thisisnickwhite too

The Maestro's Loss

2012-01-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Normally at this time of the year (the start) I would post all the things I forgot to post during the last year but instead I thought I'd start as I mean to go on and post something published in 2012. This Illustration was for the Observer and came out on New Years day which also happens to be the first day of the year. The drawing accompanied a short story by Hari Kunzru called 'The Maestro's Loss' and was / is a great story to try and Illustrate. Go read it over here. The Cembalo Scrivano that the story has at it's centre is a fascinating contraption and you can really imagine a writer having to push down hard on those thick wooden keys.

As you can see the piece was printed up nice and big which was pretty exciting when I opened up the paper on Sunday, though perhaps others were probably cursing me for getting newspaper ink all over their fingers and elbows.

I also got to include a few chalk drawings of the typewriter as a spot. Noice.

V&A Friday Late and Collectionistas.

2011-11-24T08:25:00.001-08:00

I am involved in some things this weekend that should be brills. Firstly this friday evening 25th November I will be at the V&A as part of Friday Late - No Strings. In the words of the people form the V&A who wrote this -

Friday Late No Strings explores the world of contemporary graphics, typography and illustration through the lens of independent publishing. Collate your own zine with Publish and Be Damned or illustrate a 1-page comic with Nobrow. Witness 150 pages being read aloud in the Visual Editions Mass Reading Event and enjoy talks by Simon Garfield, Elias Redstone, Tom Keeley and friends of Eye magazine. Take part in screen-printing and bookbinding workshops and enjoy the sounds and visuals of DJ/VJ combination David Wilson and Sam Potter in the Grand Entrance.

I will be there as part of Nobrow who are taking over and curating the cafe. I will be tattooing people with an image of either an Animal, Vegetable or Mineral. There looks like lots of good workshops, talks and things to look at as well as me scribbling on people's arms. It's on from 6.30pm-10pm and it's free. More info here

The second thing is Collectionistas a Risograph print exhibition at The Mill co Project on Vyner st.

The exhibition curated by Kavel Rafferty is all about collecting and I am one of 25 artists / collectors who have created an image for the exhibition. My print is called 'Things in Bottles that aren't ships' and shows the future of my current collection 'Things in bottles that aren't ships'. (Above is a crop.)

The private view is this saturday 26th Nov from 12 - 7pm, where there will be refreshments and real records played by real record collectors. The prints (printed by Hato press) will be for sale at the very reasonable price of £15 and at limited edition of 30. The Millo Co Project is Here.

Perhaps see you at one of these!

Handmade and Bound 2011

2011-11-17T04:37:00.001-08:00

Yo! I will be sharing a stall with the stupendous Mr Sam Rees this sunday at Handmade and Bound. The book art and zine fair has moved from to the new location of St Brides near Fleet st. As the above poster says it is open 12 - 6 and should have some fine folk selling super folded-paper based artworks.

K.K.II + Lmnop Q&A (The Alphabet post)

2011-10-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

This saturday sees the second Kibbo Kift event held at The Victoria in Dalston in London. It is a night of musical music spoken spoken word all done by people who normally draw instead of these things. I will be playing some hastily made up songs and then watching proper bands Glow Wing and Fever Dream show me how it's meant to be done. The night is organised by the whirlwind that is Supermundane and features Will Edmonds and Nic Burrows (two thirds of Nous Vous) as well as Sarah Lippett (half of Crayon Legs) and Adrian Fleet (100% percent of Adrian Fleet). There will be a set of limited edition postcards by the performers and a badge for the first 100 hundred peoples.

More info here but not here. Do come it'll be fun.

In more work related news I did a Q & A with the fine people over at the LMNOP Shop who have a lovely shop in Brighton and great online one too. If you want to hear me chat about collecting, artists that I like and other ramblings head here but not here and definitely not here or here.

Supermarket Sarah Wall!

2011-08-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

I was asked a wee while ago to curate my own wall for the website Supermarket Sarah so I said 'Yeah, sounds swell.' As mentioned before Supermarket Sarah is an online shop whereby you create a wall in real life, take a photo of it, upload this to the internet (not real life) and you can click on the items to buy them. (I really don't need to explain this stuff to you as I know you're smarter than the average bear and know how clicking with a mouse works.)

Anyhoo. It was fun to do and I managed to get a load of great work from talented buddies like Mr Ben Newman, Signore Rico, the amigos from Nous Vous, Monsieur Sam Rees, Herr Florian Kremb, Señor Paddy Molloy and Master Tom Hicks so there's plenty of stuff to take your fancy.

There's a whole lot of stuff to buy like prints, framed original art works, ceramics, fake tattoos, books zines. I also made some bits and bobs specifically for the wall like some screen printed tee shirts and bags.

As well as this hand painted plate. I think perhaps you should go there now and buy some stuff for birthday presents or something.

Tee Shirtsssssss and A.P.F.

