I work as a live illustrator for a number of workshops and events around the Madlove Project. Visiting various mental health institutions in the UK and occasionally in Europe, we run similar workshops with diverse groups of people; patients, ex patients, staff and other professionals.

In any given workshop, I quickly draw the ideas and elements of the discussions as they happen using coloured markers. The images are usually quite swift, cartoon-like representations of objects and ideas. Afterwards, these images are documented and I redraw some of the more popular and interesting concepts in black ink, in a fairly realistic portrayal of items and ideas described.

These illustrations will go on to form a part of an exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection in September 2016. Free entry from mid September. We hope the exhibit will tour in 2017.

Ongoing project until autumn 2016.

Jan 2016 - September 2016

Rozelle is a natural parkland, gallery and house run by South Ayrshire Council and it is situated near Alloway, South of Ayr. They felt the need to have a designated, illustrated map of the estate including all the interior attractions as many visitors could easily miss the more secluded carvings and sculptures. Little illustrations of the wildlife in Rozelle’s largely natural wilderness are featured as a panel to the right of the main map. The key assists in finding basic amenities and there’s also (in the illustration, etc. style) a handy fact about Rozelle’s tree species!

The map has a slightly ‘creative’ scale and even has north at the bottom of the map! This makes the site much easier to navigate for a visitor who doesn’t need to find the points of the compass (let’s be honest, that’s most of us). A visitor can easily orientate themselves via the featured items on the map and visit smashing places like the life size figure carvings in the Remembrance woodland, the ever-changing artists in the gallery and the crocodile hiding in the house.

The map launches as part of the festival of museums in May 2016. An A4 copy of the map will be available to every visitor to the house.

April 2016

Using the Wellcome Collection as a base, Hannah Hull and a group of young people who hear voices worked on concepts concerning voice hearing. Using their workshop models, drawings and written ideas, I worked with Hannah to produce illustrations that would effectively communicate their concepts without simplifying them. Their witty, intelligent and imaginative work is brought to life through these illustrations, making them visually accessible to a wider audience.

There are seven distinct projects, each by one voice hearer;

I’m not broken; I’m a masterpiece by Nikki

Voice Hearer’s Headphones by Deliylah

Torso of a Voice Hearer by Mallory

The Sleeping Siren by Tyra

Stigma Starter Kit by Lizzie

My Infinity by Rhea

The Colour of My Emotions by Millie

Find out more about the voice hearing project here and more about these artworks by going here.

The exhibition, ‘This is a Voice’ runs in the Wellcome Collection from 14th April -31stJuly 2016. These pieces are situated by the Studio on the first floor.

April 2016

Organised alongside Glasgow Doors Open Day,  the illustrious Glasgow illustrations are a visual celebration of some of Glasgow’s great architecture. I’ve worked with DOD several times in the past in different capacities and it’s one of my favourite weeks of the year. As a lover of people’s stories, architecture and Glasgow, I am in my element! A new illustration and accompanying fun fact will be released each month throughout 2016 in preparation for September’s week long Doors Open Day Festival.

A joint venture, funded by NHS Scotland and managed by Glasgow Life, this community arts project sought to tackle the issue of low uptake of cervical screening (smear testing) among many Glasgow women. The project tackled some of the taboos, the fear, shame, embarrassment and tricky issues around both being a woman and the complex issue of women’s health.

I worked with two groups in the North East of the city; All Saints Secondary school and a mum and toddler group at Tron St Mary’s church on Red Road. Using different approaches in a series of six workshops, together we explored the reasons why uptake could be low, our own opinions and reservations (‘smear fear’) as well as the ways we could effect change with visual outcomes.

In the school, the group was mixed gender, aged 15-16 and we spent an amount of time engaging with why cervical screening is important, the changes and effects it potentially has on women and how it can empower us through healthy relationships. Their outcome is a series of posters depicting scissors cutting the threat of a time bomb. I used the actual pencil artwork created by one pupil as the foundation for the poster and using digital colour, cleaned it and worked their taglines around the design. They were very satisfied with the way their outcome was presented and I believe it encouraged the entire group to see screening as not only important, but essential to wellbeing. I needed to be sensitive at all times to the school’s Catholic policies and also take into account their ages (they will not require screening for a number of years).

