Nature comes to Zizzi

 

James Grover adds more of his magic to the walls of Zizzi Ristorante in Market Harborough.

The mural was hand drawn live on site, using acrylic pen paints and emulsion. And referencing the history of the area with it’s close proximity to Rockingham Forest, James says “In prehistoric times the area was the largest expanse of woodland in the country, but deforestation has seen a large reduction in its size. More recently, in medieval England, the forest was allocated as a Royal Hunting Forest where wild boar, fallow deer and pheasant were in abundance. Nowadays, the remaining forest is protected and is still a key feature of the area.”  Another superb Zizzi interior by James!

James is represented by Illustration

 

Zodiac Sign Tees

May van Millingen designs zodiac T-Shirts for Top Shop.

The tees are adorned with individual black and white illustrations representing the twelve star signs and are now available to buy at Top Shop. May has made some intricate drawings for these shirts which can be worn on your chest with pride! Top Shop have also interviewed May for their Inside Out page, read more on her work for them and her inspirations…

 

 

New Talent Mayuko Fujino

Mayuko Fujino is a collage illustrator based in New York.

Her ‘cut-out creations’ are handcrafted and beautifully designed, inspired by nature and traditional Japanese stencil dying. Take a look at her portfolio…

Mayuko is represented by Illustration

Steve Stone for Macmillan

Macmillan Publishers just launched six stunning book for their new Young Sherlock series! Illustrated by hugely talented artist Steve Stone (also well known for his Percy Jackson covers and other successful young adult fiction covers worldwide) the books are written by Andrew Lane and Art Directed by Rachel Vale

Steve was hired to produce strong, cinematic images for this prestigious series.

Steve Stone is represented by Artist Partners

 

Lucy Truman for Harlequin

Harlequin France asked Lucy Truman to illustrate the French Language Edition of ‘Holding A Dream’ by Nora Roberts. Lucy’s beautiful artwork has received a great reaction from the industry and public alike.

Lucy Truman is represented by New Division

Gary Newman

Gary Newman was commissioned to illustrate Orangina’s summer outdoor campaign. Gary’s fabulous graphic artwork can be seen on billboards across Europe.

Gary Newman is represented by New Division

 

 

 

Bright Agency Art licensing

In conversation with Hannah Curtis, Head of Art Licensing at Bright Agency.

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As a Global illustration agency, Bright receives an astonishing 30-50 submissions per week. It is a pure pleasure to see so much talent from new, as well as established artists and we are humbled that they seek to be represented by us. But how as an agency and as individual agents do we decide who is the cut above the rest? After viewing the submissions individually we then discuss any contenders at an acquisitions meeting and from there the Bright family grows.

So what do we look for in an artist?

Marketability – will it sell? Bright’s ethos involves nurturing artists and projecting their work on a global scale for the right fee. The last thing we want is to invite an Illustrator into our family and not be able to deliver on sales. We need to know that the work is saleable and that we have the client base for your work. Our agents know where their skills lie and know if Bright has the right clientele for you. If we don’t then it’s not fair to take your work and mis-sell it. We are however, very happy to point you in the right direction and recommend other agents that might offer the right service for you.

 

Difference – does your look offer something different to our current portfolios? We don’t want too much of the same thing, that’s not fair on you or our existing artists. Every Bright artist is looked after personally, therefore if we don’t feel we can do you justice – we will let you know.

 

We need to like it! It is much easier to promote something that you like, which is why submissions can be a very personal decision – if I like the work I will be interested in seeing more. Send the very best selection of your work, make the first one a winner and we will want to keep looking!

Hannah’s top 5 tips for approaching an Agency:
1.    Keep it short and sweet – include a bit about yourself, not your CV
2.    Include a well-presented PDF of your artwork – don’t make the Agent work for the images – never include a download link!
3.    Make yourself stand out – We need to remember who you are, we will be discussing you and many others, if you stand out in our minds you are already steps ahead of the rest
4.    Never send a group email to all agencies – it’s not hard to fire off 5 separate emails, do your research and address it to the relevant person
5.    Try not to chase – we are very committed to our artists and our daily grind is to get them work. As you can imagine that makes us very busy folk! But we will always get back to you with an answer within 4 weeks.