2011-05-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

My agents Heart have released their very own clothing label called 'Heart Editions' where surprisingly enough, they are getting their very own artists to design tee shirts. I am one of the five artists to be in the first round of editions along with Tom Gauld, Marion Deuchars, Jason Ford and Shonagh Rae.

I have drawn a snake that looks like it's wrapped around your neck because I am clever like that. The snakes' pattern is filled with nonsensical goings on as can be seen above. Head over to the Heart store to procure your very own tee which comes with a tag signed by the artist and where my tee seems to be modeled by some bearded weirdo.

Here's another design that although was not used this time, I hope will be, in the future as there really aren't enough people wearing tank tops these days.

In other news I'll be over at the Alternative Press Fair this sunday at Conway Hall from 10-4. I have finally got round to getting my zine's 'Stuff I found' and 'Never Show Knees In Public' printed up proper so more than a couple of people at a time can buy one. The newer version of 'Never Show Knees...' also has 4 extra pages so comes in at a humongous 28 pages. I'll also be selling new tattoos, prints, cards and anything else I can find that I can sell. I am nothing but a big ol sell out. No, I'd like nothing more than to be a sell out. No, wait It would be nice to sell out, of stuff.

KIBBO KIFT!

2011-04-06T01:24:00.000-07:00

This blog seems to have turned into just one long running advertisement for events that I am taking part in. And so here I advertise that this saturday I will be taking part in KIBBO KIFT a night organised by Supermundane where people who normally draw for a living will be performing spoken word and music what they made up. I am performing with Mr Andrew Rae and Mr Owen Gildersleeve, playing a few of my songs and a few of andrew's songs while Owen makes us sound like a real band by playing the drums in a loud manner. Tickets include a free limited edition zine featuring all involved, a cd and a kibbo kift badge. More info here.

Print Okushan!

2011-03-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ciara Phelan has done a good thing by creating Print Okushan, where she has gathered up lots of talented Illustrators and image makers to donate a print or two which are then auctioned off via ebay with all the monies going to the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. There are some great prints up for grabs by some great people like the Nous Vous guys, Jack Teagle, Eda Akaltun and Marcus Oakley for starters. I have done donated a red version of my 'Man or Monkey' screenprint and a 'Heads' poster like above. I'll chuck in some fake tattoos as well as some original heads as featured on the poster for the winning bidders. Go get bidding!

Print Okushan website.

Print Okushan Ebay.

Heavy Pencil at Pick Me Up

2011-03-16T01:16:00.000-07:00

I’m drawing to music and also musicing* to drawing at 2 Heavy Pencil evenings at Somerset House this march as part of Pick Me Up 2011. There are some great people either drawing or making or djing or musicing. The night is organised by the formidable Mr Andrew Rae who also did the above flyer. (He is the one with the brain and glasses).

Live Art and Live Music

Thursday 17th March
James Jarvis, Will Sweeney, Andrew Rae, Jim Stoten, Luke Best, Nick White, Gavin Lucas, Chief Chuckeroo

Thursday 24th March
Jiggery Pokery, Jess Bonham, Chrissie Macdonald, Andrew Rae, Jim Stoten, Luke Best, Nick White, Chief Chuckeroo, Curly Steve, Ben Fry

At Pick Me Up at Somerset House, 6-9 PM, £7 Entry Includes Exhibition, www.somersethouse.org.uk/pickmeup

* What is the correct word here. Apparently Musicing is not a real word. Perhaps if I use regularly it in my day to day life it will become a real word. Like Pinocchio became a real boy.

Recent-ish Editorial pieces!

2011-02-14T04:59:00.000-08:00

I say recent-ish as most were done at the end of last year. The top one being for the latest issue of Eye magazine, illustrating a great piece about how graphic design students should be taught information design rather than just making things look pretty. The subject is something I often think about in regards to my work as it can often feel like i am favouring 'style over content' due to my want to put pattern everywhere. But I think what I came up with shows that it's not totally one sided. The piece has been printed up nicely as it features in the 'Uncoated' section of the magazine where surprisingly the paper is uncoated. The whole issue focuses on infographics and looks great thanks to the art direction of Simon Esterson. It's worth picking up if not for my illo but for the pieces on McSweeney's and Chris Ware.

Here it is in all it's printed glory.

This piece was the for the L.A Times review of the new Salman Rushdie book 'Luka and the fire of life' which was written for his son. It deals with among other things a magic carpet, a circus, some animals, some classic video games, somebody called 'Nobodaddy' and the quest to find the fire of life as you probably guessed.

On a quite different note here is the cover I did for a watch supplement for The Spectator. T'was nice to draw with me ol' dip pen for a change.

Heavy Pencil East 2011!

2011-01-31T05:10:00.000-08:00

Heavy Pencil East is back and I will be there drawing and not playing music. Luckily there will be plenty of good tunage from Chief Chuckeroo, Andrew Rae, Nous Vous and the famously infamous Tom and Jim (back from their world tour.) It should be a right giraffe and at the grand sum of free, it's also a bargain. All I have to do now is to think of some things to draw.

Poster by the superbrills man that is Jim Stoten. Lush.

