Rosalie Hurr, Author at Things&Ink

December 13, 2015December 13, 2015

Mais2 Illustration

Alessandra Criseo, better known as Mais2 on Instagram, is an illustrator and crafter from Italy who has lived in London for the past five years. Inspired by Things&Ink Alessandra created this tattoo inspired girl for us…

How would you describe your style? Sometimes it’s hard for me to see- I love trying a lot of different things and techniques so sometimes I feel inconsistent, but apparently other people can see my identity better than I can. People that know often talk about my style mentioning the fact that it has humour and makes them laugh, and that it has something creepy about it as well. Both compliments.

What inspires you? From my side I get inspired by things happening to me and sentences that I form in my head in specific situations, things connected to my childhood and people and things I love. Externally I get my inspirations mostly from fashion, food, objects, strange combinations of items together. I realised that I get inspired more by photographic stuff than illustration, I guess because it is a different media.
I do of course follow a lot of amazing artists, but often when I see a drawing I really love and I think that is perfect, I don’t feel like I need to repeat what they already did.

Do you have a background in art? I do, instead of high school I went to art school in my city, but it was quite crap at the time. It was the only art school in town and It wasn’t very good. In my third year I have chosen to specialise in fashion, where I met two of my favourite teachers though, so no regrets. I also did a two year course in a school of comics that allowed me to meet some of my artist friends and professionals and start my career.

What medium do you use? I tend to draw and ink traditionally (with any pencil and graphic liners) because it relaxes me much more than digital. I colour digitally in Photoshop, or if I go for a more traditional technique I use markers.

What do you like to draw? I definitely love to draw silly people,oh and food- if together even better. I love spooky and dark subjects too, drawing street fashion and animals.

Can people buy your illustrations? I have a bigcartel shop where people can buy everything I put on sale. At the moment you can find a few things in there and between those there is my first self published book Memento Bento that is an illustrated diary of my first trip to Japan- I’m very proud of it!

Do you have any tattoos? What do you think about tattoos? I love tattoos, I adored them from far away for ages before getting mine.
It’s always hard for an artist to decide what to get as a first tattoo because we change our mind easily and in my case my only certainty was that I didn’t want to design it myself- but I couldn’t stop picturing the composition in my head!

Tattoos are a big influence on my style, a lot of people get my illustrations as tattoos as well. Becoming a tattoo artist and tattooing my pieces myself is a dream of mine, I seriously have thought about that but I haven’t been brave enough to just do it yet. I wish some of my friends were tattoo artists to teach me and help me get started! Maybe one day, hopefully soon!

I got my first tattoos two years ago, on both of my calves.They are subtle references to two video games that really influenced my taste during my childhood and I’m sure I will love forever: Monkey Island and Prince of Persia. I also have a moon on my right wrist and I love it.

Are there any artists that you admire? One of my biggest weakness is making lists of things I love or hate, seriously, that’s so hard for me! I don’t even know what my favourite food or song or colour are! Generally speaking I love a lot of Japanese illustrators, ancient and modern. I love their humour, I feel like they get me. I love a lot of graphic illustrations- I enjoy the process of limiting yourself with the amount of colour and detail. It makes the result so elegant and timeless, and I find it calming as well when I do it myself.

As I have already mentioned, tattoo art is a huge inspiration as well. I love symbolism and really appreciate the composition that a good tattoo artist is capable of creating. I love how a well done design can stand alone perfectly without even any need for a context. I also follow a lot of illustrators that don’t fit in any of these categories, especially on Instagram and Tumblr- I kinda like everything.

December 11, 2015

Series Review: Archer

Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward. On th-ink.co.uk Harry will be writing a series of posts in which he will be sharing his opinions on things he has watched.

Archer, 2009 to present, cert 15-18, creator: Adam Reed, 4/5

I like adult cartoons. There’s something twisted about taking a medium supposedly aimed at kids on Saturday mornings and infecting it with satire and innuendo. One of the best animated comedies you could be watching right now is Archer, the seventh season of which is released next year. You can get seasons one to five on disc and seasons one to six on Netflix. This is spy comedy but it’s no Kim Possible. If you thought Austin Powers was racy you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The hero of this epic odyssey of madness is Special Agent Sterling Archer, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin who also voices Bob in Bob’s Burgers. Sterling is a secret agent who combines the smooth, violent alcoholism of James Bond with the crass humour and lust of a teenage schoolboy. In other words, although sometimes he is capable of completing missions, dispatching enemies and looking suave, his safety and sanity (along with those of others around him) are often threatened by a dangerous cocktail of arrogance, alcoholism and unbridled lustful enthusiasm.

Archer works for the unfortunately named private spy agency ISIS, owned by his mother Malory (Jessica Walter) who’s a bit of an alcoholic, scheming, selfish megalomaniac. He works alongside fellow agent and ex-girlfriend Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler) who despite being a more dependable agent than Archer is often the butt of department jokes due to her race and apparently oversized hands.

