Tag: artist in residence

Meet our artists in residence: Pilar Garcia

I am a Spanish artist. I completed my MA in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art the last course. Before this degree, I had no formal training as an illustrator, having worked in advertising and graphic design. I am now one of the artists in residence at Edinburgh College of Art, with another residency lined up next year, at Arteles in Finland.
My practice normally focuses on women, mindfulness and imperfection. I have always been interested in everything related to human behavior, the relationship we have with the world and especially with ourselves. In addition, I have discovered my interest in interpreting nature and personal well-being in an enlightened way. Imperfection is my alter ego. It is everywhere, in art, human figures, nature, animals and love.
I work in mixed media, combining traditional materials, such as ink, watercolor and ink pen with digital. My aim is to reach a delicate and imperfect art (I always make the right imperfect drawings that make sense to me) through making freely and uniquely drawn illustrations.
I draw everything, from figures, animals, plants, landscapes, objects and buildings. I enjoy illustrating narratives and book covers and also creating lettering, patterns and animation.
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Meet our Artists in Residence – Moira Zahra

Hello! I’m one of the Illustration Artists in Residence for this year at ECA. I’m a full-time freelance illustrator and graphic designer working mostly in children’s books and editorial illustration. Prior to being a freelancer I was a lecturer and programme coordinator in Malta, teaching graphic design, interactive media and game art for seven years.
During my residency here I will be working on client projects as well as working on my own projects. During the first semester I will be working on a children’s book with Merlin publishers (a Maltese publisher). The book is called ‘A Walk in Valletta’ and it’s about two characters touring the Maltese capital. I will be more than happy to discuss my process with any students wishing to know more about children’s book illustration (you can find me in the Illustration studio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).
Another project I will be working on is a collaboration with a jewellery designer, who is also based in Malta. For this project, I am doing various character and background illustrations that will eventually become jewellery pieces. This is quite a challenging project for me because I’ve never designer products or jewellery pieces, so it should be interesting to observe and learn from the process. I’m also discussing another project with a book maker, where I will be doing illustrated covers for hand-bound books, but this project is still in its initial stages.
My personal project is about the theme of identity, specifically the multilayered/multidimensional layers formed by creative Maltese locals who live abroad. I’ve been working on this theme since moving to Edinburgh a year ago, and would now like to take it a step further. I have several drawings, sketches and ideas for this project, but I’m looking to expand these ideas by  doing thorough research, interview subjects and experts. I’m in the process of pitching my idea to get funding for my research so this will hopefully help support my project and my research.
Eventually I would like to take some of these drawings and illustrations from this project and experiment with 3D printing. Rather than doing sketches specifically designed for 3D printing, I would like to expore ways of how to turn ‘flat’ illustrations to 3D objects, therefore preserving the illustrative qualities of the pieces.
If you’d like to view more of my work, visit www.moirazahra.com or www.instagram.com/moirazahra
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Meet our Artists in Residence – Yasmeen Khan

Hi! I’m one of the new Artists in Residence in the Illustration department.

I’m originally from southeast London, but I’ve been living in Cornwall for the last three years, two of which were spent completing an MA in Illustration: Authorial Practice at Falmouth University. Moving to Edinburgh has proved to be a bit of a change from Cornwall! But it’s definitely a positive move – I’m already finding my new surroundings to be incredibly inspiring. I write and illustrate short stories in the Gothic tradition, and Edinburgh feels like the ideal place to do that – becoming steeped in its atmosphere, history and beauty can only be good for a ghost story writer.

I’m really looking forward to getting involved in ECA’s community and academic activities. I’m excited to be able to use the facilities, especially the print workshop, as my practice involves a lot of printmaking – I love to work in monotype, and any intaglio technique, especially etching, aquatint, and mezzotint. These were the techniques I used to illustrate Vignettes, the book I made for my final MA project.

While I’m here, I hope to produce some new works of illustrated fiction. I also love book design and bookbinding, and my goal is to make my stories into beautiful, and most of all, enjoyable books.

