The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Arts, Crafts & Christmas…

Hey there everyone, I'm just prepping myself for tonight's Inspire Fair at Blick Studios tonight. I'll be exhibiting the Vintage Collection as I'd mentioned a couple of days ago. In addition to kick-ass guitars, I've just picked up my late entry, which is a nice, simple portrait of Belfast Lough.

I didn't expect the prints to get back until early next week, but my printer pulled it out of the bag overnight! Result! This means 2 things:

1. My Dad gets a Christmas present after all

2. I get to exhibit another winning illustration at tonight's Arts Fair!

I'll be there from 6-10pm tonight, why not pop up and have a look!

It's a small world after all…

This morning Hand Drawn Creative met with 2 of the Creative Industry's big boys! The mighty Wacom and Giant Associates.

Ian Sayers (a supporter of my illustration work) is setting up his new Creative software training company (Giant Associates) on Belfast's Belmont Road. He called to let me know that a Wacom representative was flying into Belfast and could I forward a portfolio of my work to help make them aware of Belfast's pool of illustration talent.

Well it turns out I'm much better connected in the international Creative Community than I thought. The Wacom rep only turned out to be Dave Oduro with whom I worked with in North London's Computers Unlimited! I haven't seen him since my London stag do in April!

Ian invited me along to their meeting where Dave gleefully showed us Wacom's flagship product – the majestic Cintiq graphics tablet. I'd used their prototype model some years ago and was impressed, but this new model really is very impressive. It'd take me ages to explain all the cool stuff you can do on this, so why not look at this Youtube video 

Pretty damn cool huh? Well… it is if you're a dynamic, young, creative professional like me! It was great to see Dave again and to catch up with the Giant Associates guys. Giant Associates will be up and running in the New Year, and judging by Dave's flying visit, Wacom are continuing to do very well. I'm hoping to work closely with both parties in the future.

Getting the good word out there…

 

Hi folks, hope everyone's doing ok and is ready for Christmas. If you have a few gifts still to get – I can heartily recommend heading to Blick Creative studios on Thursday 18 December for the Inspire Christmas Fair.

I'll be there with some exclusive A3 prints from the Vintage Collection, I've framed up a few of the prints by way of a preview. Why not pop down on Thursday, I'm sure there'll be plenty of other great Christmas gifts on offer.

Rocking the Hall

It's a peculiar thing – seeing your work out there on billboards can be one of the biggest buzzes a designer or Illustrator can get. Seeing your work being re-used after a couple of years can still be a real kick, it's just strange when you're no longer involved in the brief and another designer has been tweaking the artwork. I know, I know… Divo alert! I've always been very precious about my creations – they're almost like little vector offspring (yes that probably does sound weird to most – but I'll wager not to many other illustrators out there).

But I digress… Rock the Hall is a great New Years Event that first took place at Belfast City Hall on NYE 2006. I remember that the event was even broadcast live on my beloved BBC Radio 2! I guess those marketing bods at City Hall must have liked the logo, because 2 years later, they've decided to re-introduce it for this year's event. And guess what… Supergrass are headlining! Now all I have to do is wangle a couple of free tickets!

It's all about me!

Hey there folks, you join me as my shameless self promotion continues unabated on the run-up to Christmas. My pal Philip Wilson approached me as Curator of the Blick Studios Blog and has invited me to share some of my posts and recent news on the Blick Blog. The results can be seen here.

By the way I hope everyone's enjoying December's new Blog Header. I was going to go with a Christmas theme, but then I remembered I don't really like Christmas. I'm going to try and keep the HDC blog a "chintz-free" zone.