The Red Road group were all mothers and as such had a more personal understanding of screening and the reasons for disengagement. With their enthusiasm, we were able to pull three connected outcomes based on popular women’s magazines. These ‘spoof’ covers depict women positively and address the issues around screening in a very upfront, straightforward way. We had fun with the genre and with subverting the tropes of women’s throwaway literature. The outcomes are meaningful and usable and I believe could benefit from further development in a wider context.

The winter long project culminated in a launch event in Govan on International Women’s day 2016 (8th March). Workshop participants, artists and locals were invited to attend and enjoy and critique the outcomes in a friendly, open environment. The event presented all the outcomes – including those from a third group of women in Govan, facilitated mainly by Alwyn Main.

Oct 2015 – Mar 2016

An event organised by Pidgin Perfect and commissioned by Merchant City Festival 2015 and VELOCITY. The Banchetto framed a discussion and celebration of the current shifting culture in the famous Barras area of Glasgow.

My role was to work with local business, the Pantry Cafe to form one of the three celebratory meal courses – the main. After I undertook some interviews and research in the area, together we designed two sandwiches; The Barras Club (Irn Bru chicken, bacon and salad) and the Glasgow Green Club (Cheese, Irn Bru chutney and salad). The sandwiches were wrapped in illustrated newsprint, folding into a ‘fortune teller’ about the Barras area. The sandwiches were adorned with laser cut sandwich spikes with easily recognisable local icons to complete the ‘pieces’ of the Barras.  

Glasgow Doors Open Day is an annual event in September organised by Glasgow Buildings Preservation Trust (GBPT). In 2015, they commissioned an illustrated map to accompany a new Children's trail. I drew twenty buildings as well as various other sights they wished to include. I took on the layout and design, creating a complete map on one side and information and a key on the other.

The design is colourful, simple and appealing so it can be enjoyed by children as well as their accompanying adults. One of these printed A3 maps was given to every single primary aged child in the Greater Glasgow area in order to encourage participation in the week long festival.

May - July 2015

The university shop commissioned a range of exclusive merchandise based on famous alumni, including Adam Smith, Lord Kelvin and James Watt. These three designs all contain an illustrated timeline of life events, portraits, signatures and their achievements. The designs are a fun interpretation of facts and figures, brightening up any office or home.

The whole range is available from the university shop from September 2015 and the three main designs are available as A5 notebooks, prints, mugs, ceramic coasters, double sided tote bags and magnets.

Feb-May 2015

A permanent outdoor artwork for Shetland Library, commissioned by the Scottish Book Trust and facilitated by Pidgin Perfect. The ‘High Standards of Shetland Library’ is a series of four hand sewn flags, inspired by Shetland Library, the islands and the Jackie Kay poem, ‘Dear Library’. The designs celebrate the different aspects of the library; the mobile libraries, the family and children’s services, the people, the books and the building. The wooden flagpole was made by Paparwark for the ‘standards’ and harks back to the Shetland seafaring, craft based culture.

The artwork was officially unveiled on Friday 28th November as part of Scottish Book week 2014, with four other artworks across Scotland unveiled in the preceding four days. The launch event began with the first flag being flown. Locals were treated to coffee and cake, and children were invited for colouring in, singing, storytelling and other activities.

November 2014

Hand drawn map with digital colour. Commissioned by Community Renewal for the Govanhill People's History Project for their website, accompanying leaflet and listening trail in the area. Showcases many of the well known sights of Glasgow's Govanhill, but also ties into oral history collected from local residents.

The leaflet of the listening trail  is available for free at local libraries and community centres, as well as online as a download. To view an STV interview about the project, just click here.

Jan 2015

A book commissioned by the Village Storytelling Centre  to commemorate the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988. The book contains recollections from locals of all ages that remember the pavilions, events and flowers at the festival. I created colour accented ink illustrations for the cover and interior pages to complement the text and bring some colour to the stories.