Heavy Pencil East
Live Drawing and Live Music
with Jiggery Pokery, Nick White, Nous Vous, Jim Stoten,
Tom Richards, Andrew Rae and Chief Chuckeroo
Wednesday Feb 2nd, 8 till late, FREE ENTRY

See you there!

Brie harrison and Supermarket Sarah!

2010-12-12T04:07:00.000-08:00

The talented illustrator, designer of flower patterned goodness and all round good egg Brie Harrison has curated a wall over at Supermarket Sarah and has done gone and put some of my stuff in there too. For those of you not in the know (like I was until Brie told me) Supermarket Sarah invites designers, illustrators and artists to curate a wall in her studio with anything they fancy (usually prints, clothes, items of curio) you can then buy said items by clicking on the picture. Clever huh? Yes it is. Alongside Brie's great work and some prints, cards and tattoos from me there's goodies from Jim Stoten, Luke Best, Mike Perry and Landfill to name but a few.
You should go there and buy christmas presents for your nearest and dearest . If you want to I mean.

Supermarket Sarah will be taking her wall to selfridges in the new year and will be stocking some of my fake tattoos which is nice of her. It's only a matter of time before selfridges invite me to create my own Fake Tattoo Emporium where people will come from all over the world to have my drawings stuck onto their body for huge sums of money before returning a week later saying
" My tattoo came off. Can I have my money back?" and I will say " Well, they're fake tattoos so they're only temporary. That's how they work. They are meant to come off." and they'll say " Oh, I didn't realise." and I'll say " Well perhaps I should make the 'Fake' bit on my sign a bit larger then." Perhaps.

The Graphic Cosmogony Launches this thursday the 25th November!

2010-11-23T00:36:00.000-08:00

If you are in London this thursday eve head on down to the Nobrow Gallery where along with the fantastic looking Jon Mcnaught and Rob Hunter exhibition 'Murmuring Landscapes' there will be the very first copies of 'The Graphic Cosmogony' for sale. Word on the street is it's as good as it smells. I have yet to smell it but I reckon it smells lush. I think there will be a fair few of the contributors there to sign copies and to enjoy the rum cocktails too. Head to the Nobrow website for more details and to their facebook page to RSVP.

I will explain more about my story in the Cosmogony when it's out in the shops but until then here is the first page for yous.

*Gosh! Since I posted this this morning Nobrow have done and gone posted pictures on their website head here to see them and head here to see what Mr Ben Newman has to say about it!

Bloomberg Businessweek Cover - Coke In Africa

2010-11-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I was lucky enough to illustrate the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek over in the U.S of A. The cover is based on Duane Stanford's article about Coke in Africa (as you may well have been able to tell what with the big red and white writing.) The piece looks into the fact that Africa is the last place for Coca cola to conquer in terms of sales and the subsequent plus points and minus points of this. Obviously I had to show both these sides as well as making the cover intriguing to the viewer but without it looking too much like a Coke ad. I think I pulled it off and am real pleased with the outcome. I had some great art direction from Richard Turley the creative director at Businessweek who knew what he wanted but didn't say "now draw this in that corner and put some red here...' rather letting me come up with my own solutions that fitted the brief.

The Combination of... November and December 2010.

2010-10-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

The fine fellows over at The Combination Of... are back from hiding / hibernation / holding ham sandwiches with two more fantastisch nights of live musical entertainment for people with ears and eyes and mouths and hands. To both celebrate and promote these evenings of splendor they asked me to create 2 posters which I done gone and did. Here they be.

As you can see for the November poster I took my inspiration from this inspirational piece of artwork from Ben Newman and included circles of varying colour and sizes.

For the December one I just turned a picture of a kid's torso upside down so his jumper made a face and his hands became feet and had stuff jumping out of it. Yeah, believe it.

That's Novel! That's a Comic!

2010-10-20T00:37:00.000-07:00

Nobrow will be exhibiting excerpts from the forthcoming 'A Graphic Cosmogony' at 'That's Novel!' a comics exhibition at London Print Studio and I am lucky enough to be one of the 6 artists whose art work is featured. The exhibition opens Thursday the 21st at 6pm and will run from 22nd October to the 18th of September. It looks like it will be real fun and very yellow.

Beatrice & Virgil / Man or Monkey

2010-09-08T17:44:00.001-07:00

A wee while ago I was commissioned by the LA Times to do an illustration for a review of the new Yann Martel book 'Beatrice & Virgil'. As the two namesakes from the title of the book are a donkey and a monkey I was asked specifically to draw the head of a donkey and the head of a monkey. Normally when an art director asks you to draw something specific it can be somewhat frustrating as it's much more preferable to come up with your own idea. But this isn't the case when asked to draw a donkey head and monkey head. In that case it's usually ''How many do you want?'' As you can see from the following roughs I got pretty carried away with drawing these heads and so numbered them up so one of each animal could be chosen.

