Inkymole

Do it yoursen.

2012-01-24T18:51:00.000Z

If you can't get Happy 41st paper in the shops, why not get your felt-tips out and make your own?

Chiseling and scraping.

2012-01-24T18:44:00.000Z

The students of the University of Brighton's Materials Practice course sent me a blank sheet of board, and asked if I'd draw on it and post it back to raise funds for their show at New Designers. I did this show myself as a new graduate, and remember how massively exciting it was - feeling like it was all about to happen, the start of my creative life. It wasn't, it was other things which kicked that off for me which happened more slowly and without a fanfare - but we did somehow manage to pay for it all ourselves, despite it being a struggle, and that made us proud.

So remembering all of that, I thought I'd send some wisdom from a space in time 18 years ahead of where those studes are right now. It'll likely put no more than 12p in their kitty, but the knowledge is priceless!

Blowing in the wind.

2012-01-24T18:33:00.001Z

North West University in Boston is currently showing off these big banners, which I drew last year for them.

You can see in the first image how they were created, drawn in ink over a photo of the model. Quite tough actually, as they had to be readable from a great distance, and had to communicate the energy and excitement of studying there. I like this science one best, but as you can see I edited them quite a bit for the final versions, to make sure they were immediate and clear.

We're over that side of the world later this year - maybe we'll get to wander underneath them ourselves! Thank you in the meantime to Bruce at the university's design department for taking these shots for me. Nice job.

A marriage in type.

2012-01-23T22:35:00.000Z

At the end of last year I made this illustration for my friend Emma, resident of Portugal but one of those people at school everyone knew and liked, and who I've managed to stay in touch with courtesy of Facebook's less sinister facilities.

She's been married to Lawrence for a long time, and they've lived...all over the place. She wanted this capturing for their fifteenth wedding anniversary, and I was happy to do it.

This was tricky as it wasn't a piece to be scanned and digitised; the real thing was to be posted to her, warts and all. That meant no Control-Z. It also meant using colours first-hand, which was great as I got to break out the 20 or so Ecoline colours I had delivered a couple of months ago. It's good to be reminded you can do things like this, even when you're painfully aware of how much you've come to rely on the ease of a sneaky patch tool and eraser.

I really, really enjoyed it, and happily Lawrence was very pleased with his surprise.

Made In The UK

2012-01-23T22:03:00.001Z

I've got into buying fresh gear lately. I think it happens when I get stilted, a bit stuck, fed up, and need something to get me excited about what I'm working on. I've bought some new coloured Triplus felt tips - my other ones lasted 5 years, mustn't grumble - 12 fine line Poscas in black, a tower of A3 sketchbooks (I get through those at an alarming rate), and an array of fine white brushes.

These beautiful inks were discovered by Leigh as he roamed a new-found blog called Made In The UK. As a high-level consumer of black ink, and as advocates of buying anything manufactured in the UK, I had to have some.

I wanted 'black', but naive fool that I am, I didn't anticipate that there would be five blacks: Graphite is greenish grey, Quartz dries with a little blue to it, Jet Black is the closest to a pure black, with some purple in it, Grey is what it says, and Onyx is the most opaque. They all dry with the same immediacy and wash out well with water, and bleach through like my previous favourite, Quink.

And just look at the beautiful italian-made bottles with Bakelite-style lids. How could you not want to dip your finest nibs in it every day of your life?

Links:
Diamine Inks.
Made In The UK.

11 years in the making.

2012-01-23T13:04:00.000Z

'In the past, trying to listen to everything has almost destroyed my desire to listen to anything' - David Toop*

Sometime in 1995, I was living in my grandparent's house and had just brought home a new fax machine. About a year before, we had begun to buy records on a new label called Ninja Tune. They were ace. They weren't like anything I'd ever heard before, knowing Coldcut only from 'that Yazz single', but we liked them a lot. (There was another label called Mo 'Wax which, if you recall the 90s Blur vs Oasis side-taking, was said to have shared a similar rivalry with Ninja Tune - though we're pretty sure this was just music press hype.)

