Norwich Illustration

Spaces

2012-03-09T08:52:00.002-08:00

A selection of spaces; fictional and real, imagined and photographed, functional and imagined. Level 1 - these are to broaden your investigation of space for the Flat Pack Theatre project.

Yayoi Kusama 'Infinity room' at Tate Modern 9 February - 5 June 2012

Do Ho Suh 'Staircase'

Draining - A film that travels through drains from Urban Explorer.

Vilhelm Hammershoi 'White Doors', (1905)

Alice (1988) Dir. Jan Švankmajer

Istanbul - Underground Cistern, Basilica Cistern

Metropolis (1927) dir. Fritz Lang

Brodsky and Utkin (1989)

Visiting speaker: Catherine Anyango visits Norwich Illustration

2012-03-01T16:33:00.002-08:00

Catherine Ayango: Swedish/ Kenyan Illustrator and Drawing tutor at the Royal College of Art, is visited Norwich illustration on Thursday 23rd February. Her visit coincided with the 'Magic Theatre' exhibition. Catherine's talk touched upon issues related to 'thinking' within the context of drawing and illustration. Catherine discussed her last published Graphic Novel, an adaptation of 'The Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, published by Self made hero.

Drawing process was very much at the heart of the discussion, with conversations to the future of drawing and illustration within the context of digital publishing.

Joanne Young: 2009 graduate currently shows at Foyles in London

2012-03-01T15:57:00.002-08:00

Illustration 2009 graduate Joanne Young has exhibited her work at Foyles bookshop in London. Joanne recently graduated from an MA Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge. See her work at www.joanneyoungillustration.co.uk

The Magic Theatre Exhibtion

2012-02-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

As part of its winter season at The Gallery at NUCA, the University College is delighted to present The Magic Theatre, which includes works by Glyn Brewerton, Course Leader BA Illustration and Rachel Gannon, Illustration Lecturer at Norwich University College of the Arts. This group show progresses from NUCA to the Royal College of Art in London.

The Magic Theatre Collective

Rooted in the Royal College of Art philosophy of intuitive drawing and image making, the group and its international guests all share a passion for drawing in its broadest sense and utilise many forms of expression from pictures to prose. Much of the work is visual storytelling and without a linear, literary or literal text - the images evoke an element of ambiguity.

Angela Hogg, Sketchbook

The varied works in this touring show are a mix of personal and contextual responses to the myriad themes of myth, magic, habitat and landscape - both inner and outer. These include Quentin Blake’s unpublished personal drawing Women with Creature, Audrey Niffenegger’s haunting drawings and new personal works by graphic design author and critic Jessica Helfands.

As human beings we are receptive to the most abstract of visual images just as we relate to sound and music. Light, form and colour create atmospheric nuances and prompt our senses, emotions, memories and experiences. These are complex optical and neurological processes but
are also much too free and elusive to be trapped by scientific theory or language alone.

Paul Slater, Campsite Cavalcade

As individuals we carry unique formative experiences and bring personal knowledge, feelings and bias to the images, paintings and photography we view. Yet it is often
a subconscious recognition or sensation, a kind of déjà vu that triggers the bond.
'Every man or woman is not only him or herself; for he or she is also the unique, particular, always significant and remarkable point where the phenomena of the world intersect once and for all and never again.' (Hermann Hesse, 1958)

This frequency has a rogue antenna and an elusive reception - and if this magical reception is to transmit at all then the viewers empathy switch has to be switched on. In this digital and anxious age this subtle reception is often sadly switched to standby or sits 'out of tune’. Indeed time and 'being' has to be spent in order for the passage to occur - so please viewer, take your time.

In Four Quartets T.S. Eliot wrote: ‘We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place as if for the first time.’
Self expression through drawing and indeed also photography allows the pictorial translation of often transient passing ideas and concepts and elusive feelings. Understanding and trusting our own perceptions intuitively is a key element to making work that is not too self conscious or 'fashioned'.

