Kate is updating us everyday with how she is getting on with all her meetings in the US, today she sent us a picture of her wheels! – Rather nice we think.
Advocate Art are proud to be representing Susan Frank; an exceptionally talented fine artist who creates landscape and still life studies. Her images are beautifully painted, capturing the atmosphere of the moment - read on to find out more about her and the way she approaches her work. To see more of her work on the Advocate website click here.
“I was born in New York, and spent most of my childhood in the small City of Kingston, on the Hudson River near the Catskill Mountains.
I moved to Los Angeles, California at 19, to escape the cold winters. I spent eleven years in California before moving to Houston, Texas, and then to Colorado where I now reside.
I attended art classes at the University of Houston, and the Glassel School of Art in Texas, and continued taking classes at the Art Students League of Denver for two years upon arriving in Colorado. Mostly I read a lot of art technique books and practice as much as possible.
My artwork is displayed in several corporate collections in Colorado, including Cable Labs in Louisville, CO, Cisco Systems in Denver and Boulder, CO, and Great West Life Insurance in Denver.
I share a 1500 sq ft town home with my dog (John Brown), and two cats (Lily and Agatha). I enjoy city life, but I truly love life in the countryside. My current home is in a fairly rural area, surrounded by ranchers (cows from the neighboring ranch have wandered into the park in front of my home and coyotes are frequent visitors), open space trails, mountains, and just enough city life close by to make it all work well.
Spending long days creating art in my studio is my idea of pure bliss.
My favorite art book is “Composition of Outdoor Landscape” by Edgar Payne. My approach to my own artwork is to plan each design with preliminary sketches, but then let go and feel confident, once the real execution of the artwork begins; …….allow for surprises in the process, and try to keep a good sense or feeling about when to end the piece. It’s never the same adventure twice.”
We are very lucky at Advocate to have received lots of lovely christmas pressies and cards from our illustrators and clients! We have received cookies, chocolates, retro sweets, popcorn and cakes, we won’t be going hungry that’s for sure . . . . thank you!
Here at Advocate we are happy to be representing Paul Chipperfield, a fine artist working primarily with digital media to create quirky characters in interesting environments. His extremely imaginative illustrations are based around narrative and children’s storybooks. Read on to find out a little more about him.
“Illustrating from my studio in a delightful former watchmaker’s cottage in Coventry, I am a happy beneficiary of an area positively teeming with illustrative inspiration, contrary to popular opinion of the town! My residence here is a result of having studied Illustration at Coventry University; I was in fact born and raised in Essex, where my passion for drawing first flourished.
My roots are ingrained in fine art, however, the allure of commercial illustration and the challenge of working to a brief proved to be too strong! A member of the Association of Illustrators, I love to immerse myself in all things illustrative. Currently, I work digitally, having embraced new technology and all the wonder and convenience that it entails. However, I suspect pencils, paint and paper will lure me back yet, given time!
My style is a charming blend of whimsical characters in fantasy settings, with a strong sense of narrative; quite frequently an overflow of the fertile depths of my imagination! Specialising in children’s books and greeting cards, my work is rich in detail and strongly evocative of traditional media.”
At Advocate illustration agency we are very excited to announce that children’s book Rhino? What rhino? illustrated by Advocater Sarah Horne has been shortlisted for the Sheffield Children’s book award. The ceremony takes place next Tuesday and we wish Sarah the best of luck and hope that she wins! Click here to go to Sarah’s blog and if you’d like to see more of her work on the Advocate website then click here. Here he is on amazon!
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At Advocate art illustration agency we represent a diverse range of creatives from oil painters to digital illustrators. Owner of Advocate, Ed Burns has written a short piece on how to decide whether you are an illustrator, an artist or a designer.
“Designer, illustrator or artist – Edward Burns of Advocate Art says it’s important to decide who you are.
When reviewing an artist’s submission, I’m guilty of skimming over the intro letter – where studied, where lives, age, what inspires them, what they want to be… I suppose it’s all immaterial really if the work does not fit our market. However the one thing in the letter I do look out for is what the person describes themselves as – designer, illustrator or artist. It may sound obvious but how a creative describes themselves within these 3 terms speaks volumes on how open they are to accept commissions, or do they simply want their creative output commercialised (i.e. sell the rights and originals). What is much less obvious is it does NOT describe their work – not at all.
“I’m a textile/greeting card/typography designer”
“I’m a childrens/editorial/graphic novel illustrator”
“I’m an artist”
I list the terms in degrees of openness or “up-for-it-ness”, not by the sophistication of the technique or the medium, or complexity of composition. eg. Damian Hirst’s famous screen print circles could look at first glance pure design, but it’s art. How would you describe a fine art greeting card of say a cricket scene produced in oils, to us it’s design, not art. Illustration lies somewhere on the spectrum between graphic design and artistry, here the lines are even more blurred. To further make my point it could be said that prior to the advent of photography most art was illustration, often the greatest paintings were slabs of propaganda, serving the church or monarchy. Those creatives were illustrators, maybe designers: but creatives like Monet, who had an idea and technique, they were artists. Today it’s about whose idea you want to work with, whose story – who’s propaganda if you like, yours, or someone else’s.
