PORTAS PILOTS

Andy Council has recently completed this magnificent mural of a horse in the Bedminster area of Bristol. It was commissioned as part of the Government’s ‘Portas Pilots’ – an initiative to get TV retail guru Mary Portas to help revitalise town centres. Bedminster’s bid, put together by local traders, community leaders and councillors, had the vision of turning the south Bristol suburb into a renowned ‘village’ centre for street art and street theatre, complete with a bicycle rickshaw service. Andy's large mural took several days of work to complete with the help of the Upfest team, the use of a scissor lift and dozens of cans of spray paint. The horse was chosen to reflect the area's mining past and it is purely coincidental that current news stories involve horses! Photograph by Paul Green Photography. Andy Council is represented by illustration Ltd

PATRONAAT BAR

This rather gorgeous bar has been designed by the multi-talented Eric Van Den Boom of BoomArtwork. The Dutch venue Patronaat in Haarlem asked Eric to design this drinker's heaven from scratch, so with rough dimensions, a brief that it should have a fairground/church theme and two weeks to come up with the goods, Eric began with sketches of the shape, details, lettering and decoration. He says "When I had the sketch ready I art-directed the 3D artist Jasper Hesseling to create a 3D digital model of it, giving the client a good image of how the venue should look. The builders constructed the bar from these 3D images, and they did an amazing job". We'd love to have a drink there (or two)! BoomArtwork is represented by Illustration Ltd

IRS CALENDAR

Embracing a paper theme, Gail Armstrong was commissioned by the IRS in America to supply illustrations for their 2013 calendar. The calendar highlights key dates in the financial year and gives tips on completing accounts and tax forms, and as this was the last year of producing a paper version before switching over to digital forms, it seemed more than appropriate to ask a paper sculptress to come up with the goods! Gail says "...(the images) closely reflected the text of each month...(and) the tone throughout was reasonably light-hearted, yet authoritative, some of the images being created using tax forms, brown envelopes and ledger paper." Gail Armstrong is represented by Illustration Ltd

Satoshi Kambayashi

Satoshi Kambayashi has been producing wonderful illustrated covers for PLC magazine for over twelve years. With complex financial briefs, Satoshi still manages to extract the humour from sometimes very  serious confusing subjects. Here is his cover for the April issue based on Cyber attacks. Satoshi Kambayashi is represented by Phosphor Art

Poonam Mistry for UWC Magazine

Poonam Mistry was commissioned to illustrate a cover for UWC magazine which is a charitable publication working with a global network of schools and colleges etc for world peace. Her brief was to encompass the challenges for education when there is economic discrimination. Her striking black and white image made the cover a real success.

Poonam Mistry is represented by Phosphor Art

Abbi Glines’ new books

New Artist Katherine Baxter Joins Début Art

Ever since Katherine Baxter was a child, she's been fascinated by looking at the world from above, whether it was a model village or from the top of the Empire State Building. Ever since leaving Bath Academy of Art, it's been her inspiration in creating pictorial maps, aerial views and architectural vistas of cities, towns, and villages all over the world, although London and New York are top of her list. She has been lucky enough to have been commissioned by a number of clients including The Times, The Radio Times and The Daily Telegraph to explore and illustrate large areas of London, and it still gives her joy to create something new....... She illustrates using traditional drawing methods, her trusty Rotring pens are a constant companions, although she does use the computer for colouring and creating digital files, her passion still lies in the actual mark making of pen on paper.

She has worked with a wide range of clients from Children’s book publishers , newspapers to Advertising agencies. She is commissioned not simply for her drawing, but her creative and narrative ability to interpret a brief beyond the basic product of cartography, this includes many things like research, planning and composition....her main aim is to create something beautiful that is informative in nature, and urges the viewer to retain it as a keepsake!

Pams Flour

Angela Keoghan was commissioned by Brother Design to work on a range of flour packaging for Pams, a leading brand in New Zealand and Australia. The packaging features illustrated scales, apron, jar, oven glove and small icons such as cookies and cakes. Angela's gorgeous illustrations provide the perfect inspiration for home bakers to get creative in the kitchen.  Angela Keoghan is represented by Eastwing

Poonam Mistry

Poonam Mistry was commissioned by Ogilvy advertising, to produce a series of limited edition prints for an Amex promotion to their top clients.  Poonam’s refined and detailed style fitted their brief perfectly, and the series has had great success. Poonam Mistry is represented by Phosphor Art

Barbara Bongini for Usborne

Italian artist Barbara Bongini has been working away on a great series of original books from Usborne publishing. Fairy Ponies tells the tales of a little girl, Holly, and the magical world of the fairy ponies. Barbara's ability to create fabulous images in both colour and b&w have proved hugely successful in these books, and we can give you a sneak peek in this lovely article from Usborne: http://usbornepublishing.tumblr.com/post/43642014368/away-with-the-fairies

Barbara Bongini is represented by The Organisation