Category: Art

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Katie Edmunds Illustrates Things&Ink

Fashion illustrator, Katie Edmunds from London, was inspired by Things&Ink magazine and created the original illustration (below) of blogger Yanin Namasonthi, who she has followed for a while and loves her style. 

We chatted to Katie about her artistic style, where she gets her inspiration and of course tattoos. Katie has also recreated a few of her favourite previous Things&Ink covers… 

Do you have a background in art? Yes I’ve always chosen related art subjects through education and I’ve just recently graduated from London College of Fashion.

 How would you describe your style? I love illustrating people’s expressions through portrait drawings. I have a realistic style, which I tend to juxtapose with playful, and colourful elements through use of watercolours, adding a raw quality to my work.

What medium do you use? Pencils and watercolour. I like the precision and detail of the pencil and the unpredictability and possibilities which stem from watercolour and ink on paper.

Where do you get your inspiration from? I’m hugely inspired by female empowerment. My illustrations tend to play upon women who control and employ power over the male gaze, but with a tongue-in-cheek approach.

Do you have tattoos? So far I only have one, it was in the spur of the moment with my friend during St Patricks day in Dublin- a small celebration of a shamrock on my wrist. I keep illustrating different designs but as an illustrator I keep altering and changing what I want.

Are there any artists you admire? In terms of tattoo artists I really admire Keely Rutherford, like my own work hers is very colourful. I like her use of pastel colours and the way in which she translates that into tattoo art. I also like her fantasy aesthetic; it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

What drew you to Things&Ink? I was drawn to Things&Ink magazine as I feel it takes a look at both tattoos and the wider tattoo culture. Being an illustrator I really respect the artwork of tattooists so I love that it profiles the very best tattooists and shines a light on their illustrative skills. My work really focuses on feminist ideals so I was drawn to the strong women that are represented in Things&Ink magazine.

How did you decide which covers to draw? The first cover I chose to illustrate is my favourite of all the issues so far, issue 11 The Fruity Issue to me perfectly represents female empowerment. I love the bright and colourful aesthetic, which is something which I try to achieve in my work and I’m also really drawn to portraiture so I always tend to illustrate detail in faces.

 Can people buy your art? Yes,  I also do commissions and can be contacted by email katieedmundsillustration@gmail.com
Follow Katie on Instagram and Twitter for more art work
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Offline Dating Film

‘Offline Dating’ is a short film created by Bafta-nominated filmmaker Samuel Abrahams, which shows actor Tom Greaves in Hackney, London, attempting to persuade women to go on a date with him. His advances receive a mixed response and the film shows how women respond differently to a unknown man approaching them in public.

 

The film acts a social experiment, showing how social media and online dating have affected how people interact in everyday “real” life. The differences between online personas and how we are in real life are highlighted as the film supports the idea that we edit how we chose to present ourselves in a world of social media.

Watch the film below, what do you think? Has the online world ruined real life interactions?

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Interview with a tattoo artist: Holly Astral

We chatted to 31-year-old tattoo artist and jewellery maker Holly Astral from Hertfordshire about her painting style, her inspirations and the art shows she has been involved in. 

Do you have a background in art? I studied art at school and college before doing a degree in model making and special effects. With regards to painting and drawing I’m self taught, just figuring things out as I go along.

How did you get your apprenticeship? Why did you want to become a tattooist? I am trained as a model maker, and spent the first ten or so years of my working life prototyping toys and products for manufacture. To cut a long story short, I realised I wasn’t in love with what I was doing any more and decided to make a change. I love to paint and draw, and I had been thinking about expanding this. I wanted to learn to tattoo for years, but it was always a kind of distant far away dream. It occured to me that the only way to learn would be to make that dramatic change and immerse myself fully into learning to tattoo. I was working for myself at the time, so I stopped saying yes to model making jobs, closed my toy making company and got cracking with finding an apprenticeship!

How long have you been tattooing? Just over a year, but it’s gone so quickly! This year has flown by. I am loving every minute of it!

What kinds of things do you like to tattoo? I love tattooing animals and flowers the most so far! Flowers look so lovely flowing across the body. I am still just working on smaller, simple pieces right now.

How would you describe your tattoo style? I’m still just getting started, so my style is still very much in the developing stages. I’d say it’s pretty girly and some times cute but not too cutesy-poo. And more spacey, dreamy and magical when it comes to my art. In terms of painting I love to paint spacey pin up style ladies, and I hope my tattooing takes me in that kind of direction once I’ve built my skills up further to do larger pieces.