The best submission I ever received – a small card in the post with an artists website, it also included a tea bag ‘go on, I know you work so hard and deserve a break…..pop your feet up and enjoy this cup of tea whilst browsing my website’ Genius!

http://brightgroupinternational.com/

“The Colour Thief” will steal your heart!

This month sees the exciting launch of Bloomsbury’s ‘The Colour Thief’, as Gabriel Alborozo’s debut author-illustrated story.

Zot lives in a world without colour – no green grass, no blue sky, no yellow sun and no red flowers. From his lonely mountaintop, he gazes at Earth, sparkling with brilliant colour, and thinks it must be a very happy place. He sets off to steal some of that happiness for himself. 

The whimsical tale has been highly anticipated and it is expected to receive a warm reception in the publishing world!

 

‘As with all the best picture books, the text and artwork combine seamlessly to make a very satisfying read’

Alexa Dretzke (Children’s Book Specialist at Readings Hawthorn) on Gabriel’s ‘Let’s Paint!’ (Published early 2014)

 

Gabriel Alborozo is represented by Bright Group

 

Sharon Pinsker designs for Sinai and Sons at Masterpiece

Sharon Pinsker has been commissioned for another year by Sinai and Sons to illustrate their limited edition catalogue for the prestigious Masterpiece exhibition. This year Sinai and Sons have put together a fabulous collection of wild and wonderful objets d’art from legendary designer J. Antony Redmile.

Redmile’s uniquely surreal pieces featured in Cecil Beaton’s “Fashion: An Anthology” exhibition at the V&A in 1971, where an Erté dress was displayed surrounded by Redmile’s metal palm trees, complete with ostrich eggs and amethysts. Another Redmile creation was an eerie but extremely elegant mannequin whose head was a ram’s skull modelling a top hat, for “Schiaparelli and Surrealism in 1930”. Centre stage was a 1967 Yves Saint Laurent dress framed by antelope horns.

See links to some of Sharon’s designs and illustrations commissioned by Sinai and Sons for the Masterpiece Fair and their website Architectural Digest

View Sharon Pinsker’s Portfolio pages at Artist Partners  www.artistpartners.com

Frankie’s Magic Football

Luella Wright was selected from a large talented group of artists to illustrate the wonderful 2^nd series of Frankie’s Magic Football books. These were written for young readers by well-known footballer Frankie Lampard.  The first one is out now to coincide with the world cup, and Luella is currently working on 4 more to be completed later this year.

Luella Wright is represented by Phosphor Art

Vintage Malamud

Ruth Rowland works with Vintage Classics on the lettering for a series of Bernard Malumud novels.

The tactile covers designed in-house by Matt Broughton are complemented by Ruth’s clean lines, she says ” I was delighted to be asked to work on the title lettering and designed some crisp vector drawn script to work with Matt’s painterly, retro-inspired illustrations. I like to work with a variety of media – both traditionally with brushes, pens and ink, as well as digitally. Recently I’ve been working on the possibilities of combining my hand lettered ink work with vector based drawings, opening up some interesting new avenues of typographic exploration.”

Ruth Rowland is represented by Illustration Ltd

Remembrance Day Stamps

Katharine Asher works with Jersey Post to produce this exquisite set of Remembrance Day Stamps.

Katharine’s fluid paintings of poppies and soldiers with a predominance of red and green make this issue of stamps quite special. The stamp can also be planted after use with the inclusion of a poppy seed within the printed stamp.  Katharine says of the commission “Having the opportunity to get my head around a ‘concept led’ project was a welcome challenge – I found myself firing on all cylinders – most enjoyable.” Jersey Post say of the issue:

“The set of six stamps and Miniature Sheet from Jersey Post present an artistic representation of ‘Remembrance’. Delicate watercolours of field poppies provide iconic symbols to commemorate the historic and significant occasion of the Centenary of the First World War on 4 August 2014, 100 years after Great Britain declared war on Germany. ‘Remembrance’ also pays tribute to all those who have died for their country in all wars ever since. Poppy seeds have been encapsulated in two of the designs, sealed behind a thin, transparent, bio-degradable plastic cover. The stamps can be planted and will gradually decompose as the seeds start to grow, producing the striking red flowers which are so strongly associated with remembrance.”

The stamps are for sale now.

Katharine Asher is represented by Illustration Ltd