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I Saw a Winter Fox - watercolour with pen and ink -
Work in progress -
Work in detail -
A5 card - litho printed and digital upload -
Separated artwork for silkscreen printed tote bags -
Silkscreens -
Tote bag - 2 colour silkscreen printed and hand painted to finish
Experimenting with illustration
Screen printing at West Yorkshire Print Workshop
Every year I'm commissioned to illustrate a Christmas card. The theme that has run throughout each year has been nature, drawing influence from the countryside near where I live with my family.
2018's illustration was a fox overlooking a landscape similar to the views in South Yorkshire. Titled 'I saw a winter fox', relates to our experience here. It comes from a distraction line that was said to our youngest daughter when we were on walks. If she was unhappy, crying and refusing to walk her dad would gently whisper, "Guess what?". "WHAT?", she would angrily reply. "I saw a fox.", he would whisper.
Our daughter's eagerness to see the fox would immediatley pull her out of her bad mood and our walk could continue. Of course, now she is older, the technique no longer works but this winter illustration reminds me of those times and makes me laugh.
In December, I attended a silkscreen print workshop at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop with my friend Linda Keelan, a talented textile designer. I haven't done silkscreen printing since I was at art college so this was a great opportunity to get hands on and creative. Linda came up with a Christmas design easily. I didn't know where to start until I thought to convert and simplify my fox illustration. It was re-drawn and seperated into 2 layers and screen printed in 2 colours (green and black) onto calico tote bags. Then hand finished with red and silver paint.
In assisting each other in the print process, Linda and I partnered well together. Our work compliments each other and this has really got us inspired to start collaborating and creating together in 2019.
See more illustration work here.