Mack Manning, Curator

The Magic Theatre
The Gallery at NUCA
Tuesday 14th February – Saturday 25th February
Open 12 – 5pm (closed Sunday and Monday)
Exhibition open to the public, admission free.

Wordplay

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tom Philips - The Humument

e.e. cummings

Gert & Uwe Tobias at the Maureen Paley Gallery

2011-11-29T07:12:00.000-08:00

November 26th - January 15th The Maureen Paley Gallery

MAUREEN PALEY. 21 Herald Street, London E2 6JT www.maureenpaley.com

I saw work by the Tobias brothers at Nottingham Contemporary in 2010, it's well work seeing their work. I thought these artists create some interesting alternative responses to their own culture and backgrounds. Of Romanian origin, they create some unique responses to myths from their homeland, responding untypically to the Dracula story for example, in a less stereotypical fashion creating giant colour woodcuts.

Take a look at the Maureen Paley website www.maureenpaley.com

Handmade and Bound - Artist Book Fair

2011-11-18T02:09:00.001-08:00

SUNDAY 20th NOVEMBER 12-6pm (this Sunday!)

Handmade & Bound is an independent fair with affordable, handmade artists’ books, comics and zines. It was conceived partly in response to the fact that there will be no London Artists book fair at the ICA in 2008, and further in response to the changes to the nature of that event when it returns in 2009 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

The event we want to have will be based on handmade but affordable books and zines. We want to achieve a good balance between artists books and zines (in the DIY punk tradition).

St Brides, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, EC4

Nearest Tube: St Pauls (Central line, two stops from Liverpool street)

Saul Bass - On Making Money vs Quality Work

2011-11-11T03:50:00.000-08:00

'I want to make beautiful things even if nobody cares... and I'm willing to pay for that'

The knowledge bank

2011-11-11T03:42:00.001-08:00

THE KNOWLEDGE BANK

This really useful set of guides from AN explores the responsibilities and practical frameworks of a professional practice.

The portfolio of practical guides contains advice from artists and arts experts on everything from pricing to marketing and copyright to what to put in a contractual arrangement, fees, approaching galleries and funding bodies and includes tips on where to get legal advice.

2011 Graduate represented by Eastwing Illustration Agency

2011-11-10T18:41:00.000-08:00

2011 Graduate Adam Avery has recently been taken on by Eastwing Illustration agency, Adam's work incorporates screen print processes and digital media, to achieve quirky and witty illustrations. Adam is currently working towards making work for publishing projects, and has already produced work for a number of book cover designs.

2010 Graduate bags National Trust Commission

2011-11-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

2010 Graduate Lauren Greaves has recently produced illustration work for Carter Wong on a campaign for The National Trust.

Drawing IS Thinking - Milton Glaser

2011-11-10T03:34:00.000-08:00

Some very pertinent thoughts on why we draw, how we learn to draw and what the point of it all is anyway. Glaser states:

"for me, drawing has always been a primary way of encountering reality"

He discusses drawing not as a way to think and to perceive rather than just to represent Here he talks about his book Drawing is Thinking. This book illustrates the Glaser's commitment to the fundamental idea that drawing is not simply a way to represent reality, but a way to understand and experience the world.

Cut it out

2011-10-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

A workshop for first year students - looking at the relationship between colours and composition.

Niels Klim's journey under the ground by baron Ludvig Holberg

2011-10-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

Louis Holberg's 1741 science fiction / fantasy / utopian / satirical novel derides his contemporary 18th century society while drawing inspiration from Thomas More's Utopia and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. It was considered too radical for Nordic culture, so the first edition was published in Latin in Germany where it circulated to a much wider audience and its popularity ensured it was quickly translated into a number of languages.

Inspiration: Karel Teissig, Czech Poster design.