We went to the clubs, we read the interviews, we listened to the relevant shows. And we admired the artwork. One day, in a fit of enthusiasm, we decided to send a fax to Openmind, the mysterious creative hand responsible for all of Ninja's artwork. You know, just to tell them how much we loved their stuff.

That the fax never made it to him didn't stop a friendship forming that was to last longer than our early-twenties imagination was capable of envisioning back then. Kev Foakes was Openmind, and my fax was full of clever plays on words, praise for his typographical trickery and unashamed admiration (read and replied to, with gentle amusement, by Openmind the children's TV company). Kev Foakes was also, it turned out, Strictly Kev, one half of DJ Food, and responsible for the music as well as the art.

On Thursday 19th January we went to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to take part in the launch of his latest album, The Search Engine. As one part of DJ Food he's made many albums with collaborators DK and PC, but this album is entirely his own, and has been gestating for eleven years - a period in which he's not only become a father (twice), but taken an entire year off from his own music to design the enormous amount of collateral generated for the Ninja Tune XX 20-year anniversary (which yes, does make us feel our age). It was also a period in which the quote by David Toop above, taken from his album sleeve, became very relevant in our musical lives. Breathtaking changes to the way music was bought and sold, discovered and shared created a period of uncertainty and anxiety in which physical releases were no longer a 'given', promo releases stopped coming through the door and record shops on which we depended for new gear (and to which we sold our own goodies) closed. Factor in the loss of John Peel and dramatic changes to radio programming, and you begin to sense the slow panic induced by the loss of the structure on which we depended for our musical life blood.

Unless you lived through this dramatic shift in the landscape it might be difficult to communicate the joy and warmth of a creation delivered so thoroughly, so carefully and with such consideration as The Search Engine. Against a backdrop of thousands of pushed-out digital releases, faceless tracks composed only of pixels and megabytes (of which we have plenty), Kev's beautifully considered offering of CD LP, lovely-quality book containing CD and gold-and-silver Flexidisc, sticker and poster, along with music postcards and a show of original artwork at a London gallery, is breathtaking. He chose the Planetarium to launch it, perfect of course for the space theme of the album, an elegant venue which saw Kev 'making their stuff do things it wasn't designed to do'.

Using the Planetarium as screen, viewers sat with upturned faces, mouths full of flying saucers as familiar images hoved into view. Slices of Henry Flint's detailed space-machine illustrations were kaleidoscoped, chopped and woven across the circular screen, appearing to move up, away and then bearing down on us with sometimes horrific intensity, all the while playing to the now-familiar tracks of the album. Since this album was created one EP at a time, released a few months apart, hearing the album was like Skypeing a friend for a couple of years - when you finally get to meet them for the first time, you feel already know them, even though there are still some nice surprises. The nearness of the screen and the handful of seats made it feel all the more like it was put on 'just for us'.

Images of moon, stars, nebula, dark matter and space dust placed our tiny existences firmly into context with the certainty of Carl Sagan, but also gave the whole thing the sense of a man who's had time to reflect on his life and his creations, and is gently pleased with both. There's a generosity to this release that we're not sure we've encountered before, even in the heady days of flamboyant vinyl releases full of gimmicks and treats - because it goes further than just the products themselves; an appropriate venue, nice staff, a considerate release schedule, and careful, rich artwork, combining state of the art technological experiments with a rebirth of one of the oldest, the Flexidisc. The show wasn't perfect; the little flaws were still there, just enough to keep it organic and away from being an Amon Tobin style smoke-and-mirrors-behemoth (brilliant as that was). it had an otherworldliness, you could say.

I recommend a listen. The album features in this mix by Pinch, Strictly Kev and DK, with an interview with Strictly Kev at the end:
http://ninjatune.net/article/2012/jan/20/solid-steel-radio-20-01-2012-pinch-dk-strictly-kev

The offical review of the actual show:

http://www.djfood.org/djfood/planetarium-post-mortem

Details for his forthcoming show at the Pure Evil gallery:

http://ninjatune.net/article/2012/jan/10/dj-food-and-henry-flint-at-the-pure-evil-gallery

and Kev's website is here:
http://www.djfood.org

Footnote: *David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. A prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face, he also is a regular contributor to The Wire, the UK based music magazine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Inkymole!