Even then I ended up handing in 2 versions of each. In the end they went for the more 'donkey looking' Beatrice rather 'horse -looking' Beatrice and the not so sad Virgil.

A couple of months later I was approached by Anorak the foremost kids magazine to contribute a game or puzzle for their upcoming activity book. I decided to make a classic game of 'Man or Monkey' whereby I could draw some more monkeys and some men too.

Although my spread won't be in the first Anorak activity book it will be in the second one which is coming out shortly.

I then thought ''Yeah that game of Man or Monkey would make a sweet limited edition screen print, printed in various colours on A3 paper and sold at the reasonable price of £10!'' So that is what I am doing and here is what it will look like in yellow. I'll let you and everyone else know when it's up for sale. Yeah.

'Baked'

2010-09-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

I recently did this illo for the LA Times for a review of 'Baked' by Mark Haskell Smith. The book is about cannabis, a special kind of cannabis called 'Elephant Crush' and gangsters. Hence the gun, the cannabis leaf and the elephants in suits. (Wow I am clever.) For a more thorough review head over to the LA Times.

It made me think as to whether this was really the first time I had drawn a cannabis leaf. Surely I must have drawn one with tippex on my school bag as a 14 year old boy? Or if I told the 14 year old version of myself that in the future - you / I would get paid money to draw a cannabis leaf coming out of a gun would I believe the future me? Would I be impressed? Should I be impressed? I suppose I'm having these thoughts as it is a ridiculous thing to draw. Isn't it?

All I know is that the 10 year old me would probably be slightly impressed with the gun at least. Though perhaps would recognise that it's not even a proper hand gun but an air pistol. Not that I was obsessed with guns as a child but when my brother and I first joined the library next to Safeways in cheltenham the first books we got out were two giant books about guns that contained hundreds of pictures of guns. We then took these books home where our mum was hugely unimpressed with our dad for allowing us said books while we snuck off and carefully reproduced these guns in pencil in our sketchpads. I think I cockily started to copy a large, meticulously detailed photo of the insides of a hand gun and then subsequently gave up when I realised I hadn't left enough space for the trigger or something. So in actual fact I think Rich and I were only obsessed with guns for a weekend at the most and probably went back to copying super heroes from Marvel comics. My mum was even less impressed when she had to take the mostly unread books back to the library where she was greeted with substantial late fines.

Graphic Cosmogony / Never show Knees In Public

2010-08-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

I recently finished my 7 page comic for the upcoming Nobrow published "Graphic Cosmogony". Which looks to be another wonder of printed goodness from the artwork I have seen from a couple of fellow contributors. I am mainly talking about Mr Newman and Mr Best. Who as it happens were also incredibly helpful with the editing and colouring of my comic. So a big thank you to those two. More on this when it is published later on this year!

However rather than posting pages from said Comic I am posting some pages from a book I made a couple of weeks ago called 'Never show knees in public'. I decided to make this book so that (a) I had something to sell at the recent E.L.P summer fete and (B) as a warm up for the cosmogony and (3) because I wanted to. Ok? Sheesh.

But like I said it ended up being valuable project for the 'Cosmogony' as I developed characters and ways of working that then fed directly into my comic. As well as creating some images that will end up as screenprints.

I only ended up printing five copies of the book before my printer ran out of ink and so am now looking into other means to make the book as well as working on a few more pages that I'd like to add.

E.L.P Summer Fete!

2010-07-15T10:59:00.001-07:00

Hey Hey Hey!

If you are wondering what the Heckings you should do this Saturday then let me tell you what. (you should do this saturday).

You should come to the East London Printmakers Summer Fete where I will have a stall with the genius that is Sam Rees. I have been working on a limited edition book especially for the event and finally got some A2 posters covered in heads printed up!

There are some great stalls and things going down (see above). Though I am particularly excited to see the Giant Lino Cut being printed with a steam roller. Anyone who has ever done any lino cut printing will know this isn't the usual method of printing.

Also it mentions that we will have an amazing game just for the fete. We have been trying to create our own version of the Zoltar machine from 'Big' enabling any wish you make to come true (as long as the wish Is 'I wish I was Tom Hanks acting childish'.') So far it has been harder than we thought.

Come on down if you can and want.

Cheers,

Nick

Talking talking!

2010-06-23T03:57:00.001-07:00

Hello. Hay fever permitting I will be chatting about how I make work this thursday 24th June from 6.30 Pm at Nobrow HQ (62 Great Eastern street). I will explain how I mix paint, my favourite pencil brand and snacks I eat while working. Or more likely I'll be showing photos of boxes full of cut-out bits of paper and saying "Here is a box full of cut-out bits of paper. And here's another"

I will also be signing copies of 'People I've Never met & Conversations I've never had' after the talk.

To RSVP go to Nobrow's Facebook page or if like me you're not on Facebook i'm sure you can give 'em an email or write them a letter or leave a post it note somewhere with your name on.

Heavy Pencil is Dead Long Live Heavy Pencil.

