Illustration Rally

18 Jun 2011

Winners of our ToDryFor charity raffle!

Corgi Royal Wedding

By Gemma Correll

Winner Helena Maratheftis

Heaven

By Robert Ryan

Winner Ludivine Nunhold

Bake Me

By Julia Pott

Winner Antonia Harrowing

Right On

By Stuart Kolakovic

Winner Sabine Okami

Sunny Days

By Ben Javens

Winner Zoe Waring

Congratulations all of you, I will be email you shortly for shipping details, and thank you very much to everyone who bought thickets, all the proceeds are going to Japan Tsunami Appeal on our JustGiving page.

If you missed the chance to win these towels, come to our Paint it! Make it! Party for Japan event on the 25th June at The Book Club, and there is a last chance to win 5 more signed different tea towels from ToDryFor, here they are!

16 Jun 2011

Ganbare Nippon: No. 51

Lucas S. Krull from international award winning creative graphic design agency &&& Creative has printed this beautiful charity poster for Japan. It's a limited edition print of 100 and they already have sold about 75 to people from all over the world, amazing! All the proceeds will be donated to British Red Cross, this fantastic poster is available from their site here for a minimum of £20, visit their site before it gets sold out!

By Lucas S. Krull from &&& Creative

Advertisement space now available here on the rally!

We have always prided ourselves on being able to support the community and bring artists to the fore, so with that in mind we have an offer on ad space here on the rally. We have a big community and a great drive to do more and expand, to give you an idea of where we are now and how much exposure you can hope for here are a few stats from the Rally as of April 2012,

10,000 to 15,000+ average monthly page views
3939 followers on twitter
1492 likes on facebook
760 blog followers

We are still growing but we are pretty sure we can spread the word for you guys at a reasonable price, so sign up and get seen! You can pick the deal that suits you best and purchase from this post.

We'd love to here what you think, so please comment the post to let us know how this is going down with you guys!

14 Jun 2011

Artists 93: Tori Murphy

A wonderful eclectic artist for our latest feature. Tori Murphy is not only a fashion illustrator, but excels in textiles and fine art, with a great deal of fashion experience under her belt to boot. She uses her illustration expressively to bridge the various facets of her practice, allowing her to unite the different threads that run through her work with a more palatable fashion inspired style, that is at once gentle and fresh, with more than a hint of French style. Her work makes use of a well chosen palette and good structural composition, she uses a gamut of techniques in her massive range of work but each aspect of her creativity has the same gentle considered tone and hushed colours. She has a freer and more lively style in her illustration and it benefits from this by having that light hearted touch that perhaps she cannot accord herself in the more introspective field of fine art. If she continues building her work in this vein and allowing herself the freedom to create, I'm sure that the feeling of fun she experiences whilst illustrating will be equally shared with her viewers. Wishing her all the best in her many faceted creative life it's Tori Murphy!

Who are you:
I am Tori Murphy and am based in between Nottingham and London

What do you do:
I work for WGSN, researching trends, colours and pattern and am an accidental illustrator.

How did you start:
I moved to London when I was 19 and instead of completing my BA in painting at Central Saint Martin's, I left to become a model agent. Many London Fashion week's later and a brief stint in styling, I decided I wanted to complete my degree and went back to study. I got my BA in Fine Art and then my MA in textiles from the Royal College of Art. I have since worked in Milan, designing prints for amongst others, Dior and Fendi. On my return to the UK, I had an interview with an interiors brand but I was unfamiliar of how to present my textile designs in the interiors context so started creating illustrated scenes and loved the outcome, so I decided to continue...

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I have got an eclectic background of fashion, fine art, textiles and interiors and have always felt like I have straddled them all, not wanting to choose just one. Illustration allows me to move between all of these areas, which suits me very well indeed!

Tori's links:
portfolio
blog
profaile on saatch

13 Jun 2011

The winners of the pattern rally!

Hello all, hope everyone is having a lovely day today! We had so many amazing submissions for our pattern rally and we really really enjoyed it, it was probably one of the best rallies we've ever had... hope you guys liked it too. The lovely Paper Bicycle has picked the winners and the runners up, read their blog post here to see their reasoning! Both the winners and runners up will receive a special prize from them, so here are the most deserving winners, congratulations everyone, I really enjoyed seeing your beautiful works and I agree wholeheartedly with their choices!

Floral pattern

Winner: Lou Peajeux

Runner up: Deborah van de Leijgraaf

Food pattern

Winner: Andrew Joyce

Runner up: Nadia Alkhafaji

Pet pattern

Winner: Elisandra

Runner up: Roxy Marj

Live drawing artist feature: Mr Millerchip

We have a feature now on the fantastic Mr Millerchip who will be gracing us with his magic pens at our upcoming Paint it! Make it! The dynamic live artist brings us some cool stylings with a mix of low brow art and graffiti culture, using his iconic characters that really draw you in and take you into his world. There is something both edgy and comforting about his work , it gives you that warm glow of skate and alt. culture with that elite slickness of a well established illustrator. Live drawing is that great mix of curiosity and involvement, where at once you are part of the scene, passively watching but at the same time you know that something magical is being created and you are witness to an ever changing phenomenon. Surrounded by art and pens, watching the work unfold is great, as the viewer and the illustrator have an unseen back and forth where influence flows both ways.

Live drawing is the bleeding edge of illustration and is one of the big influencers in shaping the modern game. If illustration is undergoing a renaissance then live drawing would be step ladder Michelangelo used to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It's a tool but more than that it's the leg up to a culture of creation, which will drive illustration forwards in new and unexpected ways.

Joel is one of these pioneers, blazing an epic inky trail through the heart of the urban environment, leaving dry pens like spent cartridges in the epic war against the mundane. Live drawing is just that, alive, fun and social, its drawing but inclusive.

Like the Web 2.0 of illustration, live drawing mashes all your worlds together. It's simple, you just have to be there...

Who are you:

Joel Millerchip I'm a black and white illustrator based in Suffolk who visually communicates briefs by using curly haired characters, social situations, and story telling.

By noting down unusual and mundane aspects of life I have books and boxes brimming with stories and visual recordings that I use to to inspire illustrations for any briefs.

What is it about live drawing that gets you going:

the challenge of problem solving when people are watching and the social aspect of it.

What are your thoughts about the event:

Stupidly excited about the collaboration with Kristian, catching up with a few chums ( i believe Stephen Chan owes me a brew? ), and hopefully help to raise a few pennies for a good cause.

A personal statement about you and your work:
work: I have a very obsessive approach to illustration, I carry note books and sketchbooks with me at all times to create a catalogue of stories and people, which are hidden away until the right commission comes a long.

From doodles of Crispin based characters to notes on absurd conversations, all is documented to help create ideas for comerical briefs.

Me: Proud Father, Loving Husband, & Illustrator

images:
tshirt design: dunkun for ngngdesign
clarance b king: live draing at camden lock for Kitch-en gallery
sideme: live drawing at blowcreates exbo

Links:
portfolio
blog
facebook
twitter