2012-01-01T17:25:00.000Z

We drew on the walls again!
Watch Christmas disappear in a frenzy of finger-painting.

See you in a few days' time!

Inkymole's Happy New Year! from Sarah Coleman Inkymole on Vimeo.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-20T12:11:00.000Z

We did this manic wall-daubing specially for Christmas in seven hours a few Saturdays ago.
Green paint everywhere, weirdly-morphing stars and red blobs on the floor.
Some banging chunes. More tea than could possibly be healthy.

It's a world away from this, but what we lack in finesse, we make up for with EXUBERANCE.

Happy Christmas everybody and see you on the other side. We're going into deep hibernation!

Merry Christmas from Inkymole! from Sarah Coleman Inkymole on Vimeo

(and if you like frenzied exuberant stop-frame, check this bad boy - Blu is at it again.)

More Mole videos:
http://www.youtube.com/inkymole
http://www.vimeo.com/inkymole

Music by www.soundcloud.com/teratogens

The Advent Calendar

2011-12-13T20:03:00.000Z

My Mum made this advent calendar for me a few years ago, and the moment it came through the door with a ribbon attached to hold it up, all thoughts of a crappy cardboard version disappeared forever.

You've met my Mum before; she cross-stitched the infamous 'Fuck The Past' piece for my 'If A Girl Writes Off The World' exhibition in 2006, together with eight 'skull'n'crossbones' Sage Francis portraits. She contributed two pieces to this year's Secret Members' Show - the cross-stitched penile word search, and the similarly-themed quilt. There is no swearing or genitalia in this piece, though (and I have checked).

I love this because it is so full of life. It bulges and glitters with red, green, cream and gold - which are really the only colours you need for Christmas - and each fabric and motif was hand-selected and turned into pockets or trees accordingly. Inside each of the 24 pockets is a non-dairy dark chocolate shape from our local chocolate makers, D&D, based just down the road. If I want anything chocolate or carob, I can just pop in for a chat and come back armed to the teeth with a bewildering array of goodies. it is custom to offer any guest the day's chocolate, but some of those shapes may actually be pralines - so you'll be very lucky if you actually get one, since I know where they all are, and who says they have to stay in the same pockets till they're eaten?

Back to front.

2011-11-29T11:04:00.001Z

Wanted to show you this as I liked it! It's a bloke-lit cover that I've just had the proofs for, for Mike Gayle's new book. I like it for three reasons:

1) it's double-sided.
2) it uses lurid pink.
3) the type is a style I like to do but don't get much opportunity to flex.

In fact the bit you might think is mine (the curly bit) isn't.

Oh and the halo is really quite wonky. Brilliant!

Pets Win Prizes.

2011-11-28T23:37:00.001Z

This illustration I did for Sudler & Hennessy in NYC was a finalist in the Communication Arts Typography Annual. It's the first time I've been in the book and it was entered by Don and his team at Sudler, who were a real pleasure to work for!

The subject of the ad is Remicade.
The artwork was all hand-drawn to a very specific dog shape - the design of which actually took longer than the rendering of the type itself. The dog had to look furious and dangerous, but held firm by the Remicade lead. The main ad was supplied with these intense word-plates for various uses elsewhere in the campaign.

Client: Janssen Biotech, Inc.
Agency: Sudler & Hennessey
Art Directors: Don Brunjes, Stephen Cimini, Jennifer Harrison
Copywriters: Lauren Anton, Courtney Korzun

GIANT CHRISTMAS PRESSIE!

2011-11-27T21:15:00.001Z

I drew this big Christmas present made of little Christmas presents for the Telegraph's weekend edition. It's one of the biggest editorial things I've done, size-wise, and was nice to see it enlarged, though if I'd known it was going to be so massive I would have added a few more details!

I like it though. It got me in the mood for some jingle bells.