2010-06-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Andrew Rae has done it again and organised a cream cracker of an evening with Heavy Pencil East at Catch. I'm gonna embarrass me self again by pretending I can sing and play guitar at the same time. Then do a bit of live drawing to calm my nerves.

HEAVY PENCIL IS DEAD
LONG LIVE HEAVY PENCIL
THE ICA MAY BE SAYING GOODBYE TO HEAVY PENCIL BUT IT ISNT OVER
HEAVY PENCIL EAST
LIVE DRAWING & LIVE MUSIC
BY NICK WHITE HAD A FRIGHT, ANDREW RAE, JIM STOTEN AND LUKE BEST
WEDNESDAY JUNE 9TH, CATCH, 22 KINGSLAND ROAD, SHOREDITCH, E2, 8 TILL LATE, FREE ENTRY

Pick Me Up at Somerset House

2010-04-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

If you are at loose end this bank holiday weekend head on down to Somerset House for 'Pick Me Up' their graphic art fair. Its full of great illustration and design with a plethora of collectives /studios / artists / shops and publishers all showing lovely stuff for your eyes to look at. There are some great stalls from Peepshow, Nobrow , Evening Tweed and Landfill Editions among others. I was there yesterday doing some drawing for Landfill who are making a catalogue of imagined items once on show at Somerset House and will be printed using their immense Risograph machine which is reason enough to go down to see. Here I am concentrating on drawing a jug and Marcus Oakley concentrating on a scottish man on a plinth. Thanks very much to Hugh from landfill for a fun day and for taking this photo which i stole from his flickr.

Recent Editorial Jobs.

2010-04-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a few editorial bits and bobs I have done recently.

The above was for the current issue of the V&A magazine. To coordinate with the museums new exhibition 'Quilts 1700-2010' they invited author Tracy Chevalier to create a story based on an amazing Quilt from early 1800 in turn I had to create an illustration based on said story as well as taking inspiration from the original quilt .

Black and white illo for the LA Times for a review of 'The Unnamed' by Joshua Ferris.

Another one for the LA Times book review this time for Eva Hoffman’s book 'Time'.

Non Narrative Drawings or Comics what don't make no sense.

2010-03-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking recently about making some comics and so I started writing out some ideas but they quickly turned into just me writing out conversations similar to the ones I've never had featured in my book. Which in itself is fine, I can draw some little people chatting with speech bubbles above their heads quickly realising they have misunderstood what the other is chatting about with hilarious consequences. However there wouldn't be much to draw apart from a scene / background to place them in. So instead I decided to just start drawing / painting anything I could think of but place them in panels to see if at least I could make something that looks like a comic even if it doesn't really tell a story. Below is what I came up with. Some parts work, some don't, some I like, others I'm not too bothered about. I'm sure if I wanted I could try and figure out a narrative from it. Perhaps by covering up some sections or reordering it. I even tried to start a very simple panel narrative with some small guys wearing pointy hats but the first panel I drew was the one in the middle and then drew characters leaving to the right and left forgetting the first rule of comics being you read from left to right. Oh well, it's a start of something even if I'm not sure what.

From the looks of this post my favourite word is some. I think used it at least 28 times.

Bit of a show off.

2010-03-07T03:56:00.000-08:00

I recently found out that I have won an award of excellence from the Society for New Design. It was for the above illustration for the book review of Brian Evenson's 'Fugue State' made for the Los Angeles Times. I'd like to thank Paul Gonzales the deputy design director at the L A Times who commissioned the drawing and subsequently put it forward for the awards. Below is the rough for the image which isn't too far away from the final.

Happy Late February 2010!

2010-02-23T02:09:00.000-08:00

Well my new years resolution of blogging more is going really well. It has only taken me 7 and a bit weeks into the year of 2010 to get around to doing my round up of 2009. Pretty good huh? Yeah. So here are all the bits and pieces I forgot to post about last year so I can get onto posting some new stuff!

I was in an Exhibition up at The Royal Standard in Liverpool at the start of the year. The show was called 'SALE' and it was like a big ol art supermarket where you could buy the art work straight off the wall. The prices of said works would go up and down depending on inflation and the artists profiles. I was selling some screenprints and some heads. At one point you could buy an original Nick White head for as little as 20 pence other times it was a huge amount like a tenner or something.

One of the screenprints shown at SALE. The show went on tour in November to the Liverpool Tourist Information Centre.

At Easter Laura and I flew over to Turkey and traveled around looking at many mighty man made and natural feats of beauty. One day I'll do a proper post on this as it was pretty darn amazing just look at the fairy chimneys of Goreme.

In the meantime here is a picture from Pamukale that looks like snow and ice but it's not.

A very old piece graffiti depicting a chicken-man fighting a cross.

And Superman, Spiderman and Batman (with red cape).

At the end of April as posted on this blog I was involved in a lovely exhibition with Mr Tom Hicks, Miss Clare Mallison and Mr Paddy Molloy. Having gone to uni with these fine animator / illustrator peoples it was about time we had a show together. We collaborated on a large drawing of 2 rabbit headed Vincent Steinbecks and showed a variety of drawings and prints. The launch was a busy and grand affair even if Tom did miss it. Above is a photo of one of the pieces I had on show.

