Blog

Playing as a creative process

Most of my recent drawing has been about exploring techniques, materials and processes. I guess all artists do this by default, but I sense that all of my work, is, at present, a work-in-progress, ideally leading to some form of thematic or technical resolution.  I’ve always been a fan of collage and mixed media and some […]

Hello!

  It’s been a while since writing any posts. However, despite this, I have been busy studying, drawing, making collages, lettering and, as ever, teaching. The blog will likely take on a more visual form from now on; populated with work and work-in-progress. The site has had something of an overhaul. Nothing particularly slick, just […]

E. H. Shepard. War Drawings

The E.H. Shepard exhibition at London’s House of Illustration is simply superb. Most of us will be familiar with his Winnie the Pooh drawings, but I, for one, knew little of his output beyond this. I was simply amazed at how effortless his work appeared to be in respect of creating beautifully fluid lines that […]

Victorian Illustrated Letter

Recently I acquired this little Victorian illustrated letter where images are used to replace words. Dated 1861, it’s addressed to one James Nood? 130 George Street, Edinburgh and is titled ‘The Picture Letter by Catherine Sinclair’. This was a letter for children to enjoy and I recall things like this being published in children’s books and […]

AOI World Illustration Awards, 2015 at Somerset House

  oday’s visit to London’s Somerset House was essentially a day for thinking about all things Illustrative. On what had to be one of the most glorious of October days we went to the AOI World Illustration Awards 2015, previously known as ‘Images’. The mission: We wanted to point out to our students that Illustration can be many things […]

Type Hunting

“Look!!! Typography!” #typeintheenvironment #typography #typeallaround #gravestone #graphics A photo posted by Sancha de Burca (@sanchagdp) on Sep 25, 2015 at 9:52am PDT   esterday we took our HND Graphic Design students out on a little typographic tour of their college town of Tonbridge. We wanted to stress the point that we spend our lives bombarded […]

Happiness is Good Handwriting!

As I have mentioned before I have something of an obsession with handwriting. As an obsessive maker of notes in an age that is witnessing a rapid decline in handwriting, I was fascinated and somewhat amused to discover T. Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms from 1888. Hill extolled the virtues of good penmanship, specifically […]

Thinking About (design) Thinking

o begins the new term at West Kent College and this week and my colleague and I have been introducing the new students to aspects of design thinking. We’re keen to stress the importance of thinking and approaches to the design process, trying to reiterate that using a computer as the exclusive means of problem […]