Old Faithful.

2011-11-25T19:00:00.001Z

We had a happy but sad event in the house last week.

Happy, because our new studio desk, which runs the entire length of it and is made of reclaimed wood, finally got slotted into place and covered in our gear.
Sad, because my first ever work desk, bought for £50 in 1994, has finally been decommissioned. I'm not ashamed to say a little moisture appeared at the corner of my eye when it was gently removed from the premises.

This little pine desk was second hand when I bought it from Hinckley Sale Rooms a few months after graduating. I'd moved out of the parental dining room (my first studio) probably to their relief, building, as I was then, very messy 3D structures.

I had no idea the desk would be with me for the next 17 years. It's followed me to four different addresses and I can't even begin to count the pieces of work which have been created on it, but its surface bears testament to thousands of hours of creating, with its myriad ink stains, little cuts and scars. It bears them all triumphantly - you can probably see the 'favoured spot' on which I tended to work the most. It would put most structures of Ikean origin to shame with its longevity.

It's still in perfect working order and much as we love the handsome new desk, this will always be the Original Inkymole Desk. And it needs a new home. If anyone is or has a fledgling artist in their family, or a creative who needs a little spot of their own and wants something with a bit of history and a proven track record, I would be happy to pass it on. Ink blots and all.

"Higham on the Hill, Stoke in the dale; Wykin for buttermilk, Hinckley for ALE." - Shakespeare.

2011-11-20T12:59:00.001Z

Inkymole and Factoryroad sponsored an ale apiece at this year's CAMRA Real Ale Festival. We've never done it before, but what an adventure. You see, you don't know what ale or cider you're going to be allocated…till you get there, dry throated, with tokens and £2 beer glass in hand.

Mole's beer could not have been more perfect. Holden's Old Ale is brewed 'by a woman' (to the handlebar-moustachio'd barman's shock and awe), and it was dark, slightly rough and chocolatey - and a whopping 7.2%. Had I been that woman who'd brewed it, I couldn't have designed a more perfect spec. Not a good one to start off with though - had to have a volumetric climb-down with a 6% and 4% to follow. Either that or roll home uphill, blind. Check the cheesy pun on the cask - (my own literary skilz) and the fact that they left off my logo!

The Factoryroad beer was disappointing, yellowy and weak, with a funny after taste. Its rubbish taste though was slightly offset by the magnificent punuendo in the name of the beer, so all wasn't lost. Check Factoryroad's label. Again the creators had clearly been on the sauce while they got the labels printed out, sat no doubt at a creaking PC with one eye on their glasses, mis-spelling, as they did, the word 'how' and casually inverting the logo so it sat in a weird black box.

Still, we're not (for once) here to crit the visuals. Who cared once the first couple were sunk?

If you want to find a real ale event where you live, you'd do no worse than to look here: http://www.camra.org.uk/

Holden's Brewery: http://www.holdensbrewery.co.uk
An alphabetical list of real ales and independent brewers in the UK: http://www.quaffale.org.uk

Twilight, True Love, And...The Truth.

2011-11-17T23:14:00.001Z

The new Twilight film is out today, and like lots of other people I know, I'll wait till it comes on telly and watch it with one eye while doing something else, and probably quite enjoy some bits of it despite myself.

This, I'm well aware, is in stark contrast to a huge chunk of the female global population (and some of the male), who will rush headlong to the flicks with excited eyes and red lips, possibly in a suitably Bella-ish shirt and a boyf in tow wearing a dusting of sparkly Barry M Facedust. And I don't begrudge them a second of it.

Or will they? I did this book cover late last year. At the time, I thought little of it - to be honest, I thought its title promised no more than a corny faux self-help guide to finding 'your perfect man', that man being an Edward-a-like (or a Jacob-a-like, depending on which t-shirt you bought). So I vainly encouraged the publishers to go for a white cover (bucking the yawnsome trend for red-and-white on black, which so many Vampire books have employed) and accepted it gracefully when they didn't.

And that, I thought, was the end of my relationship with the book. Until I read it.