As previously mentioned I was invited to take part in the first issue of Nobrow, a journal released bi-annually by the lovely people at Nobrow. Here is my submission for the 'Gods and monsters' themed issue.

The conversation that never made it into the piece.

To coincide with the release of 'Gods and Monsters' and the start of Nobrow as publishing house proper a new website was designed. Sam and Alex originally asked various artists to design a banner including the name and logo for the site. These banners would change every time you visited the site as Is the done thing. Though the banners weren't used in the end I still like the one I did.

A large portion of 2009 was spent making and designing books which was very much down to other people helping me get my act together. One of these people is Sam Rees (see above) - zine maker and drawer extraordinaire who along with his equally extraordinary wife Marina Rees (see also above) signed us up to various book fairs. It's good to have deadlines and these fairs made sure I made stuff otherwise our table would look pretty sparse and no one likes a sparse table unless your selling sparseness.

Sam, Marina and Laura Wardfrost rightfully ignore a customer at the Alternative Press Fair August 2010.

Luke Best and some guy looking pretty darn pleased with their spread.

Shifty stall holders at Handmade and Bound 2010. Photo stolen from Sam Rees's blog.

In the latter part of the year Sam, Luke and I collaborated on a limited edition hand screenprinted tea towel.
Toot!

The other people giving me a big helping hand and a whole lot of support and back patting were of course Alex and Sam from Nobrow. (Not sure If I've mentioned them in this post yet) But thanks to them I had my first book published and my first solo show. Here are some pics of the exhibition and private view. A very belated cheers to everyone who came before the fuse went.

Photos stolen fair and square from Concrete Hermit's flickr page. Cheers Chris.

Limited edition poster made for the launch and exhibition.

In October I was invited up to Dundee to do a talk at the university about my work and Illustration. I showed them a pretty snazy powerpoint presentation of - my work, how I did my work, where i did my work, why i did my work and some shopping lists. Thankfully this event was split in two so only half of the students dozed off.

I showed them this carefully styled picture of my desk.

Whereas it usually looks like this.

Earlier in the year I was asked to contribute to the latest Taschen 'Illustration Now!' Vol 3. It was released in November and subsequently they sent me a copy which was nice.

To coincide with Dufus's autumn / winter tour of the UK and Europe I made this limited edition of 25 stencil cut screenprint to sell at their gigs for money. It's inspired by the artwork I did for their classic album 'The last classed blast.' yup yup.

Varoom! The magazine made by the Association Of Illustrators did a review of 'People I've never met...' in their winter issue. The review appears on the same page as a review of Peter Blake's new ABC book which I was just as chuffed about.

To round off the year I was invited by the good man that is Andrew Rae to take part in the first East end version of 'Heavy Pencil'. I sang songs and drew alongside other Peepshow greats as Mr Luke Best and Spencer Wilson. Despite it being pretty darn cold and all the pictures suddenly disappearing at the end, twas a great night indeed. Snaps taken by paper folder extraordinaire Chrissie Macdonald.

Thanks and apologies to anyone who read this far for the horrendously large and self indulgent post but that's it I'll shut up now. Good.

Mangle Christmas Sale! Saturday 12th dec 2009!

2009-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

I have a stall with draw-er extraordinaire Sam Rees this saturday at the Mangle Christmas sale. There will be some great stuff to buy from the likes of Peepshow, Rob Ryan, Tatty Divine and Mark Pawson.

Of course you'll be able to buys some great bits and bobs from our stall too. I'll be selling Screen prints, Lino Cut greeting cards, packs of screenprinted christmas cards, temporary tattoos, a variety of books and canvas bags. Sam will be selling his amazing books, cards, 2010 cleaning lady calendars and who knows what wonders.

We'll even be unveiling some very special tea Towels designed by Sam and I and the mighty Luke Best. Whoa!

The sale is taking place at The Tab Centre, 3 Godfrey Place, Shoreditch, London E2 7NT. Saturday 12th December 2009. 11am to 6pm and it's free to get in. See you there!

"Stuff i found (on my desk)" A compendium of various drawings and found bits and bobs found on or around my desk.

Lino Cut head printed by me onto a card. Free envelope included!

Tattoos! For people who can't make up their mind about what to have permanently drawn onto their skin.

A spread from "People I've Never Met & Conversations I've never Had." Which will be available to purchase on Saturday as is everything else seen above.

'People I've never met and Conversations I've never had!'

2009-09-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly! 'People I've never met and Conversations I've never had' is the name of my first published book and my debut solo show.

The book is a 32 page hardback monograph featuring all new work and is published by the great people at Nobrow. The guys have done a great job putting it together and I'm real excited for people to see it. You will be able to buy it at their website very soon and at....

The Private view / launch on Thursday the 17th September at Concrete Hermit (5a Club Row, London, E1 6JX) from 6.30pm - 9pm.