The other ISIS employees include Cyril Figgis the accountant, a combination of bitterness, cowardice and depraved lust. There’s Pam, head of human resources who grew up on a dairy farm, has big appetites for food and various perversions (often combined) and performs in bare knuckle fights for extra cash. There’s medicated secretary Cheryl/Carol Tunt who changed her name as Archer kept getting it wrong and enjoys choke sex. Let’s not forget flamboyantly gay agent Ray Gillette (voiced by the writer) and ‘doctor’ Krieger who may or may not be a Nazi clone and whose experiments are always questionable. Archer’s long-suffering, heroin addicted butler Woodhouse deserves a mention.

It’s this combination of such depraved individuals and their conflicted abusive/sexual relations with each other that make this show so enjoyable, as well as the ludicrous situations they’re thrust into. They encounter terrorists, gangsters, prostitutes, pirates, cyborgs, animals and actors in a variety of exotic locations and volatile situations that swiftly descend into graphic cartoon violence and/or sex.

Besides the characters and the plots, the second reason this show is a winner is that it’s a bold contender for the joke-a-minute claim. In other words, it’s really funny. I’m only up to season five and every episode is still as hilarious, energetic and fresh as the first season and sees no sign of letting up, which is remarkable considering how much is packed into each episode. The dark humour is a sophisticated yet coarse blend of political satire, crude innuendos and culture references (though these are not as obvious and frequent as in Family Guy). As with Family Guy and other such shows, Archer does occasionally go too far with the humour, especially when it comes to racial and sexual stereotypes. Then there’s the almost complete sexualisation of the female characters and you can’t help but wonder if the animators are maybe enjoying it too much. Nevertheless this is a spoof of the spy genre and action thrillers in general, which sexualise women without any apologies, whereas the main women in Archer are often vocally concerned about their dignity. I don’t think the show intends to be malicious or degrading about anyone (except their own characters) and their sole intention is to give us an action-packed, no-holds-barred and thoroughly enjoyable if guilty ride. You will never want to get off.

December 10, 2015

Interview with Han Maude

22-year-old Han Maude works out of Jekyll & Hyde Tattoo Company in Rugby Warwickshire and creates all manner of tattoos in solid dot work. We chatted to Han about her love for Disney and what inspired her to become a tattoo artist…

How long have you been tattooing? Two years

How did you get into the industry? I became very persistent about getting my foot in the door, took my portfolio around numerous studios, until someone took the chance and saw potential in my work.

When did you get your first tattoo, do you still love it? Unfortunately, I made the same mistake as most young insubordinate 16-year-olds did, and got tattooed at 16. Luckily for me I was realised quickly that it was a silly decision and had it covered up, once I was 18. It was an upside down ribbon with some stars on my wrist, so no, I really don’t love it.

What drew you to the tattoo world? I always wanted to get into the industry, I remember being about nine and having my own play tattoo studio in my wendy shed, parents of the local area weren’t happy when their children went home covered in permanent marker. I always liked the seemingly male orientated jobs, and its amazing to see the amount of female artists pushing beautiful work out in the industry.

What inspires you? I really fell in love with Studio Ghibli, and Japanese style anime, watching the films or spending an hour here or there with my nose in the animator’s books really inspired me too tattoo pieces like this.
I also spent some time in India last year, and the beautiful artwork was everywhere. While I was there a woman did some henna on my hand and completely freehanded the design, which made this stunning piece of art.
Obviously with sea, sun and sand it didn’t last long, but I couldn’t wait to get back home and start drawing.

You tattoo a lot of cartoons and Disney are these something you love? Disney really was something I always loved, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t loved Disney, in one way or another. Everyone wants a bit of sparkle in their life. And if I can be the person to do that, on someone’s skin forever, amazing! I’m a child at heart.
Anime was what really got me into tattooing, I loved it, I wanted to draw like it and produce pieces to the standard these illustrators was creating , it was 70% of my portfolio when I applied for apprenticeships.

Is there anything you wouldn’t tattoo? I remember maybe in my first year of tattooing, we had a guy come in and asked for EDL to be tattooed on the back of his head. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I think I’d rather hang up my machines in a career I love than do something that could potentially cause offense or deemed racist.

Do you admire other artists? Definitely, the list goes on and on.
But a few of my favourite artists, would be Flo Nuttall, Amy Savage and Kolahari from the Circle London.

You predominately do dot work how did this come about? When I first started my apprenticeship, I wanted to do traditional and then neo trad, and then black and grey realism. I had a bit of a bad attitude, and wanted to find me niche quickly.
I saw all these amazing artists producing pieces like they had been doing it their entire life, I felt so behind. Then we had Ema Sweeney and Billy Hay guest spot at the studio, Ema is an amazing dotwork artist and I had maybe done one or two dotwork pieces and she really helped and gave a few pointers.
And everything after that started flowing, like my hand knew what it was doing before I did.