You see, when they said it was written by a clinical psychologist with 21 years' experience working with young women, I confess to thinking 'what the hell's she writing about Twilight, then?' To put it simply, for this reason: Louise Deacon has spent years observing the fanatical responses young people have had to the Twilight series, and the significant changes the phenomenon has brought to women and girls' expectations of love, relationships, and life as a whole. And it's actually rather serious.

As Louise says in her introduction:
"I was stunned by the way the girls in the audience reacted; they sighed, gasped and screamed. Never before had I witnessed such a strong emotional reaction to a film. As a psychologist, I was fascinated".

I confess I just didn't 'get' the Twilight thing. I'd illustrated a series many years ago called Evernight, which was a superbly-written collection of novels based around a young couple, one male one female, one vampiric and one human, and their relationship, set in a school. I loved them, so when I saw Twilight, I dismissed it as a rather pale (and rather cheeky) copy of those books. I didn't fancy Edward, I didn't fancy Jacob, I thought Bella was irritating and brought just about everything on herself, and moreover, I thought Edward was a complete fantasy; no-one could possibly love someone so unconditionally that they would lay down their life for them, when the object of that love was so completely irresponsible about their own life, continually, as Bella does, putting herself at risk. And her own self-esteem and confidence issues are 'cured' by Edward's magical, unconditional love.

Turned out I was in the minority there. The females around me went bonkers for it. Of course Edward's a fantasy. Unconditional love from a lantern-jawed teenager with a sparkly face and amazing physical prowess is very appealing. But what Louise Deacon has observed is a generation of young women believing him to be not fantasy, but 'the ideal' - the kind of of boy who they take as their benchmark for a real boyfriend - meaning 'real' men and boys cannot hope to live up to such a blueprint. And leading women to believe that their own self esteem and confidence - important survival tools - are not things they are able to change by themselves. All observations made during her many sessions with unhappy young people in her work.

Bella is described as being very into Romantic Fiction. Wuthering Heights is given as an example - more on that later, but of all the Bronte novels, Wuthering isn't one that falls into the Romantic Fiction category. The 'hero' in it is in reality an anti-hero. A bullying, cruel man, unchangeable, physically violent, desperately unhappy and full of spite and the desire for revenge at his most appalling treatment, he doesn't change, and he can't - no matter how much Catherine adores him, she can't 'love' the misery out of him, and the ending is terrible for everyone his existence touches.

In fact Louise reminds us that the term Romantic Fiction itself has been hijacked to mean something very different today from when it was coined in the late 1700s. The 'romantic' part of it referred to something fantastical, unreal - stories of adventure, knights, fairies and princesses, it didn't refer to love and relationships, as it has come to mean today. As Louise puts it, modern romantic fiction, with its predilection for doggedly happy endings and heroes and heroines magically transformed by the power of love, should come with as strong a warning as porn, for its parallel lack of similarity to Real Life.

The book uses a combination of questions and answers, small chapters, and real-life case studies to highlight the many issues involved. It is gentle, but hard in its truths - phrases like 'love will make incompatible people into compatible ones', 'your love can cure him of his difficulties' and 'love conquers all' are bust wide open not in the spirit of churlishness, but in the interests of forming real, honest, robust relationships between people who trust and respect each other, whatever their physical and mental make-up.

It's impossible to do the book justice here. But it is gripping. It's calmly written, non-inflammatory, and not in the least scaremongery. It is academic, and thorough, and as the author's real-life research has revealed, an important contribution to contemporary female mental health and happiness. The book is nicely ended with a two-page list of where to go for more help if you think you are struggling with any of the the book's issues; from talking to your Mum, friends or doctor right though to Mind, Childline, Refuge and the Samaritans. And in addition, 20% of the proceeds of every copy go to The Girl Effect, an organisation fighting to improve the lives of young women in countries where forced marriage is still a common practice.

I leave it to Louise to summarise, as she addresses her mainly-teenage audience early in the book:
'High-octane romances like Twilight can lead you into the arms of the wrong man, but for some girls, Twilight could mean they won't end up in the arms of any man at all. Are you one of them?'