To run alongside the launch of the book I will be exhibiting the original artworks from the book, a number of Limited edition screenprints / posters and several hundred heads. The show will be on from Wednesday 9th September to Saturday the 19th September.

I just finished putting up the show and am pretty darn pleased with the result. I'll post some pictures soon. I was helped out with the install by the Gent that is Sam Bevington who has been interning at Nobrow. He was indeed a great help as i'm pretty sure I would still be sticking Heads to the wall now.

As you can see the Launch / private view is quite a bit after the day the show opens, this is because the books are only being sent over from Belgium this coming weekend. Therefore the book will not be in the gallery / shop until at least Tuesday the 15th Sept. Fingers crossed sooner!

See you at the Launch I'll be the one smiling lots and posing next to the pictures and making sure no ones knocks anything over.

Below are some sneaky peeks at the inside of the book.

Alternative Press Fair!

2009-07-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

I will be at the Alternative Press Fair this sunday 2nd August, hopefully selling (i'm still making it) a new book / zine/ specially folded piece of paper and some other bits and pieces alongside the magnificent Mr Sam and amazing Mrs Marina Rees.

It's at St Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix road, London, NW1 1TA from 11-7 and it's free to enter. Come on down and pick up some lovely folded bits of paper!

Nobrow Magazine 'Gods and Monsters'

2009-05-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

A wee while ago I was invited to contribute to an exciting new magazine being published by an up and coming new publisher called NOBROW. The first issue of Nobrow printed in two colours and exploring the theme of Gods and Monsters showcases some brilliant artwork from some great artists and Illustrators. I got my copy last week and it really is beautifully designed and printed. It also smells amazing.

The launch party for the magazine's release is this thursday 14th May at Jaguar shoes in London town from 7pm and will exhibit large scale versions of the pages. Following that Nobrow will be available to purchase from a number of bookshops and galleries. For more info go to www.Nobrow.net

Below is Nobrow's press release for the launch!

Nobrow-JaguarShoes Press Release

To celebrate the release of our first publication ‘Gods and Monsters’ we will be exhibiting the work from the edition in large scale format at Bar and exhibition space; DreamBagsJaguarShoes.

Private View: Thursday 14th May, 2009
Exhibition: 15th May – 28th June 2009
DreamBagsJaguarShoes,
32 Kingsland Road, E2.

Nobrow Issue 1: Gods & Monsters. Printed in two spot colours in a limited edition of 3000 numbered copies it gives a high quality platform to artists and illustrators both new and established. The diverse contributors were hand picked for their unique styles and all were invited to generate work based on the theme. Some are up and coming, others are plucked from unexpected places, all are talented.

Contributors are: Dave Taylor, Alex Spiro, Sam Arthur, Jordan Crane, Emiliano Ponzi, A. Richard Allen, Jens Harder, Reuben Rude, Benjamin Guedel, Eda Akaltun, Matthieu Bessudo, Caspar Williamson, Toby Leigh, Alex Bland, Ben Newman, Nick White, Stuart Kolakovic, Sarah King, Leah Hayes, Paul Blow, Bjorn Rune Lie, Brett Ryder , Carl Johanson and Blexbolex.

It will be available for the super special intro price of £9.00 in the following shops from the 15th May: Magma (Clerkenwell & Manchester branches), ICA, Gosh Comics, Beyond The Valley, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Koenig Books, Camden Arts Centre, Arnolfini Gallery, Here Gallery, Soma and many, many more...

Vincent!

2009-04-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

I am involved with a great exhibition with three other great drawers / Illustrators which is opening next week at The Flea Pit on Columbia Rd, London. The exhibition is on until 24th May and the private view is this Tuesday from 6.30 - 10.00. Come on down and say Hello. The excellently designed website www.Vincent-Steinbeck.com has some links to the other artists and venue.

See you there!

Heads and pattern. Pattern and heads.

2009-02-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything up here for a while so here is a bumper load of bits and pieces. Above is one of the screen prints mentioned in the post below for sale also mentioned below over at my website. The print is B2 sized (500mm X 707mm) and as can be deduced from the picture it is printed in red and black.

These two heads were drawn a few months ago and have been staring each other out above my desk in my studio. So far i think the one on left is winning. They were drawn on B2 sized paper with a nice big graphite stick.

Over Christmas as is the done thing for creative people and those with no money I made some christmas presents for me friends and family including these rather fetching canvas bags. Let me know if you would like to buy one of these and I will do my utmost to make you one.

This is Nick White's Shop Now Open!

2008-12-17T01:54:00.000-08:00

Yes my shop is now up on my website for all to peruse. Not quite in time for the christmas post but hey. For sale are a series of silk screen prints recently printed by myself at The Rob Clarke Print Studio. For anyone in London who would like to buy one of these prints but doesn't want to spend money on postage then i can probably arrange to meet up behind Tesco or Asda or not even a supermarket maybe just by a statue or other famous landmark.

THISISNICKWHITE'S SHOP

The Combination of... December / Christmas 08.

