Retrospective: Paint it! Make it!

Well I'm almost sad to write this as it means all the cakes have been eaten, the origami folded and the live drawing has met the fate of the vast majority of its ephemeral brothers. Though saying that it, the whole day was an epic win for the rally and our appeal netting us a massive £300.16 pounds, on a day when the tube was down Glastonbury was on, and the whole world was conspiring to keep us out of London!

Preparation time...

So the train broke down on the way, the weatherman lied to us through his teeth but we made it and turned up to find the most beautiful sight of hard working friends and artists coming together to put on a kick ass event. The book club probably has never been subjected to so much colour and verve, what with stunning kimonos and yukatas, zine binding, our origami zoo, hundreds of pen, papers and crafty bits, two massive cardboard trees, portraits, cakes and not forgetting the awesome live drawing by Messrs Millerchip, Jones, Fiddle and Chan.(which would be literally the best name for a law firm in history)

Cakes!

Prizes from ToDryFor, No Guts No Glory and Kuretake UK!

Shop!

Beautiful Emma Block and Kim Roberts in Yukatas!

The event kicked of with absconding temporary DJ who set up the sound and simultaneously startled pigeons as far as Toxteth. Some light furniture moving, unpacking wrapping, cutting, sticking, glueing, taping, re-taping later the scene was set with epic paper chains and bunting, more balloons than you could shake a stick at and possibly the best craft area in the history of creation. Well at least Shoreditch anyway.

The whole event flew by as we drew in and tempted friends and ordinary slightly worried londoners into our den and gave what could only be described as an old school kids party meets high end art event. Many a cake was sold, portrait painted and kimono donned. and in the end there was the raffle, which I personally fixed... Well as it turned out lucky and tiny seems to go hand in hand, with our diminutive first winner taking not only the first signed towel but Millerchip's ticket, and his shirt (raffle prize, not his actual shirt!)

Origami workshop by Erica Sharp and Kuretake UK pen trial!

Zine making workshop by Lea Wade!

Live portrait drawing by Jenny Robins and June Sees!

Live drawing in morning!

Completed live drawing by Mr Millerchip, Kristian Jones, Seb Burnett and Stephen Chan!

So a massive thanks to all those who came and to all those who helped out tirelessly, giving us the first of what we hope will be many Illustration Rally live art events!

We have some fantastic pictures both here and on our flickr page, so please check them out. So till the next time we invade London with a cheeky swagger and a bag full of pens, we couldn't have done it without you!

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Artist 13: Lea Wade

It's Lea Wade, Illustrator and comic genius who captures the spirit and vitality of her subjects with a wicked sense of humour. There is nothing more satisfying than a seeing a lively character with a cheeky realism and Lea is the lass for that. The irrepressible Lea creates superb insightful characters and you can learn a bit more about her, here!

Who are you:
Lea Wade (That's lea as in 'Dairylea' by the way), I can also be seen mooching around the internet under the guises of 'Leamonade' or 'Jammilicious' too.

What do you do:
In a nutshell, I attempt to make a living through utilizing my doodle powers. I produce digital illustrations, designs and characters for anyone in need of such things, from the comfort of my little studio in Bushey.

How did you start:
Unfortunately it's a bit of cliché as I was scribbling away as soon as I could hold a pencil. Although, I was pretty rubbish back then, I couldn't even stay within the lines! But still, I practiced consistantly and I knew the artistic route was the one for me (apart from a small wobble at the age of 10 when I first heard about life drawing classes. I abruptly decided that journalism would be a less embarassing option). I began my professional life as an illustrator 2 years ago during my 3rd year of university and really pulled my socks up when the remnants of my student loan finally ran out.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
Even though I care about the aesthetics of my pieces, my work has always focused on the characters involved, even if they're just in the background I worry about anyone and every creature in the painting. Expressing a character's elusive personality in one frame is my favourite challenge, and the most common, (yet oddest) phrase people say about my guys is "...I can see _something_ in them...". I dismissed this for years as a strange sentence my biased mother would reliably repeat at any oppourtunity, but at my last exhibition I was astonished to hear the same words parroted from an overwhelming amount of people, and curiously they always said it with childlike smiles and eyes lit up. I was pleasantly surprised and I took this to mean that I was doing a pretty good job as a character designer. So that's what my work is about, I don't do much by way of social issues and current events, but if your characters are flat and dull then I'm the go-to girl when you want something with a bit more life.

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Months of the year: February

February

By Lea Wade

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