Here's the clever teaser for the book - the comments underneath are poignantly telling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4tA5d4Vmxs

The Big Christmas archive.

2011-11-09T10:31:00.000Z

From about September onwards, people start to ask me whether I can do things for Christmas, like illustrations for company or personal christmas cards. Usually, though, the enquiries really start to come in way too late for me to get involved - like a few weeks before Christmas - and I hate to let people down.

So a couple of years ago I gathered together my big lazy archive of Christmas illustrations with the aim of getting them off the dole queue and into gainful employment. The Inkymole Christmas Archive is now live again for Christmas 2011.

You can buy any of these illustrations for any purpose, from a £50 jpeg to a print-ready TIFF to a more involved rights-managed use - whatever you need. Have a look. There is pretty much everything in there from all-over patterns to US-style 'Holiday' cards to the very traditional.

If you want a really easy option just for Christmas cards, you can also buy pre-printed sets of Inkymole cards from Moo.com - there are several new Ready Made sets to choose from.

I know how hard it is to get my own Christmas things organised, and I've got a tiny shopping list and no massive family to cook for - so hopefully these will give a few people one less thing to stress about!

Christmas shopping.

2011-11-09T10:22:00.001Z

I got stuck into Christmas work in September this year, doing this thoroughly sparkly stuff for Sean and Annie at the fantastically-named Fox Kalomaski Crossing - which sounds either brilliantly made-up, or straight out of Mad Men. Either way, must be great to tell people you work there.

Gloucester Quays is a big shopping centre and as such, its life will revolve around Christmas. I'm not hugely into shopping (only for certain things which may or may not have a MAC logo on them - the eyeliner kind AND the OSX kind) but I did really enjoy doing this outrageously glittery tree and pile of presents, and was charmed by what their animation team did with the Christmas logo I designed for them. I love seeing my normally static work leap into action, especially where it involves tinsel.

If it seems vaguely familiar, FKC were partially inspired by the colours of my Co-op Christmas campaign which ran for three years, and has sadly now come to an end. But clearly, its legacy lives on! You can see the shopping centre itself here.

Booze for free.

2011-11-08T23:27:00.001Z

I've just got a copy of this book I did the cover for earlier this year, by Andy Hamilton.

We're a long way from self-sufficiency, but we're working on it - we've had the gas disconnected and we heat the house and water with wood instead. We've been buying our vegetables from a farm half an hour down the road for the last ten years or so, always organic, always amusingly miss-shapen, always delicious, we did the biodiesel thing for years, and I make my own skin cream…well, like I said, we're not there, but we try to make the right moves in that direction!

The book tells you how to make intriguing-sounding brews such as Broad Bean Wine, Pine Needle Cordial and Nocino, an Italian green walnut cordial. None of them are complicated, or fussy; you just need to focus, keep your kit clean (most of which you'll have at home) and most importantly have some space at home to store the fermenting oceans of potential goodness. Our friend Simon does this already, and his recent birthday cider was impressively cloudy and delicious, needing maybe a little longer in hibernation, but certainly a shouder-softening testament to what can be done with some foraged apples, water and patience.

Here's the artwork for the book, along with an alternative version which didn't make the cut, and a place to buy it!

http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781905811700

Grayson Perry's bike.

2011-11-08T23:08:00.000Z

We went to the British Museum to see the whole of this exhibition, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, but spent so long looking at the bike we ran out of time to get into the main show. We're definitely going back - but check the bike!

The whole thing was custom made, with Grayson's own teddy bear, Alan Measles, riding in his own shrine on the back. Actually Alan was replaced by a stunt double who had to be auditioned…but you can read about all that here

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx

Grayson himself seems an amazing bloke. I don't think anyone like him has ever existed!

Signs of Occupation.

2011-11-08T23:00:00.001Z

We visited the Occupy London camp at St Pauls' a couple of days ago, and I was struck by the way in which messages which need urgent visual transmission trigger a whirlwind of improvised creativity.