2011-10-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

I found this poster designer on Rick Poyner's design observer blog from his posting "An unknown Master of Poster Design" observersroom.designobserver.com This is fantastic inspiration for the Year two poster project. Some original thinking, brave compositions, and strong combinations of type and image. Beautifully quirky imagery.

The Hunterian Museum Drawing Visit

2011-10-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums
On November 3rd Year 2 & 3 illustration students will be taking a drawing trip to The Royal College of Surgeons of England. There are some fantastic exhibitions there at the moment and include: Abnormal: Towards a Scientific Model of Disability by Ju Gosling aka ju90: Extinct and Ivory,Treasures from the Odontological Collection.

Parrots at BibliOdyssey

2011-10-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

A taster from the always wonderful BibliOdyssey.

Here are the reliminary drawings for Edward Lear's book ''Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone' 1832 You can see the final plates here.

Edward Lear was TWENTY YEARS OLD when his Parrot book was published!!

Edward Lear Sketches of Parrots Relating to 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' (1832), ca. 1830 (MS Typ 55.9). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fontifier - your handwritting as a typeface

2011-10-12T01:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a website were you can turn your handwritting (or anything hand drawn) into a typeface with no need for fontlab. It uses a template which you print out fill in, scan back in and upload to their website.

None of their examples are particularly inspiring but I think it could be a brilliant tool if used well.

Word as Image

2011-10-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

This is a great film by Ji Lee (Creative Director of Google). He is a very interesting fellow and worth looking into. This is an animation of his new work 'Word as Image'.

Berger on Drawing

2011-10-12T00:43:00.000-07:00

You should all have read (or watched - it was a TV series) or at least heard of and about to read John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing' - I will write a post about this later. However, more relevant to the 1st Years 'Drawing Object' project is his less well know book 'On Drawing'. Below are a few excerpts that really rang true with the way that I think about drawing.

- “For the artist drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase, it is quite literally true. It is the actual act of drawing that forces the artist to look at the object in front of him, to dissect it in his mind’s eye and put it together again; or, if he is drawing from memory, that forces him to dredge his own mind, to discover the content of his own store of past observations.” (page 3)

- “A drawing is an autobiographical record of one’s discovery of an event – seen, remembered or imagined.” (page 3)

- “It is a platitude in the teaching of drawing that the heart of the matter lies in the specific process of looking. A line, an area of tone, is not really important because it records what you have seen, but because of what it will lead you on to see. Following up its logic in order to check its accuracy, you find confirmation or denial in the object itself or in your memory of it.

John Berger [2005]: Berger on Drawing. Edited by Jim Savage. Aghabullogue, Co. Cork, Eire: Occasional Press. Second Edition, 2007.

Two Exhitbitons you must see!

2011-02-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Bass Notes : The Film Posters of Saul Bass
Kemistry Gallery 43 Charlotte Road, ShoreditchLondon EC2A 3PD
Old Street (Northern Line) or walk from Liverpool St (15 mins)
17 February — 17 March 2011

No graphic designer has made a greater impact on the world of film than Saul Bass. This exhibition brings together a collection of his film posters, film titles and film festival posters from the Lloyd Northover donation to the British Film Institute. The BFI’s Poster Archive has kindly loaned the exhibits to make this show possible.

Saul Bass’s work is instantly recognisable for its directness, its simplicity and the way it makes its meaning felt. Breaking all conventions in the 1950s and 60s, Bass virtually invented film titles as we know them today, and he was the first to synthesize movies into compelling trademark images.

In a period when graphic imagery can be so easily manipulated electronically, Bass reminds us that a strong idea is always at the heart of a great design. His work, as reflected in this exhibition, is as refreshing today as ever.

John Stezaker

Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX
Aldgate East, Liverpool St, Tower Gateway DLR

British artist John Stezaker is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.

His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations.

Both Exhibitions are a short work from Liverpool Street Station and have FREE entry!

