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Bookmarks 2017

We have had another great Bookmarks event this year, thank you to everyone who helped make it a real success.

A series of talks by educators John Brown, Astrid Jaekel, Alan Mason, Mike Inglis and Edwin Pickstone gave a good introduction to the subject and was followed by our annual Artists’ Books and Small Press fair in the atmospheric Sculpture Court.

We hope you had a great time and have mingled with fellow artists or discovered new fresh talent and will return for more fun and books next year!

In the meantime you will be able to find more updates on all things artists’ books on our brand new Bookmarks website http://bit.ly/2p112zp

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UPCOMING GRADUATES – BORIS LEE

Featured on our blog today is Boris Lee, who is graduating soon from our MFA2 course. You can find more of his work at borischlee.tumblr.com

image 4Hello, I am Boris, I am a self-taught illustrator and a story maker. My works are symbolic, metaphorical and naïve, and I focus on picturebooks. I have a bachelor degree in Russian literature and language, before I dedicated myself to picture books, I was dreaming to become a writer. When I was studying Russian, I realised that words cannot fully express myself, then I found picture books. The picture book is the perfect medium for me, I can combine my love of story and my passion for art together, and I am obsessed with the relationship between words and pictures.

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I usually work with oil pastels, drawing with oil pastels reminds me of my childhood, it makes me feel that I become a child again. All my pictures are stories that are waiting to be understood. I want to create images and stories that are consoling and emotive, and to lead both adults and children to an imaginary world, where they can experience the real world with simplicity and childlike innocence. Using imaginations to reshape reality and using colours to express emotions are two main concepts of my art. I hope my works can bring peace and happiness to every reader, and set everyone’s imaginations free.

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UPCOMING GRADUATES – NARUDEE INGAVAT

This week on the blog we have Narudee Ingavat, aka Ordinary Nadee, a soon-to-be graduate of our MFA2 course.

A Working Desk

I do believe that there must be something special hidden in the simple things which surrounds us. “Ordinary Daydreams” is a GIFs & Loop animations project created in the final year of my MFA degree. Inspired from everyday objects that contain nostalgic feelings and memories of my childhood, this project aims to re-interpret objects surrounding me in the new way by blending the real world with my imagination where fish swims in the air and a bathtub is a huge swimming pool.

The Immortal Twins

Our world is too stressful, materialistic and commercial. Hence, I would like to create something filled with stories from our own imagination, so please escape from the real world and indulge yourself for a while in my extraordinary ordinary daydreams.

Swans Swimming

Please see more updated works on my Instagram @ordinarynadee

www.ordinarynadee.com

ordinarynadee@gmail.com

Jelly Bear

ReimagiNation – Cumbernauld Stories illustrated

ReimagiNation: ECA students illustrate stories of life in Cumbernauld

Throughout the year Edinburgh International Book Festival hits the road with an exciting program of events and activities called ‘Booked!’. Bringing the excitement and energy of the book festival to towns across Scotland, ‘Booked!’ brings together authors, artists and audiences to celebrate words, images and ideas.

This semester ECA illustration students collaborated with ‘Booked!’ as part of a project titled ‘ReimagiNation’, which aims to capture the stories of people living in Edinburgh’s New Towns. Third year illustration students travelled to Cumbernauld where they took part in a day of illustrating with pupils from four of Cumbernauld’s primary schools. The pupils had written stories with author Mike Nicholson and the illustration students helped them to bring these to life using a variety of art materials and approaches to image making. The subject matter and storylines varied, but all were lively and imaginative. One story saw a wicked witch reveal her true identity in a terrifying twist, while another involved an arcade game with the power to take you back in time…

It was a very fast paced and entertaining day, with the students and pupils working together to complete all four books within the tight timeframe. Cumbernauld News came along to document the day. You can read the article and see our huge group photo here: http://www.cumbernauld-news.co.uk/news/environment/cumbernauld-book-festival-events-already-underway-1-4406237

The final images and texts will be on show at the festival in Cumbernauld on the 20th and 21st May. For more information about ‘ReimagiNation’ and the rest of the ‘Booked!’ program of events visit the website: https://booked.edbookfest.co.uk

 

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Photo credits: Eoin Carey

Drawing in the Meadows

Last week the first year illustration students set out on a location drawing trip in the Meadows with artist Catharine Davison. Most of the students are familiar with this area of the city and were encouraged to look at this setting in a new way, concentrating on working directly from source.

Catharine encouraged the students to use a variety of materials, including charcoal:

“Drawings with charcoal and a rubber are a perfect introduction to working quickly, enabling the students to adjust to the changing light conditions and on a relatively large scale. The willlow charcoal creates a soft grey mark that is easy to rub away even with a finger and a darker compressed charcoal brings another dimension to the process, also could explore scratching with a rubber and a knife, layering darker lines and marks to reveal shapes of light and dark.”

