'Baked'

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

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

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'.