The Book Cover Archive

2011-01-21T06:06:00.000-08:00

The Book Cover Archive is a thorough and expansive collection of book covers. You can browse the archive by designer, illustrator and publication. It even tells you what typefaces are used on the covers - very useful. Here you can find all of the Great Ideas/Loves series by David Pearson as well at the 70 commemerative covers by Penguin. There is a broad selection of both illustrative and typographic book cover design - all have been carefully selected and represent the best there is to offer! It's well worth a look. Here are just a few that I found - I particularly liked a series of Nabocov books published by Vintage.

Illustration Drawing Visits: 25th & 26th January

2011-01-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

There will be an Illustration drawing visit to London on Tuesday 25th January. Followed by a drawing visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford on Wednesday 26th January.

Years 1 & 3 Tuesday 25th January 

Years 2 & 3 Wednesday 26th January

Further information will be posted on the Year 1 and Year 2 notice boards in RM 127.

1" squared Linocut workshop

2011-01-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

Year 1 Illustration students developed a sequence of three one inch linocuts. This one day project encouraged students to explore ideas development at a small scale. Whilst also developing skills in lino cutting and sequential imagery to support their 'Entrance and Exits' narrative brief.

World Press Photography Awards 2010

2011-01-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

... I then started thinking about an exhibition I had seen at the South Bank Centre of this years World Press Photography Awards. Although all of the finalists are very worth a look - they don't make for particularly comfortable viewing - one particular photographer will perhaps be of most interest to Year 1 working on the Pro/Con eating meat....

Tommaso Ausili

... Slaughterhouses in Umbria, Italy. Neatly packaged meat in supermarkets is often completely detached in consumers’ minds from the process of its production...

Views of America

2011-01-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

After discussions in the first year crits about their Pros and Cons Project, I though of a couple of photographers that might be useful - particularly if you have chosen the Pro/Con USA.

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

....In downtown Detroit, the streets are lined with abandoned hotels and swimming pools, ruined movie houses and schools, all evidence of the motor city's painful decline. The photographs of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre capture what remains of a once-great city – and hint at the wider story of post-industrial America... Taken form a article in the Guardian.

Alec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. These images are from his book 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'.

William Eggleston

...Had you to guess where he came from and what he did from his appearance alone, the words 'English' and 'aristocrat' might spring to mind way before 'American' and 'photographer'. And yet, at 65, William Eggleston is perhaps the most innovative American photographer of the past 50 years whose unique style has transformed the way we look at the world.... From the Observer 2004, read more here.

Norwich Illustration: Bookbinding session: Casing a book session Year 1

2010-11-17T05:08:00.000-08:00

Norwich Illustration: Bookbinding session: Casing a book session Year 1: "Instructions for casing and stitching are on Moodle and in a handout in RM 129"

Bookbinding session: Casing a book session Year 1

2010-11-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

Jonny Hannah visit: November 26th 9.30am -10.30am RM129 Talking to Year 3 students

2010-11-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sachmo - Jonny Hannah

Your website links.... please!

2010-11-08T03:15:00.000-08:00

I want to make a list of links to all your lovely websites and blogs.

Can you comment here with them or alternatively email me them.

Thanks...

Rachel

'A journey round my skull' blogs

2010-11-08T03:02:00.000-08:00

A journey round my skull is an absolutely fantastic blog

'Unhealthy book fetishism from a reader, collector, and amateur historian of forgotten literature. Recent obsessions: illustration and graphic design from around the world'

It contains a great collection of narrative/sequential illustration, book design, book covers etc from all sorts of sources. It would be particularly useful for the first years who are looking at sequential illustration for their 'Entrance and Exit' project!

Like this stuff from Alexandra Grinevsky's 1929 illustrations for Valery Larbaud's "Deux Artistes Lyriques."

Lot of other stuff as well so well worth a trawl round.

Check it!

