Cutting and Sticking

I work in a variety of media; I enjoy drawing, vector illustration, digital painting, real life painting etc... but one of my styles that I developed during my degree (at Glasgow School of Art) is a collage style that I think is quite individual.

I colour and cut papers and layer them up before photographing them. My first piece was an illustration of a Ceilidh for the front cover of the Big Issue. I then had a lovely commission for The Scottish Ballet where I observed and sketched the dancers at rehearsals and studied their costumes to create several pieces of work for their calendar and exhibition.

I also have had work published in this style by Paperchase, in Elle magazine, as greetings cards, wall art, book covers and corporate illustration.

Most recently I have revisited this technique for Tigerprint, creating traditional style Christmas cards (under wraps until Xmas 2010!). Fashions come and go and a commercial artist has to evolve to be successful. I don't know whether it's because paper cutting is becoming more in demand (thanks to the likes of Mr Rob Ryan... and have you seen Jayme Mcgowan and Peter Callesen?) or whether this way of working contrasts to current trends, but it's really nice to get the ink rollers and scalpel out again!