What mediums do you use? Oil paints mostly, sometimes acrylics. I always add some gold leaf to each painting, too. I like a bit of sparkle

Where do you get your inspiration from? Magic, nature, films – I love fantasy films and anything with ghosts or aliens in it. I am also really inspired by the vast loneliness of space, it kind of depends on how I’m feeling that day. Usually I start by sketching away in my sketchbook, I draw every single day, and then I see which ones start to flesh out and feel real to me on their own. My favourite part of any drawing is adding all the tattoos and long swishing hair.

Can you tell me about the gallery shows you have been involved in? I’ve exhibited at galleries in Europe and the USA, including The Sho Gallery Wales, Forbidden Planet London and the Japanese American National Museum in LA.  A lot of the shows in the states I sent my work over, but I always prefer to go to the show and getting to meet all the other artists involved. My art has taken me all over the place, all around England and Wales, and LA. I used to run my own line of collectible plush toys called Cavey, I produced a small numbered run of them each month in a different design, a bit like beanie babies. For Cavey’s birthday each year I would put on an art show where other artists and toy designers would contribute their own interpretation of the Cavey platform. The show was held at a pop up location each year in London, but one year I put the show on in LA. That was a lot of fun!

In April I put on my first solo show at Toycon in the UK and I’ve also curated shows at pop-up locations in London and LA.

Were the pieces you created for the galleries based around themes? Often the show will have a running theme that the artists are encouraged to work to, and I really like to work this way. Having a little bit of direction as to what to produce really gets the creative juices flowing!

A favourite show of mine was ‘Dragons’ which took place in Wales. Each artist was given a blank plastic dragon toy to customise, and everyone made their own interpretation of he platform. I made mine in the image of Falcor from The Never Ending Story. It was such a fun night!

Where can people buy your art?  I have a small online shop where I sell my silver jewellery. My artwork is available to purchase privately by emailing me at hollyastral@gmail.com

Holly is currently doing guest spots in Hertfordshire, if you’d like to get tattooed by her email: hollyastral@gmail.com

Follow Holly on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr for more artwork and tattoos.

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One Day Young: Mothers and Babies

Photographer Jenny Lewis has created a collection of photographs showing mothers and their babies, one day after the birth. These portraits have been published as a book by Hoxton Mini Press titled One Day Young.

It’s really quite simple — I wanted to tell a story about the strength and resilience of women post-childbirth that I feel goes largely unacknowledged in today’s world. To reassure women that childbirth is ok; yes it’s painful but it is a positive pain, one that has purpose and is just part of the journey, a rite of passage into motherhood. To make visible other emotions that are far more powerful: the joy, the overwhelming love and the triumphant victory every new mother feels. In my mind this is the supportive message we should be passing on to future generations rather than paralysing them with fear.

Very early on in the project I knew I wanted to concentrate on the first twenty-four hours, when a woman’s body is engulfed by hormones, to capture the unrelenting physicality of the moment, straight from the battlefield. Sweat still glistening on the mothers’ skin, the translucent umbilical cord, freshly severed, and wide-eyed wonder as the women come to terms with the magnitude of what they have achieved and survived.

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Saffron Reichenbacker at Axios Tattoo

Saffron Reichenbacker solo exhibition at Axios Tattoo studio.
Private View: Friday 17th July, 6 – 8:30pm
1 Hove Park Villas, BN3 6HP, Hove
Axios Tattoo studio opening hours: 10am – 5:30pm, Tuesday – Saturday
Exhibition runs until 3rd August.

Saffron Reichenbacker is a Brighton based artist inspired by a dream world of silver screen vampires and Weimar Berlin ghosts. She works primarily with ink sketches, which are then scanned and developed digitally. Using strong lines and bold colours, her pieces commonly take the form of imagined portraits. In these, she creates a mood that brings to life her dark dream vision of the 1920s. She loves cats, aerial circus and damn fine coffee.

Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more art.


Axios Tattoo is run by Ade and Nigel,  the studio creates custom work with a high degree of freehand tattooing. Ade and Nigel are  both artists outside of tattooing, specialising in painting. Axios are unique in that they ‘want the shop to represent artists both inside and outside of the tattooing community, to become a hub for ‘outsider-lowbrow’ artists to show their work’.

Follow Axios on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more art work and tattoos.