We represent the whole spectrum of creatives at Advocate Art, we sell rights and win commissions. We would choose a designer for a different job than an illustrator or artist of course. More over we won’t offer commissioned work to someone who describes themselves as an artist at all, but market what comes out from them instead. We don’t define a creative by medium, because designers paint, as do illustrators and artists: it’s not the media they work in that defines where they position themselves, or even what they produce – but their openness to be a hired hand.
So if on the submission email “Dorothy, 26 from Gosport that got a 2.1 in Leeds” has NOT described herself in one of those 3 terms it will be my first question when I call her. I’ve been there – yep, and looked for an agent as well. I’ve also struggled to describe myself in creative terms. Some styles can be commissioned and some come from ideas deep from within. How you describe yourself in these 3 commercial terms tells the world if you are commissionable or an artist of self expression – “stand back it’s all me” or “I can illustrate your point”.
Images: Top left – Simon Mendez – design, Top right – Leila Fanner – art, Bottom – Louise Anglicas – illustration
This year marks the third annual celebration of freelancers, and at Advocate Art we thinks it’s great that freelancers are being acknowledged with their very own day! We would not be able to run Advocate Art if it wasn’t for all the wonderful freelance artists and illustrators that we have on board, so thank you everyone! the There are 1.4 million of you in the UK alone, and more and more are joining the ranks, so Happy Freelancers Day! Even David Cameron has written a short note to mark the occasion. Click here to visit the National freelancers website.
At Advocate illustration agency we have yet another featured artist of the month! Bill Bolton is a successful children’s book illustrator who captures the imaginary and brings it to life. As you can see from his dynamic illustrations he enjoys creating scenes full of action and adventure, with hosts of intriguing characters; from bears riding bikes to kids riding crocodiles, his work captivates and entertains. if you’d like to see more of Bill’s work click here to visit the Advocate website.
Another of Advocate’s featured artists this month is children’s book illustrator Steve Whitlow. His soft and sweet illustrations are sensitively made conveying cute and cuddly animals, dinosaurs, babies, people, christmas imagery and religious themes including children’s book The Story of Easter, published earlier this year. His basic yet expressive faces make his work perfect for children’s books and appealing to all viewers. To see more of Steve’s work on the Advocate website click here.
At Advocate Art illustration agency we are very excited to announce another one of our featured illustrators, Jim Mitchell. Jim works very traditionally creating beautiful images for greeting cards and art licensing. His subject mater is extremely varied, from people to cityscapes, countryside themes to sport, christmas imagery to animals and military figures and war scenes including the iconic Spitfire amongst others. As it is nearly christmas we have selected a range of his beautiful christmas cards to showcase! If you want to know more about Jim you can read his biography below.
“My early years were spent in Stoke on Trent, son of a ceramic pattern and transfer maker, and nephew of a famous aeroplane designer. So, it wasn’t surprising that I went to Art College, gaining my degree in Graphic Design and Illustration, discovering all the materials and methods that were available , investigating how they worked and how other illustrators used them.
My first commercial work involved producing military illustrations for units of the British Army stationed in Germany, soon followed by a long relationship with aviation art and illustration, including book covers and other work for Arms and Armour Press, Sidgwick and Jackson, and Orion Books.
An interest in style and media techniques has led me to develop skills in oils, acrylics, gouache and watercolour – I was fortunate enough to produce early commissioned illustrations for such widely differing clients as the Licensed Victuallers Association, Trend Paints and Waddington’s jigsaws. Among other types of work at this stage, I was producing impressions of proposed developments for architectural companies.
Next came working as a freelance for Mirage Fine Art, producing historical event aviation prints, and then curiously my family background of ceramic transfer manufacture was echoed in my being offered the opportunity to paint commissioned images for the Past Times company, subjects such as sports, trains, cars, animals, historical events and famous people. These were used on such items as mugs and teapots. My aviation designs were used on collectors plates by clients such as Royal Doulton, Coalport China, and I produced the artwork for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain plate , sold jointly by the RAF Museum and the Sunday Express. More recent work has included large amounts of Greeting cards featuring children, atmospheric landscape, architecture and aerial views, Book illustration (including work for the children’s market) children, adults and military, Illustrations for product labels, Commissioned Jig-saw designs, subjects including nostalgia, people, vintage transport and settings and Calendars.”
To see more of Jim’s work on the Advocate website click here.
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