2008-12-08T03:56:00.000-08:00

What?! Another poster for the combination of... That's like one a month. Yup! Here is the flyer for the Christmassy Combination of... where you can expect among the regular top notch musical bands probably some mince pie and mulled wine action. See you there with tinsel on.

The Combination of... November 08 and October 08 Two.

2008-11-25T02:07:00.000-08:00

Here is November's flyer for the superb night The Combination of... The evenings that the fine fellows over at www.thecombinationofwordstoformsentences.com put on have been described as 'The best night of my life' and ' No, the best night of my life not yours.' and 'I think you'll find it was the best night of my life as i was dancing like a wild animal and everyone knows that if you end up dancing like a wild animal then that is definitely the best night of your life.' and 'Well, when I went there was noone dancing like a wild animal.' and ' We must have gone on different nights then.' and ' Spose so.'

The Combination Of... had another night on in October and this was the flyer. Though Joe Gideon and the Shark played i decided to draw a horse instead. The horse is blue because if you look closely he has a hand around his throat giving him a little squeeze. Don't worry the horse was fine and not eaten by the people who came to the Macbeth that night. That most definitely did not happen. And if it did (which it didn't) I wouldn't have eaten it because as everyone knows I don't eat horse. Only ponies.

A Joyfully Bewildering Tight Fit!

2008-10-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

Above is the image i submitted to the 'Joyful Bewilderment' show currently on at Rough trade East. It is among some lovely pieces of work (about 125 pieces to be exact) and well worth a looksy. The private view was pretty crazy horses. In fact the first private view where i've seen a one in one out policy on the door but it's calmed down now so you'll be alright.

Here's a few of the pieces on show. Mine is below the flying Logs!

Although the private view was busy busy I managed to meet Sarah and Duncan from Crayonlegs and Mr Adrian Fleet. Sarah's zine 'Tight Fit' which i mentioned before is out now! And here is the front cover which she done designed.

My contribution 'Fernando lamas had a hairy face.' is on the left. Duncan's is on the right. Go buy it here!

The Joyful Bewilderment! 2nd October 2008

2008-09-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

I am lucky enough to have a piece of work in the mighty group show 'The Joyful Bewilderment' curated by Holly Wales, Simon Peplow and Marcus Oakley. It's on at Rough Trade East and looks like it will be pretty amazing with a huge amount of extremely talented Artists / Illustrators / people who make beautiful things with their hands. The Private view is Thursday 2nd October and should be a winner. I'll be there trying my hardest not to accidently spit on all of these people when I over-enthusiastically compliment them on their work and perhaps their hair.

More Info can be found at the T.J.B Blog and over at Rough Trade.
Below is a taster of the piece I will be exhibiting.

The Combination of... October 08

2008-09-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Here be the poster for the next the Combination of... again it should be a good one not only because they have great musicians playing but also it's in the great Cafe OTO which just so happens to be walking distance from where I live.

This Mystery Spot is a little late!

2008-09-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

I was recently in a very nice exhibition called Mystery Spot at Indo in Whitechapel. The exhibition was organised by Michelle 'Me Up A Tree' Bollschweiler and was a huge success in that there were some lovely pics on the walls including work from L. Best, D. Waller, P. Molloy, T. Hicks and C. Mallison among others. The private view was very busy and a lot of fun and almost quite messy. Sorry you missed it but above is Michelle's flyer and one of the pieces which was on the wall. Safe.

The Combination of... September 08

2008-09-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would post the latest Combination of... flyer before the gig this time. I realise this is pretty novel but I am feeling particularly adventurous. Again some mighty bands booked and all for the lowly sum of £4 with a free cd. Gosh.

Signs and Symbols

2008-08-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

The excellent people over at Absolute Zero Degrees have included some of my work in their new book 'Signs and Symbols'. This is the fourth book in their 'Communicating with Pattern' series published by Rotovision. Included is the Merz Loveheart album artwork and a detail from my A1 heads poster. Thanks to Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson for the inclusion.

The Combination of... August 08

2008-08-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

So this is a bit of a late posting as the gig was a couple of weeks ago. I made it to the night this time and Surgery or The Bomb were grand as were Drinks.

Even though this was for August it looks it should be for December what with the scarf etc but i've decided that seasons and months of the year don't really correspond to the weather anymore so it's fine.

Go to www.thecombinationof.com to see what other spectacular bands thecombinationof... have booked. It's like a who's who of who's who who.

This reject beard is a Tight Fit

2008-08-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Sarah from the great Crayonlegs is producing a new zine / publication called 'Tight Fit'. The first issue's theme is facial hair and it's gonna be hot stuff! I did a drawing for it but it's not this one. This is a self portrait of me with a much fuller beard and a third eye looking a bit serious.

MEATBALLS!!!

2008-07-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yo! Here is video I made for the Adam & Joe Video Wars competition for their show on BBC 6 Music. I made this video in 24 hours using Shakey cam which is the latest in video technology and is the rival to the much more successful Steadi Cam.