Please Use Other Footpath

Are there too many people in central London?

illustration of London architecture

This new image was inspired by that feeling I get sometimes when London isn't quite as fun as it should be. All it takes is a stuffy tube ride, a cancelled train home, feeling travel sick on the bus, etc. and even the most loyal Londoner thinks it might be healthier to live by a babbling river in the Oxfordshire countryside. This is not peculiar to Londoners, I'm sure. All modern (and historical) city dwellers have bad days when they wished they had the streets to themselves.

The apparent onslaught of quickly built skyscrapers is due to arrive any week now, if you believe what you read. We may all like the shining pinnacles when they are complete, but I think it is a genuine worry for people. They don't seem to be for anyone other than rich corporate boardroom goers. Architecturally, it could end up as a pissing contest - my urban erection is bigger than yours!

However, despite all this, my image ended up being quite pretty with a low sun, dramatic shadows and warm colours. Hopefully it bodes well for the future: even glass and steel can look attractive in the right light. I call it 'Please Use Other Footpath'.

Crystal Palace Overground Festival 2014

I was recently asked to help the Crystal Palace Overground Festival team out with some illustrations.

illustration of children with cameras

I really enjoyed the event last year (as a punter) and given that it has become a major local event for the 'CP' community I was happy to undertake the briefs.

Toddle in the City

The first event I tackled sounds like a great thing for kids. It's a treasure hunt but armed with robust digital cameras, run by an organisation called Toddle in the City. All the info for their Crystal Palace  activities can be found here. I created an image for their Facebook event page and also a square version for general use that I'm also pleased with.

Facebook page for Toddle in the City event

illustration of children with cameras

Pop Up and Sing Along

The other project was for some imagery for a poster promoting a series of workshops for older people. These have been set up for older people from local care homes and day centres run in collaboration with Dulwich Picture Gallery ‘s award-winning Good Times: Art for Older People programme.

poster promoting singing events

illustration of people singing

Wake up and smell the...

The second piece in a slowly growing montage of meals and food fell off the artistic conveyor belt recently. I call it 'Coffee and Cake' and it does what it says on the barista-style tin, really. Next stop? Lunchtime!

I got the British Museum blues

Earlier this year (or was it last year?) I took a stroll around the outside of the British Museum. I know there are amazing artefacts to be found inside (one day I'd like to do some sketching there), but the pseudo Greco-Roman architecture outside was what I was concerned with. The building is surrounded by a large amount of space: something that would never happen now. This space almost feels like a European piazza in France or Hungary, and on the day I went it was a cold, windswept slab to negotiate on your way to the mummies.

This is piece is deliberately distorted and seemed to work well with a cold blue palette. All the carvings above are a lot less looming in real life, but I figured that this way you can't ignore them. Much more dramatic.

After tweeting the image a week or so go, I am now followed by the British Museum herself. Hopefully they're not expecting me to post future items written in cuneiform or Norse, though.

Lunchtime in SE1

One of my regular haunts has inspired me again. The London Bridge / Borough area produced some more characters and architecture to help me create 'Lunchtime SE1'. It was quite a lengthy process: trip out with a camera + photoshopped composition + pencil drawing + two colour transfer using oil paint and pencils. I'm pleased with it though, as it is suitably manic and bustling for a weekday lunchtime in that part of town. I've also entered it into the John Ruskin Drawing Prize, so fingers crossed. I'll know by the beginning of May if I've made it through to the shortlist. Here's the pencil drawing that I also did (from the photoshop montage) if you're interested:

pencil drawing of people in the street