Illustration Disaster Class

A couple of Fridays ago I was propelled into an illustration masterclass by my friend Kelly. Every Thursday and Friday evening The National Portrait Gallery put on The Late Shift where the gallery opens its doors after hours to enjoy lots of arty excursions from talks and lectures to art workshops and mini pop up exhibitions. Or if socialising is more your bag, rub shoulders with other creative beings (this place was crawling with trendy art students).

Excited to muscle in on the creative hub I arrived wide eyed to enjoy what I thought was a 'spectators' live drawing class (i.e. get to watch illustrators in action) but the ticket  Kelly had kindly spent the last hour scrambling for found me sitting amongst the talent itself, large sketch paper, chalk and pens at the ready! To my horror the masterclass was being watched by an audience of 50 and I was on the wrong side of the fence. Wondering whether to make a run for it - I held fast, chalk in hand and decided to embrace it (wing it). Despite the military style teaching (you had approx 8 mins per sketch) it was extremely liberating (i haven’t put a pen to paper since my art GCSE) and actually kinda fun (until the end when you hold your art up for the Head of Illustration at the LCF to come round and judge!). Of course my piece was a bit of a shocker but I loved seeing the results of all the other illustrators and getting an eyeful of them in action during the whole debacle. Take a look at the results below, as well as my friend Kelly with her favourite piece.

If you get a chance to go down there, look on the master classes with glee or if you are any good at your scribbles be brave and give it a go yourself...

Bertie Behind The Shoot

I keep meaning to share these with you- they are the 'Behind the Scenes' pics from the shoot I oversaw for Bertie Shoes a couple of weeks ago, with the help of new and quite frankly amazing photographer Daniel Thomas Smith- (read his interview with Dazed here - he used to be a research scientist up until 3 years ago). The shoot is for a 'head office style guide' for the website so we used real people from behind the brand i.e. the talented folk that designed the shoes, and who better to know how to style them than them right?

The day was refreshingly relaxed for a shoot, shot in South London's Plough Studios. We were in the Light studio which was like stepping into a white washed heaven. Apparently Rankin has shot in the same studio- just a bit of trivia for you (not that I'm impressed or anything!). Look out for the style guide on www.bertieshoes.co.uk in the next few weeks...

Print Clubbing

I'm partial to great print, not only do i love the smell (freshly printed glossy books- the best) but my flat is also adorned with cutesy euphemism sayings mostly in my favourite type of print- screen print. Why? cause they are made with love, there is a charm in their imperfections and they feel authentic, probably because they are.  So you can only imagine my excitement at coming across The Print Club in Hackney (they also have a shop in Shoreditch where you can buy heaps of cool ass prints) where they do workshops on screen printing for beginners.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the day. It was a bit like being back in art lessons at school, only with an appetite to actually learn and with hackney locals going about producing their own designs, scribbles and etches. The process is entirely hands on from learning how to bitmap your artwork and coating your screens with emulsion to loading the paint and screen printing your very own designs. Its harder than it looks but the potential to produce something amazing could be addictive.

Folly Good

The city feels an unlikely spot for new restaurant Folly Bar so I was intrigued to see how trendy secret garden inspired Folly would go down amongst the city slickers. Perhaps not too surprisingly it was swarming with suits on business lunches, trying to impress clients with this 'novelty' new spot. The food was pretty average and the service was slow  - but busy wasn't the word so we'll cut our jovial Brazilian bowler hat wearing waiter some slack. What i did like is the Folly Bar decor- so i thought i'd share some pics.. if the mad hatter set up camp in Bank this would be his tea party. Vintage plates hanging from the walls, trees growing in the bathroom, food stacks served on bread boards, Orla Kiely-esque upholstered oversize chairs, wire framed garden furniture, lavender tea pots and enough flowers to fill Chelsea Flower show... pretty folly good.

The Folly Bar- The City London

If Sweet Dreams were made of these

This weekend i finally ventured to London fields' Broadway market. Just a little montage of all the sweetest things... if you are on the 'standard' january detox find the fruit stall, do not pass go.

Girls Friday: Warpaint

I've been tipped that the beguiling female vocals of LA based Warpaint are going to win our hearts this summer. NME describes Warpaint's Emily, Theresa, Jenny and Stella as a 'dark purple rumble and hypnotic coo of vocals, dragging the listener beneath its beguiling surface...". I especially love their cover of Billie Holiday's My Guy. Interestingly I also found out that Jenny's sister Shannyn Sossamon used to be in the band until she landed her Hollywood roles in A Knight's Tale and 40 Days and 40 Nights.

Outlines Of Me

Just been browsing Elle's blog and came across Love & Victory, where you can send in your very own silhouette (we all did the profile shadow drawings at school so can't be that hard right?) and get it cut out in gold with a customised engravement. Cute Valentines present perhaps?

According to Love and Victory's website Designer Meg Moorhouse (based in NY) 'draws her inspiration from Victorian sweetheart jewelry, friendship and love tokens, type design, and tattoos, creating covetable objects worthy of gifting to your nearest and dearest.' Beautiful...