered pieces that they found along the way such as leaves or bits of rubbish that people had dropped.
Back in the studio students carried out research into historical and contemporary pattern making and presented these to one another. After a practical demonstration of how to make your own repeating pattern the students set out to make their own, incorporating their findings and drawings of Edinburgh. The drawings were then transferred into mdf sheets, A4 in size and printed repeatedly until they covered the size of A1.
For most students both printmaking and pattern design was new and they tackled it with great patience and enthusiasm. The project was a great way of getting into the routine of observational drawing and of making use of the sketchbook in order to create more resolved pieces. Repeat patterns can be applied in many ways, including textiles, book designs, wallpapers and wrapping papers; all relevant fields for illustrators to potentially explore.
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Taiwanese Cooking with Liv Wan!

Do you like food? Illustration? Maybe even books? Yes? Excellent – sharpen your knives and get the pans out, because our 2nd year student Liv Wan is about to publish her first cook book, Home-style Taiwanese Cooking.

Home-Style Taiwanese Cooking by Tsung-Yun Wan
Home-Style Taiwanese Cooking by Tsung-Yun Wan

Liv was born and raised in Taipei where she trained as a chef before moving to Edinburgh, where she now lives with her husband and baby. Liv’s illustration work is just as beautiful and layered as her cooking, and her book is well worth checking out for fans of illustration and food alike!

Looks good enough to eat!
Looks good enough to eat!

Home-style Taiwanese Cooking is out June 16th  through Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, and available for pre-order from your favourite book shop.

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Last Friday Talk of this year: Simon and Angie Lewin!

Angie Lewin - via http://www.angielewin.co.uk/
Angie Lewin – via http://www.angielewin.co.uk/

We are pleased to welcome Simon and Angie Lewin as part of our Professional Practice Lecture Series, this Friday at 2.30pm.

Angie and Simon run St. Jude’s Gallery as well as producing limited print runs of beautiful wallpapers and furnishing fabrics. Angie herself is a talented printmaker, painter and designer.

Join us and learn something!

Seamonsters of Portobello

Last Friday our department welcomed a group of pupils, teachers, parents and grandparents from Towerbank Primary School. The children from Portobello had been working with our Second Year students and the author Vivian French to create a picture book about a sea monster.

Our students incorporated the children’s drawings into a large book, as well as creating little sea monster books of their own, both of which they presented to the pupils on Friday.

Quite possibly Edinburgh's longest book!
Quite possibly Edinburgh’s longest book!
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Early masterpieces by aspiring young artists.
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Peony and her book, with sea monster cake in the background.

It was fun to have visitors in our department, a big thank you to everyone involved!

This Friday – Professional Practice Talk with Adrian Jeffrey from Mighty Small

image via http://www.mightysmall.co.uk/
image via http://www.mightysmall.co.uk/

For this week’s Friday Talk we are welcoming Adrian Jeffrey from Mighty Small, an Edinburgh based agency specialising in strategy and advertising. The talk will take place at 2.30pm in the Hunter Lecture Theatre, come and listen to those wise words!

Out and about with Catharine Davidson

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Students hard at work on Calton Hill
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Show and Tell at the end of the session

Our 2nd year students had a great morning drawing on Calton Hill yesterday, under the guidance of artist Catharine Davidson. Luckily the weather played along and the day was dry, sunny, mild and not windy – a rare occasion as any Edinburgh resident will tell you – and resulted in a great variety of observational drawings.

Next Wednesday they will scale Blackford Hill! Fingers crossed that the weather stays nice.