Nikola Tesla

I'm making a mini book about Nikola Tesla's inner life

There's definitely definitely definitely no logic

my portrait of Björk, as featured on Illustration Rally

Van Gogh Museum & Unfold Amsterdam - Vrijdagavond Poster

Poster commission for "Picasso in Paris 1900 - 1907" - Friday Night events at the Van Gogh Museum. 

This was my dream commission, and it was a joy to work on. 

I love working with Unfold - because they give their artists so much creative freedom. As you can see from their amazing posters so far (here), there is a lot of variety, not a "house style".

I did a lot of research, and if you look closely, and you're familiar with his work from 1900-1907, you might recognise a few faces in the poster - all 20 people below Picasso are modelled on his paintings. On the lower left is Picasso's best friend Cassagemas, whose suicide supposedly led to Picasso painting in blue. On the lower right is the old guitar player. In the centre are the saltimbanques (strolling acrobats) of Cirque Medrano, which Picasso used to visit frequently with his friend Apollinaire, and which inspired his Rose Period. And Picasso himself is held up at the top by the characters from this painting, which is actually one of his self-portraits - he often liked to represent himself as a harlequin, because as an artist he identified with their position as an outsider. 

The poster represents his climb from a 19-year old unknown newly arriving in Paris to a world famous 26-year-old conquering the Parisian art world and becoming the new leader of the avant garde.

And here are Dansgroep Amsterdam rehearsing Nomade, a dance inspired by Picasso's circus paintings and part of the Friday Night Events at the Van Gogh Museum. They are wonderful to watch, and will be performing at the Van Gogh Museum every Friday - I would definitely recommend seeing them.

Hey, is that you?

Here's a little teaser portion of my poster on the front cover of the special edition "Van Gogh Museum Friday Night Programme" issue of Unfold. 

And here it is at the front desk in the Van Gogh Museum!

A huge thankyou to Russell Joyce, Steve McCarron and the rest of the very talented team at Unfold, and to the Communication Department at the Van Gogh Museum for this commission. I loved working on it, and I learnt so much.


You can find out more about the Picasso in Paris (1900-1907) exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum here, and about the Friday Night events for the exhibition here.


You can find full coverage of the exhibition in Unfold, which can be found squirrelled away in any one of these gezellig Amsterdam establishments.

(above image: another of my illustrations from inside the issue)

here's a little part of a bigger something I'm working on at the moment

(This was meant to be a picture of the young Picasso, but it doesn't really look like him.)

To escape is the greatest of pleasures; street haunting in winter is the greatest of adventures

"and here...is the only spoil we have retrieved from all the treasures of the city" 

- Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting: A London Adventure

This is drawn from my memory, a tree I saw in London which sparked lots of new ideas for my comic.

I think it needs something in the foreground.

cheeky lass

A portrait of one of my dearest friends, Line Lorna, who makes beautiful illustrations (click here to have a peek) and who I hope to visit soon!

All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.

I am thinking of making a sequence of these images, of the plant growing and slowly taking over the house. Perhaps they will act as chapter headers.

If you find yourself caught in love

Hebe

A birthday card I made for Mum earlier this month, featuring our cat Hebe (and his new obsession: string)

He was a very good model and actually kept the pose for the whole time I drew him.

Do something pretty while you can...

My dashing hero is back from the film archive and so off we go happily adventuring together (Somehow the snow lets us get away with this)

London:
Billy Bragg at the Troxy
Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain
Francesca Woodman and Tom Lubbock at Victoria Miro Gallery
Glasgow:
Belle and Sebastian at the Barrowlands
Hertie Querty (featuring work by David Shrigley and Art Spiegelman) at GOMA

More excitement:
Unfold have very kindly invited me to illustrate a poster for them next year!
(and a fine new Rapidograph has just arrived in the post)