Monthly Archives: April 2018

Freddie – Portrait of a Baby

Posted on by
Reply

fred, freddie, birthday, baby, portrait, boy, drawing, illustration, gift, pencil, digital print, photoshop, hope, boy, child, face, instagram

My friends recently celebrated the first birthday of their delightful grandson Fred and very kindly invited me to the party. I decided to make a portrait to commemorate the event.

Freddie is already a star on Instagram so I chose my favourite photo of him from his mum’s gallery – it has something of the sage about it – and made a series of simple pencil drawings until I was happy that the outline did the handsome little chap justice.

fred, freddie, birthday, baby, portrait, boy, drawing, illustration, gift, pencil, digital print, photoshop, hope, boy, child, face, instagram

I then uploaded a photograph of the drawing into Photoshop, cleaned up the linework and started playing about with classic pop art parodies.
warhol, parody, fred, freddie, birthday, baby, portrait, boy, drawing, illustration, gift, pencil, digital print, photoshop, hope, boy, child, face, instagram

 

The first version was an Andy Warhol style set of four coloured squares, but I found it too busy….

fred, freddie, birthday, baby, portrait, boy, drawing, illustration, gift, pencil, digital print, photoshop, hope, boy, child, face, instagram

 

 

so I simplified it and made the colours more muted

 

 

Then I thought I’d have a go at a version of the Obama Hope poster by Shepard Fairey

fred, freddie, birthday, baby, portrait, boy, drawing, illustration, gift, pencil, digital print, photoshop, hope, boy, child, face, instagram

I got both versions (above and top) printed, popped them into frames and gift wrapped them; they seemed to be received rather well.

Happy birthday Freddie – you lovely boy! xx

Blossom Sketch

Posted on by
Reply

Inspired by the beautiful spring blossom which floats like confetti in the London breeze and a collection of gorgeous printed papers (right) gifted to me by a friend recently returned from Japan, I made this little pen a watercolour sketch.
spring, blossom, flowers, pen and watercolour, watercolour, water color, acuarela, sketch, illustration

Springtime – Window Painting

Posted on by
3

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycleTo herald the arrival of springtime the good folk at Mary’s Living & Giving Shop in Bermondsey Street (where I work as a volunteer for a few hours each week) invited me to design and execute an illustration for their window.

What a lovely project – and right up my street!

I decided on a flowers, birds and bees theme in a loose art nouveau style and made a sketch to scale.bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, sketch, design

Before embarking on the window I had a little practise with the chalk pens on a small sheet of glass and assigned colours to the different elements of the drawing….

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, sketch, design

…while Kerry kindly cleaned the window in preparation for the obligatory ‘before’ photo.

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

(You can just see my  two remaining  ‘Pre-Loved Fashion’ drawings hanging up there behind the manequins.)artist at work, kathryn hockey, artist, illustrator, bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

artist at work, kathryn hockey, artist, illustrator, bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london

 

 

                 Artist at work!

 

 

 

Here are a few photos of the completed drawing, which took a couple of sessions to finish…bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recycle…needless to say the ‘here comes the sun’ caption is more of a wish than an observation during springtime in Britain! 

I really had so much fun with this project and am so grateful to the Mary’s Living & Giving team for trusting me with it – thank you!

bermondsey street, marys living and giving shop, save the children, ethical fashion, volunteer, window, design, springtime, birds, swallows, bluebirds, bees, flowers, here comes the sun, illustration, glass, chalk, pens, drawing, design, london, donate, reuse, recyclePost script

As well as being right up my street this project is also a trip down memory lane (pun central…sorry!). About 20 years ago I did some window painting at The Honest Cabbage Restaurant, 99-101 Bermondsey Street (below left)

honest goose, restaurant, window painting, bermondsey street, london, illustration, decoration

honest cabbage, restaurant, window painting, bermondsey street, london, illustration, decoration

and her sister restaurant The Honest Goose on The Cut in Waterloo (above).

 

The Cabbage has since been converted to The Garrison Public House – my artwork didn’t survive but that tends to be the way with mural art unless you’re Banksy.