These signs were made with whatever was to hand, and not, I doubt, at a comfy wooden desk like the one I'm sitting at, with the telly on and my bed upstairs waiting. The typography's great. Never mind the message, enjoy the clutching of Stanley knife, aerosol, crayon, cardboard, fabrics and tape. And interestingly, I didn't spot a single spelling mistake. I'm not even sure I found any rogue or absentee apostrophes.

I wish I could 'name the plants', but the illustrations are a bit... vague. Ten out of ten for the idea though!

http://occupylondon.org.uk/

Adventures with Dick and (Sarah) Jane.

2011-11-04T00:45:00.001Z

It's not very often we have somebody for a whole week at the Inkymole studio. We have the accounts lady Anne who comes in once a week, and punctuates her forensic accountancy with button-buying, politics and cats juggling sausages on YouTube. We have the occasional student. We've had a series of magic helpers who come and join us in the lead-up to a show or special event. And of course we've had no choice but to share the workspace with an endless stream of tradesmen, craftsmen and engineers of all sorts over the last two years.

But it's not like we ever get a MATE to come round and do homework with us. Homework which is the same but different - like being at the same school at the same time but in different art classes.

Which is actually what happened to me and Richard Hogg. Two years apart at school is a gulf, the sort of gulf that ensures you'll never cross paths (unless you have a sibling who bridges the gap and grants you a portal to 'the other level'), but we did go the same school at the same time, and did art. We remember only one mutual schoolmate's name, but apart from that, a sixth-form girl and a fourth-year boy would rarely speak, unless it was to hurl rudeness over the balcony.

Richard grew up in Hinckley but moved to London to do his degree and has lived there ever since. The chance to come back to stay with family and draw on our walls was eagerly accepted, and we're so glad it was. It was a completely new experience to work alongside another illustrator - whose day-to-day hassles were the same but different - and to watch another full-time creative person's day progress and take shape.

It's reassuring to see there's an equal amount of buggering about. There is the same time spent emailing. The same pacing and tea-brewing. And the pie-chart of the illustrator's time, were it to be scribbled out, would have roughly equal chunks marked 'Googling', 'food' and 'worrying'.

I liked watching Richard work, but tried not to stare. Or copy. Which is easy too do when you're a fan. They say every day's a school day, and during the week we were allowed to look into his sketchbooks and his toolboxes, and bits of his brain. We all had our work to get on with of course, so every pause to look at newly-Googled 'thing' or put on a record was chastened by a feeling that 'we need to get on', but the work flowed, in a surprisingly grown-up kind of way. We even stopped for lunch and boiled sweets every day. And only played Richard's game a bit.

Wacom notes were exchanged, Illustrator tips begged; iPhone games discovered and new colours investigated. Chips were eaten and soup was made. And we were ready an hour early.

From behind her invoices, a watchful Anne In Accounts declared Dick 'a bad influence', but only because our days must have reminded her of me and my best mate 'doing homework' together after school, and doing it in spite of a massive stream of continual distraction (yep, she's my Mum). I weathered Dick's cheerful jibe that it was interesting to see 'how little work other illustrators do' (ahem, well I WAS running about preparing for a show and you DID keep showing me animal videos) but it was interesting, actually, to simply see 'how other illustrators do'.

Cheers Dick! Come again.

You can read about the show itself here: www.factoryroadgallery.net and see the show in this gallery: http://gallery.me.com/inkymole#100021 and pumpkin carving the next day: http://gallery.me.com/inkymole#100028

Our next show in the Factoryroad Gallery is...

2011-10-13T11:53:00.001+01:00

www.h099.com
Opening night Friday 21st October, from 6.30pm.
More gallery information here: factoryroadgallery.net
Richard will be taking over the wall space of Factoryroad Gallery with his brushes and paints!
Richard is an artist and designer who also makes videogames such as Poto and Cabenga, Frobisher Says and Hohokum. Originally from Leicestershire, this will be the first time he is showing his work in the town since his A-level exhibition (he got a B). He currently lives in Crystal Palace, South London. Richard used to be a part of the notorious design company Airside. He is also in the band Satan's Cock.