2010-11-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

'THE STARS SHINE ALL DAY TOO' Show of new Papercuts is up at
The Air Gallery, which is located at 32 Dover Street, close to Green Park underground station. The nearest underground stations are Green Park (on the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria Lines), Piccadilly Circus (on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines) and Bond Street (on the Jubilee and Central lines). The nearest rail station is Charing Cross.

The exhibition will be open 1st - 20th November 2010.
Opening Times: Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. Saturday, 11am-4pm. Sunday, 12-4pm. Admission Free.

Colour spectrum workshop: Drawing session 1

2010-10-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Drawing session with Demetrio Psillos: This workshop focusses on creating a colour palette and making accurate colour matching in the form of a colour spectrum. Illustration students from the Norwich BA(hons) Illustration course can also see Rachel's Paint Palette workshop lecture and brief notes on the University College Virtual learning Environment (Moodle).

Note: This image has been taken with kind permission of the students and staff.

St Judes in the City:From Wednesday 10th until Sunday 21st November 2010 at The Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH

2010-10-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

Featuring work by: Angie Lewin, Jonny Hannah, Chris Brown Chloe Cheese and more...

Toby Morrison Illustrator Talk: October 29th Rm 129, Guntons Building, Norwich University College of the Arts(Year 3 Illustration students): Business and Professional Skills Talk 2:

2010-10-19T02:34:00.000-07:00

Gemma Correll: Nov 19th 9.30 Lecture Theatre, Duke Street, Norwich University College of the Arts(All Illustration year groups): Business and Professional skills Illustration talk 1

2010-10-19T02:30:00.000-07:00

Colour Pallet - Drawing Workshop, Year 1

2010-10-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the work of artists such like Matisse and Ed Kluz, this workshop looked at colour in it's purest form.

Matisse - Jazz Icarus (1944)

Ed Kluz - Fellbrigg Hall

Some of the work produced during the workshop. Credits for the work below are coming soon...

Friday Afternoon Film - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

2010-10-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Today in the first year studio we watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a 1920's silent film directed by Robert Wiene. It is often considered one of the greatest horror films of all time. It's great to watch for the claustrophobic atmosphere and strange perspectives created by the hand painted sets.

If you missed it, here it is again...

The Museum of Everything

2010-10-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Museum of Everything has had two shows so far and they have both been spectacular. The Museum of everything is London's first ever space for artists and creators living outside our modern society, obsessive or marginalised individuals - Ousider Art.

On Wednesday 13th October 2010, The Museum of Everything returned to London with Exhibition #3.

Their collaborator this year is Sir Peter Blake, the godfather of British pop art and a collector par excellence, whose accumulations of self-taught art, found objects and anonymous artefacts inform and inspire his own oeuvre.

Exhibition #3 reveals his discoveries for the very first time, as the museum’s Primrose Hill space becomes a canvas for the largest and most ambitious art installation ever created by the legendary septuagenarian.

'Leopard Family' by Morris Hirshfield - From the first Museum of Everything exhibtion

Marvel at thier assemblies of Punch and Judy and little people! Bedazzle yourself with side-show banners from the Americas! Ride the miniature fairgrounds of retired Norfolk farmer Arthur Windley! Stuff yourself at Walter Potter's Museum of Curiosity, a masterwork of Victorian animalia!

It's on until Chrismas so make sure you go and have a look. This is how to get there...

Have a look at the website for a list of happenings and events during Frieze art fair.

Welcome to the new Norwich Illustration Blog...

2010-10-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is the blog for the Illustration BA course at Norwich University College of Art. Here you will find everything from students work to interesting exhibitions or private views you might like to visit, interviews from practicing illustrators and designers to useful resources and everything in between.

I would also like to take this chance to say a very big welcome to all the new 1st year students!

Coal faces

2010-10-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Mono print location drawing: Yorkshire - Glyn Brewerton 2010

Mono drawing: Location drawing Nottingham - Glyn Brewerton 2010