The group moved to a different location within the Meadows in the afternoon to look at a row of historic and contemporary buildings with a busy pedestrian path way in front. Each student was given a pack of 3 coloured felt tips and a black marker. The colours were arbitrary as the drawing was not about ‘colouring in’ but more about creating a tapestry of marks in response to the location. A black line was then used to pull the composition together and to reveal the focus.

One of the challenges of a location like this is dealing with the public and the group was quite conspicuous, attracting lots of interest from passers by. They were photographed and witnessed some lively conversations, but rather than cause problems for the students it began to add a narrative to their work. The students had a productive day, returning to their studio with a collection of expressive and atmospheric observational drawings.

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Picture Book in Progress

In February this year our second year students made a visit to Seven Stories – National Centre for Children’s Books. This fabulous resource had both staff and students melting with delight as they oozed over original artwork for illustrations, sketchbooks and dummy books from the archive collection held at the centre.

The purpose of the visit was to study the process behind producing a picture book, looking at working with a writer, developing characters and habitats for those characters. The dummy book is vital part of the process and really exciting to see, exploring the pace and rhythm of storytelling as an illustrator plans out the pages.

Back in the studio the students were asked to design their own picture book taking the idea of home as their starting point and creating a story with a difficult social issue at the start of it. Some of the complex topics covered included parents with post traumatic stress syndrome, childhood obesity and the destruction of natural habitats for wildlife.

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Alice Horn’s Picture book explored a small child’s exploration of cooking whilst his parents left him to get on with it
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Enter aHeather Charters children’s book imagined a world where domestic appliances had a world of their own

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upcoming graduates – Ann MacLeod

Having always been a bit preoccupied with magazines and food I thought that now would be a good time to do something with all those years of research I’ve amassed. And so, I’ve been developing a magazine about food called Frankly which is about talking honestly about our food and how it’s sourced. It’s based on conversations I’ve had with various people who are involved in eating, producing and cooking food.

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In terms of my materials, I do love black ink, big paper and a big brush. But when sketching out and about that doesn’t always prove to be the most practical or discreet, so in those circumstances I use bright crayons and brush tip pens instead, with a tendency to use a lot of orange.

I enjoy listening to people and what they have to say, especially if it’s something they’re passionate about. I always find that if someone is interested enough in what they do they’ll have something interesting to tell you. I also quite enjoy a good sketching session in a coffee shop (this is where it comes in handy to be a little more discreet), and tend to quote the occasional person I might be drawing. The only place I think you could hear more interesting stories than in a coffee shop would be a hairdresser.

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Ann Macleod

instagram: ann_macleod_illustration

website: http://annnicleoid.wixsite.com/annmacillustration

Postgraduate student Katie Chappell is going to Switzerland!

I have been selected to go and work with a group of journalism students on the St Gallen Symposium, a student-run global forum. In May I’ll head to Switzerland for a week to listen to speakers and create illustrations which will go into the official magazine which gets sent out to speakers and attendees after the symposium is over. The symposium has been going for 47 years and i’ll be the first illustrator to work on the magazine team!
I heard about this opportunity in the ECA email list. I had to pitch a few ideas of articles I’d like to illustrate which fit the theme of dilemma of disruption. I mentioned Brexit, technology and the Shakespeare quote “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” because really, not all disruption is bad. Some disruption is just change and interruption. The word disruption has negative connotations. 
Right now i’m working on a big illustration all about smart phones and the huge disruption of that technology in our lives. 
The very very early first draft of the magazine is underway and it looks like there’ll be a lot of mention of Trump, globalization and technology. 
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Upcoming graduates – India Pierce

My work is a fun mix of bright colour schemes and dynamic shapes. I like to work digitally, using illustrator to draw out curves and angles within a scene and then add digital textures on top to give depth and perspective. I am a problem solver. My work naturally falls in to a more commercial scene, and I enjoy getting a brief and trying to find the most imaginative solution to the problem. These innovative ideas are often resolved in to large scale illustrations, as I enjoy working on bigger scales. I would love to be able to create shop displays and murals that inspire people and I hope to work in a visual advertising career in the future.

During my fourth year I have concentrated on finding ways to create really impactful work. This has lead to large laser printed murals, as well as colourful, graphic letterpress projects. Most of my projects centre around clear environmental themes, touching on global warming and conservation, as well as endangered or threatened animals.
You can find most of my work at www.pearce.studio, and I post daily projects on instagram under @pearce.studio
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