Jan 2014

To celebrate Glasgow’s Commonwealth year, I wanted to build on my Glasgow Alphabet, revisit the places and draw a map of all twenty-six letters. I wanted to explore the places and the people that make them special to Glasgow. The A2 printed maps have the buildings and street plan on the front, but the reverse is the result of over eleven hours of recording. I interviewed a person from each of the twenty-six Glasgow icons in order to get their personal reflections and insights, some of which features on the map.

The Lighthouse launched my map and accompanying exhibition in the long gallery in time for the Commonwealth Games opening and I conducted tours all summer and for Doors Open Day 2014

Spring- Summer 2015

Selma is the name of a refugee who came to the UK from Serbia in 1991. Vickie was her friend and lived with her in a school for several months – she’s now a theatre maker. The illustration element was the creation of a ‘mobile museum’ of handmade, marker drawn artifacts. It ended up being 10 drawers, 5 suitcases, one huge game and a big banner. Impressively, it all fits in the back of a car. The Terra Incognita show is designed for school age children and it toured in early 2014, early and mid 2015 too.

Photos by Jassie Earl. 2014

I created the Glasgow Alphabet with the help of local people through social media. They made suggestions for every letter and I illustrated one each day so people could keep up with the real time progress as well as feel involved in the process. The finished alphabet is a colourful celebration of all twenty-six icons in the ABC, from Armadillo, Barras and Clyde all the way to the Zoology Museum. The icons have a good spread geographically across the city, are culturally all different and they are a mixture of famous places as well as some more hidden favourites.

Prints of various sizes, printed teatowels and the accompanying Glasgow Alphabet Map are all available from several Glasgow retailers as well as from my online shop.

Sept-Oct 2012

Commissioned by Carlisle City Council and sponsored by Dulux paint, the murals were to reinvigorate a tired urban area of Carlisle. The Sands Centre mural is a series of seven painted walls covering elements of the area’s past and present. The designs were based on the Amazing Carlisle Facts series I designed, but also cover elements of the unique Cumbrian culture and history. It contains sheep counting, railways, Cumberland wrestling, lions, unicorns, Hadrian’s Wall and more. The 250 square metre mural took me and a team of volunteers twenty-one days to paint! The murals are a permanent fixture in the city centre and were opened by the Mayor in June 2013.

May 2013

Theatre company, Tortoise in a nutshell commissioned a series of illustrations for their 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show, GRIT. The show tells the story of child soldiers and the effect of war on children. The show featured puppetry, movement and manipulation of projected, illustrated images – which I drew to their specifications. I created the images in ink and digitally accented each with a sharp, bold colour. Most of the images depict people, but there are cityscapes, tanks and objects of war included in the expansive series. It was punishing!

Spring 2013

In association with the Arches in Glasgow, National Theatre of Scotland commissioned a series of illustrations for their Auteurs Project programme. It was part of the Behaviour Festival. The five performers were illustrated in sharp, dark pencil along with a series of objects from their shows. The artists were Kieran Hurley, Rob Drummond, Claire Cunningham (no relation), Nic Green and Gary McNair.

March 2013

To contend in the emerging electric bicycle market, I assisted Momentum Electric at the start up phase of their business. I helped generate branding ideas and a colour scheme to fit in with the products, adhering to their core guidelines of simplicity, efficiency, value, improvement and joy. The illustrations I produced are full of bright colour and clarity with a sense of energy and fun.

I completed two manual designs as well as copy for both, stemming from the previous experience with creating Hoover manuals. Most prominent are the fun digital illustrations I created for the company website as well as marketing materials for the social media arm; these included some silly animated gifs which I thoroughly enjoyed seeing come to life!

2012-2014

Animal Patterns

Created as an exercise in repeat patterns, these are relatively unknown, not liked or just plain weird animals. The animals were requested by people on social media and I shortlisted and illustrated them as single or two colour prints. The designs include unusual creatures like the naked mole rat, John Dory, platypus, moths, jellyfish and armadillo. They were used for the 2014 Illustration, etc. calendar, but I’m looking for other ways to use them in the future.

Jul 2013