The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Rewind… Summer 2015 and the Golden Greats Exhibition

So let's kick off the Hand Drawn Creative re-cap with last summer's exhibition as part of Bangor's Open House Festival. I remember the opening night's weather being atrocious – heavy rain & black clouds don't usually get people out at night. But I underestimated the draw of the Open House Festival and opening night was a huge success and Sync Space was packed out. Here are a few of the pieces that were on show on August 2015 along with a short video from local filmmaker Ross McConaghy…

'Sync Space Presents' - Neal McCullough from Ross McConaghy on Vimeo.

  

Seven Delicious Flavours? Sounds Damn Fine!

Hey Gang, just working on a new little project with my new chums at Dublin's Damn Fine Print Workshop. They're holding a show at Dublin's RHA Museum in conjunction with Irish Design Week this Halloween. I'm chuffed to bits be involved, especially as it gives me an excuse to pop down to Dublin for a few days.

The brief was "Quirky historical Irish Artefacts"

I came up with this – an homage to to the beautiful advertising of (long gone) ice cream brand Bangor Maid…

God Help the Troubadour…

My First Exhibition is currently on show in my hometown of  Bangor! Finally, I've made it out of the Wendy House and onto the streets (Dufferin Avenue to be exact) Local Gallery SyncSpace is hosting the show which will be open for the rest of the month.

We opened on Wednesday night 7 August to (thankfully) see a crowd of folks pop in for a look at my work, both old & new (we even managed to sell quite a few prints too). So a BIG THANKS is due to the SyncSpace Crew, Stephen Potter for taking some cracking photos on the night (some of which you can see here). And thank you to everyone who made it down on the night. It's been a career high point for me, I'm inspired to work on the next one as soon as possible!

     

 

Sharp Summer Looks

Hi there, people have also commented on the inherent cool the Hand Drawn Creative logo exudes. Now you can share the magic. I've teamed up with Montreal's misterdressup to bring you a ONE WEEK ONLY deal. For 20 Canadian dollars you snap up the official Hand Drawn Creative Tee until 23 June 2013. Please form an orderly queue.

Get ready (Size Matters)

Hey everyone. Just dropping in to announce an exciting new print venture between Hand Drawn Creative and Brough and Ready. Brough and Ready are a UK based team of experienced Illustrators, Designers and printers producing high quality cards and art prints aimed at the interiors market (you may know them from recent promotional campaigns through sites like ACHICA and FAB).

I approached Brough and Ready at the start of summer to discuss a possible collaboration, The guys at B&R were really interested – especially in my series of Stone Roses print ideas celebrating the legendary band's return to the stage this summer.

I've been working steadily all through July to get a bunch of great designs together, which I hope you'll really like. The main reason for teaming up with B&R is quality and size. Now you'll be able to order Hand Drawn Creative prints at large format sizes on gallery quality stock at prices I just couldn't match if I was working alone.

 

Dan Dare Print re-stocked

You may have missed this first time around, but I've printed a new batch, up for sale right now at the Hand Drawn Creative Store for a mere £20.

Vintage Automobiles Print

These illustrations have been on sale before in postcard format, but I've gathered them all here on this colourful little print to celebrate some of my favourite cars.

The Vintage Automobiles print makes a great gift for father or son and will look right at home in either the nursery or the study (My framed copy currently resides in my baby boy's nursery). Each of the cars featured the print are around the size of a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car.

Take a closer look at the Hand Drawn Creative Store

And let no-one know until I'm gone

Freshly reprinted for those who missed the first run. 20 copies have been made available through my Etsy Store. Just click on the image below.

Dan Dare to the Rescue!

The Kinks prints from my last post sold really well (sold out in fact) and I've been beavering away on some new print designs to release by the end of summer. This one is actually for Planet Pulp's August submission (the theme is fictional travel posters). I've researched my old, childhood favourite Dan Dare and created a Space Cruise Poster based on an old Frank Hampson strip from the 50s called Terra Nova. I've not printed it yet – I'll let you know when it's available though

God save screenprinting…

So it's August and it's time to step on the gas and get some new work up and out of the new studio. This is a new 50x70cm (19.5x27.5 inches) print I've produced at my local printworks, printed on Fabriano cream 220gsm. This typographic study using Avant Garde and Trade Gothic is inspired by an old design/slogan used in USA promotion for the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society LP. I've been a big Kinks fan all my life (I even moved to Muswell Hill on the strength of Ray Davies coming from there). I'm releasing 15 of these prints at £30 each in the next few weeks (just waiting for a delivery of postal tubes). Each one is hand pulled by myself, and as such, no one print is visually perfect, but that's what I love about screenprinting – all the little shifts and imperfections make each print a true original.