And if we are very fortunate, he may also be wowing us with his world-famous pumpkin carving skills.
His work is sprightly and charming, and never fails to plaster a smile on our faces!

RSVP please - since this is a working studio as well as a gallery space, we need you to let us know if you're coming. Thanks!

Thank you Mr Jobs.

2011-10-06T16:01:00.002+01:00

The Secret Members' Show, or How I fell In Love With Ink Again.

2011-10-04T00:40:00.000+01:00

I'm an illustrator, which means I'm a pen-wielding gun for hire; proficient at answering briefs, often to short deadlines; navigating the demands of as many as sixteen clients at once (that's my record to date) and firing work out of the studio like so many curlicued ping-pong balls.

I can do this for months on end, but it takes its toll. You see I love doing books covers, and adverts, and packaging, but there's an itch that constantly waits to be scratched until an opportunity arises. It can only wait so long before the equilibrium begins to distort, and the urge to create some personal, entirely self-generated work becomes all-consuming. Like any bodily need - thirst, sleep, hunger, sex - if this is continually denied, I start to feel physically out of sorts.

So. When Leigh and I - in our capacity as curators of Factoryroad - wrote the brief for our Secret Members' Show, I knew there was a chance to do something I rarely get the time to do: express...and play.

The brief was thus:

"As you’re already aware we would like you to grace our new gallery with your interpretation, celebration, homage, tale or observation of the male member.

Be aware this isn't some 'just for laffs', cheesy feminism show; it has nothing to do with girl power or porn or Ann Summers. Neither is it a sombre acknowledgement of the weapon of mass production/oppression shared by the fairer sex.

No! This is a celebration of each creative female's feelings about this extension of the males who have coloured their lives, or which inspired the exchange of stories. Only female creatives are taking part.

The subject is apolitical, universal, timeless; it is variously a symbol of hope, new life, love, but also of war, fear, threat and oppression. They can be funny, characterful, and as unique as the men who wear them."

I did three pieces for the show itself, but the collection was held together by the poster. Since the subject matter was to remain secret to everyone but the participants, I wanted it to hint at peeping, vaudeville, burlesque, Victorian pornography, but also craftsmanship and exuberance. It was all hand-drawn at A2 in black Talens Ecoline ink with a variety of nibs, and a 0.2 and 0.3 fineliner for the very small type, on Fabriano 230gsm 100% recycled paper. The RSVP hand and the 'censored' little boy were also drawn in pen and ink.

It took three days, and with the exception of the three show pieces themselves - one video essay, one sculpture and one large-scale drawing in coloured pencil - I can't remember enjoying a piece of work this much in years.

Here's the original A2 art, done in one take - no digital, just planning, patience, and the odd little blob of Tippex:

Here's the little boy having his tender eyeballs protected (the show was thoroughly 'unsuitable for children'):

And for the postal invitations, I added a simple serif font (Niew CroMagnon) and rejigged the elements. The motif was used on all the information panels, the welcome poster, the tea towel wrappers and the leaflets. We've hung the original, appropriately enough, on the Victorian door of the bathroom.

You can read about the show and its opening night on the Factoryroad Gallery website, and see most of the work. If you would like a print of the piece, please get in touch.

Announcing 'The Secret Members' Show'

2011-09-14T11:57:00.000+01:00

Humbled by the response to our last two shows, we're most excited to finally pull the silk sheet off the next one: The Secret Members' Show.

Featuring specially-commissioned new work by one male and 17 female international artists and craftspeople, this is the first group created by Factoryroad, and will showcase work in a bewildering array of media by

Andrea Gibson, Boulder, Colorado

Anne Coleman, Hinckley

April Ball, London

Beth Robinson’s Strange Dolls, Vermont

Caroline Allen, Brighton

Drew Jerrison, Leicester

Florence EMA Blanchard, Paris

Inkymole, Factoryroad Gallery

Jacquie O'Neill, Cornwall

Jill Calder, Kingdom of Fife

Kelly Merrell, Leicester

Lily Blythe, Stoke on Trent