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015

Audrey Kawasaki Inspired Tattoos

Audrey Kawaski creates beautiful and mysterious paintings featuring girls with flowing hair and delicate features. Her muted colour palette and Japanese inspired portraits means that her work can be turned into memorising tattoos…

@rodrigocampolargo

@hannahflowers_tattoo

Interview with Hannah Hill

21-year-old Hannah Hill is the talented lady behind independent business, Hanecdote. Since 2012 she has been creating cute and quirky embroidered patches, along with establishing the Ghoul Guides International club. Not only does her stitching wizardry make you smile, with slogans such as “Avocado Angel” and “Pizza Princess”, but they also bring awareness to subjects such as mental health, racism and feminism.

Amber Bryce caught up with Hannah to talk about her art, inspirations and amazing collection of tattoos, of course…

When did you first start embroidering? I started embroidering when I was about 17, at college studying a BTEC Art and Design course, where I was given the opportunity to experiment with a wide variety of mediums and techniques. Saying that, my mum has always knitted and stitched so the influence has been around me for most of my life.

Where do you find your inspiration? My sources of inspiration can vary a great amount. I find beauty in kind people and my intense love for my best friend, nature, architecture, pop culture, emotions and politics, girls, identity and family. I find huge inspiration and support in my online feminist art babe community, and people constantly making me want strive to be better and make even more meaningful work.

Are you interested in any other art forms? I love all kinds of art forms and styles, although hand embroidery is my main skill. Both of my grandparents were architects, which influenced my outlook on the world around me from a very young age, and as I mentioned, my mum is a very talented crafter, who has done projects including mosaic, stained glass, knitting, painting, floristry, embroidery and sculpture. All my life I have been surrounded by art/design in one way or another, whether it was crafternoons, gallery trips or work experience. This year on my fine art course, I hope to expand my textile techniques as well as explore my identity further. This is something I am really excited about, and look forward to seeing where my work goes.

Do you have a favourite artist? There are plenty of artists who I love but I don’t think I could choose just one. I recently saw Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at the Royal Academy and it was incredible. What stood out to me in particular, other than the deep historical context and emotion behind lots of his pieces, was the beautiful craftsmanship, which just further represented aspects of China’s history.

I also love Yayoi Kusama’s work and am really inspired by her resilience through mental health issues and how that transpires in her hypnotic, colourful work. Right now I am obsessed with Reuben Dangoor who has been painting Grime artists as if they were landed gentry, which combines my love of grime music and classical painting. I am all about changing up the art world, and injecting the variety of cultures now residing in the UK into what we think of art and history in England, and this series really represents that crossover.

Which of your creations are you proudest of? Over the past year, my embroidery has grown from teeny patches expressing hobbies and interests, to more biographical pieces, which are much more detailed. I love both kinds equally, but the patches that are closest to my heart are ones that support and encourage little victories, activities that are hard for people with mental health issues but still deserve to be rewarded. Knowing that I have impacted someone’s mental health, and helped them to not feel so alone is so heartwarming to me.

I personally love the embroidered self-portrait I made last year, which was challenging but my hard work really paid off. It had originally started of as a self-care project, which turned into really fun way of working for me.

What are your future plans for Hanecdote? As far as my shop, its had to be put on the back burner while I’m back at university, but I do hope to reopen it soon, just selling machine embroidered versions of my classic designs while I study. Next summer I will have more time to commit to my business, introducing some clothing, expanding the machine embroidered range and also offering customised embroidered hoops, similar to the ones I have been making. I love being able to share my creations and designs with people, but I wouldn’t say I enjoy business, so I kind of make it up as I go along, improving and learning constantly, and I would like to grow personally as an artist for a while before committing to my shop again.

What advice would you give to others wanting to start their own business? It takes a lot of patience, that’s for sure. I struggle to think of sound advice as it is all about trial and error for me, and I’ve been running Hanecdote since I was 17 so there really has been a lot of learning and figuring out the best process. I was making and sharing kind of crap things for a year or more before I made my Ghoul Guide patches and they got popular online, which propelled me into the patch machine I have turned into over the past two years. I guess be confident in your products, work ethically, don’t copy other peoples designs and have fun expressing yourself.

Tell us about your tattoo collection? I got my first tattoo a week after my 18th birthday, which is a bum in a heart shape and could still be one of my favourites as my mum also got tattooed with me and it brings back fond memories. I also have a black cat on my wrist; a matching honey jar with my brother, which commemorates a fond memory with our grandpa; an interpretation of my popular Too Cute To Care patch; a palm tree, which I got in Antigua with my boyfriend; a pin up girl with a snake wrapped around her, inspired by John Collier’s painting of Lilith and Salma Hayek’s character in From Dusk Till Dawn; a skull pin cushion; a Friday the thirteenth embroidery sample; a sad girl; a crying eye; lil ghoul; a heart with a G inside; a heart saying ‘mine’; a nude Polaroid, and a butterfly.

Have you got plans for anymore in the future? I have lots of ideas for tattoos in the future, including some mermaids, no doubt more embroidery inspired ones, some more babes, and I’ve been really thinking about a beautiful under boob tattoo. I think I’m gonna go easy for a while though, if I can help myself! Matching tattoos are my favourite and I would love to get some more. Hopefully one day I can convince my dad to get one with me