We delighted to present R16, a pop-up shop and exhibition at the lovely Stag Gallery, part of Warburton Gallery at the top of Victoria Street in Edinburgh.
This weekend only the postgraduate illustrators and graphic designers will showing off new work and offering a chance at a sneak preview of their work before they exhibit at the college in August.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1614443728829900/
A huge congratulations to 2013 Alumni Maisie Shearring, winner of the 7th edition of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair – Fundación SM International Award for Illustration.
Maisie was selected from more than 3000 participants from 70 countries, while the judges examined over with 15 thousand works. As the winner, Maisie will be given the task of illustrating a book to be published by the SM Group. The book will be presented at the 2016 edition of the Fair, where Maisie Shearring is also due to hold a personal exhibition of her work. The Bologna Award for Children’s Book Illustration is a highly prestigious prize and an incredible and well deserved achievement.
After studying undergraduate Illustration here with us at Edinburgh College of Art, Maisie underwent an MA in Children’s Book Illustrationat Cambridge School of Art. She has thrived throughout her academic career with her strong sense of style, engaging characters and unique talent for storytelling. In October 2014 Maisie was also selected to be part of the Picturehooks Scheme, with personal mentor Nick Sharratt. We are eagerly awaiting the exhibition of her Picture Hooks work in the National Gallery of Scotland, November 2015 .
The Bologna International Award for Illustration is a fantastic initiative with the aim of encouraging and supporting new talent by bringing the work of young illustrators to the attention of the publishing sector. The panel of Bologna Judges noted that “This young artist has huge potential to evolve and to develop an original voice within the current panorama of illustration”. We couldn’t agree more and cannot wait to see Maisie go from strength to strength in her Illustration Career.
Check out more of Maisie’s work here: http://www.maisieparadise.co.uk
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).
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.
Hello! It’s been a busy time for me of late. I am a near obsessive planner, and after the New Year I enjoyed drafting out a new batch of lists, sub-lists, objectives and timetables. This activity always makes me feel more organised.
Happy Monday everyone.
In the ECA Illustration Department we are kicking of the week with two new mini exhibitions. The Illustration studio is now home to ‘Bright and Early’ and ‘Boxes’, both collated from different projects completed by students of the Illustration Department in the past ten years. The Illustration Archive of past work is an excellent resource for research and inspiration, we look forward to finding new and exciting ways of sharing archival with our current students.
Bright and Early
Boxes
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.
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!
Home-style Taiwanese Cooking is out June 16th through Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, and available for pre-order from your favourite book shop.
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!
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.
It was fun to have visitors in our department, a big thank you to everyone involved!
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!