I’m also looking forward to continuing my academic research here at ECA. My research interests are focused on how illustration contributes to and interacts with texts’ emotional resonance, and how this connects with Derrida’s notion of hauntology, with particular reference to Gothic fiction. I’m also very interested in film and television, and especially in how they use and interact with illustration.

Finally, I’m looking forward most of all to becoming part of the Illustration department’s activities, and working with the students! Hopefully, it will be a wonderful and productive year.

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Pattern workshop with Joanna Srokol

Our MA students have just completed a pattern-making project led by Artist in Residence Joanna Sokol, who we introduced in an earlier blog post. Spread across 2 weeks students  received an introduction to surface pattern design and were then asked to create a moodboard based on particular fashion or interior theme, which they had previously pulled from a hat. During tutorials with Joanna the group was shown how to create a repeat surface pattern using Photoshop and through individual crits were given the opportunity to tackle any difficulties.

The photos below were taken at the final presentation this morning against our fantastic castle backdrop.

 

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House Style

Come and see ‘House Style’ at the Edinburgh International Book Festival -and maybe pick up a card or two!

House Style came about as a way of uniting all the staff and students of Illustration in a collaborative project. The staff came up with suggestions for a list of novels which was assembled by George Douglas, (GSA 2015-16). Each participant chose a book for which to make an image. Sarah Bissel, (artist in residence), put together the plan for a limited palette, a clever idea which has given a unified aesthetic to the considerable variety of imagery  and use of media in the illustrations. It was felt to be a great thing to celebrate the literary connections with Illustration, particularly in its relationship to the novel.

Our programme director Jonathan Gibbs has made a number of commissioned pieces for the Radio Times in illustrations for novels to be read on Radio Four. These are illustrations on a miniature scale, but with a vivid and particular role within the printed page. The House Style brief emulated this process, with the results comprising the design of a 2017 calendar to be launched in December 2016. Alan Walker of Allander Print visited the Illustration studio several times to comment upon work in progress for House Style, and the visual result has been made possible by him and Allander Print.

With many thanks to him for making this possible, the seventy or so postcards of all House Style illustrations have been displayed for sale at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Thanks must also go to  Nicky Regan for her excellent design of the calendar and postcards, with thanks also to Alan Ramsay for designing and constructing the display stand.

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Artists in Residence Ceramics Workshop

Last Wednesday we had the first part of a two day ceramics workshop in the Illustration department, led by two of our artists in residence, Rebecca Brown and Sarah Bissell. Working with stoneware clay, everyone handbuilt whatever they fancied – whether it was inspired by a larger project, a functional piece or by playing with different ideas in order to get used to a new material.

By the end of the class we had created a collection of pieces that included mugs, wall hangings, spoons, dogs, cauldrons and cacti, among a variety of other bits and pieces.

The pieces will be fired this week and on the 23rd the second part of the workshop will take place, which will involve painting and glazing the work before it’s fired for a second time.

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Artist in Residence Andrea Popyordanova shows her work at Joseph Pearce

Hello all, I am Andrea, one of ECA’s recent graduates in Illustration and an Artist in Residence.

As a result of frequent visits to my favorite café-bar Joseph Pearce and a few conversations with the owners, my most recent work is up that bar, situated on Elm Row, top of Leith Walk, for the next six months.

Not only will you have a chance to have a look my collages based on south American short stories, and my cocktail screenprints, you will see them all in a very informal ambiance, while having a one of their delicious Swedish cocktails or simply a Gin & Tonic; they’re quite an amazing drinks bar.

You will also learn a bit more on how to make cocktails yourself, possibly meet a few Swedish regulars or Leith locals and hear some great live music – if you go on a Sunday evening.

There will be more pieces going up in the next weeks, so you could go even a few times, which I recommend.

How to get to the bar?

Just cross the North Bridge and then head down in the direction of Leith/the Omn i Center. As soon as you walk past the Omni center continue further down until you reach Elm Row, and Joseph Pearces is right at the corner of that street.

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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.

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!

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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.

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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.

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