Search Engineering: Happiness (Animation)

Little illustrated, animated experiment I made. It's about internet search engine-defined happiness - happiness viewed through a lens of an adverted-smiley-faced-sunseted-clusterfuck of cliches, a bit dissonant and all a bit too loud. Red skies and yellow smiles covered in inspirational mumbled, jumbled, glorious fumbles of pseudo-false-wisdom and of course, verbal gumbo. Now on demand, in high-definition, at the click of a button. Just for YOU.

Search Engineering: Happiness (GIF)

Search Engineered Happiness. Internet Variety Calm. Sunsets! Smiley Faces! Free if you subscribe to our daily email! Have we mentioned the sunsets? They're omnipresent. They're omnicoloured. They might even be omnipotent, but we have yet to check the market research.
Here's a GIF thing I made. Click him. See him be big.

Marshall McHuman

Hello there. I've been a rather slow at posting arts and designs lately, as becoming a master of the arts turns out to be a rather time-intensive thing to do. Here's a bleeping, flashing, little media monster to make up for it, that I birthed in this last stretch of internet silence. He's pretty ferocious. You can click him to see him bigger. I'm thinking of calling him Marshall McHuman.

Book Cover Design for 'Mrs. Cave's House'

I just completed illustrating and designing the cover for the upcoming Sow's Ear Poetry Review annual chapbook. Sow's Ear picks one poet each year to have their poetry featured in a chapbook, and this year's winner was the talented poet/writer Jane Schapiro. Check out the artwork below (click to see larger versions - first image is front/back cover together, second is just the front), and get yerself a book when it comes out!

In-Store Illustration Work for Jo Malone

I spent a few weeks recently working for Jo Malone, the Estée-Lauder-owned perfumery, in London this year as their in-store illustrator, drawing quick little London cityscapes onto boxes for customers, in honour of the Olympics and Paralympics. It was interesting working out in the open, and I enjoyed the public interaction. Here are a few photos from the experience:

Oxford Art Fair

A few photos from this past weekend's first Oxford Art Fair. The first image is of my art section, and the others are of other bits of fair. It was sunny and the atmosphere was lovely. Joviality was in full swing!

Check out the fair's website here and read about myself and the other artists involved:

http://theoxfordartfair.com/artists2012/ 

Bear + Raccoon + Animated Gif

Here's an acrylic-painted llustration I made, that I made into an animated-gif, as a preview of a small animation I'm working on. But that said, the animation will be more interesting than this mildly interesting flashy stuff. But that said, GIF POWER.

Anti-Fur-Wearing Illustration for The Alarmist Magazine

Illustration I did for The Alarmist Magazine about fur-wearers, made because

(1) I dislike fur-wearers, and

(2) I bluddy love a cheeky pun.

Check out their magazine-- it's pretty quirky. And dark. Win-win.

Click image to see it larger and not all strangely aligned under the right side of this site.

(Tech fail. SOZ, GUYZ.)

A Blog Post About Blog Posts (SO POSTMODERN)

Sometimes lovely people who make lovely blogs make lovely blog posts about my art, which is very nice of them. Here are a couple that have popped up lately:

From Plog Magazine:

http://plogmagazine.com/archives/6383

From Business Boom Collective:

http://businessboomcollective.com/0802/freelance-illustrator-rebecca-hendin/

From Ballad Of:

http://balladof.co.uk/article/brand-new-art-we-heart/1894/

Do check out not just the blogginess about my stuff, but about others, as well, as there is LOTS of cool stuff to be seen. Right then. Peace out, you pizza slices.

Horse & Louis Edinburgh Festival Poster

Musical comedy act of hilarious hilarity and melodious melody Horse & Louis commissioned me to illustrate and design their Edinburgh Festival 2012 gig poster for their run of shows at the Underbelly Cowgate. This ever-so-jovial art will soon be seen around Edinburgh in various incarnations, in every manifestation from wee-postcard-flyer-size to really-huge-poster-on-a-venue-wall size. Click any to see the images larger.

Here is the poster/flyer front:

And here is the flyer backside: 

As usual, I made many versions of the art from which the client could choose their favourite design. Those ultimately won't be used for anything, so here are a few examples of the unused designs for your perusing purposes:

Group Painting Exhibition at Arch Gallery, London

A few photos from last night's private view of the portraiture group exhibition at the Arch Gallery in East London, in which my painting (which is for sale, by the by - contact me or gallery for details) was displayed. Come mosey in-- the show will be up through 30 June, 2012.

Me + Painting.

Exhibition times.

More exhibition times.

Deep art contemplation.

A Painted Nat

This is my new painting. It's of my flatmate, the lovely and talented actress and musician Natalia Tena, and the slightly slutty, constantly pregnant cat who also lurks about our house, Teabag. It's acrylic/oil on canvas, and it's 18"x24".

It will be exhibited as part of a portraiture exhibition at the The Arch Gallery in London opening 20 June. Do come! :]

Secret 7" Exhibition

Recently, several of my illustrations were exhibited and sold on Record Store Day as part of the Secret 7" Exhibition at Idea Generation Gallery in London. The exhibition displayed and sold one-of-a-kind 7" single record sleeves, with all proceeds going to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The exhibition...

 

My sleeve designs...

For Bombay Bicycle Club's 'Lights Out, Words Gone'

For Noah and the Whale's 'Old Joy'

For Florence and the Machine's 'Only If For A Night'

Fashion156 Blog Feature

Stoked to have my art featured on the Fashion156 blog. Click HERE to check it out.

London City Farms Illustration

This is an illustration I just finished about one of my favourite parts of London-- its city farms. London boasts around a dozen farms within the M25. These farms are home to a variety of animals, plants, and gardens, and provide welcome respite from their urban surroundings. I try to visit my local farm (Hackney City Farm) as often as possible, as I find visits there offer peaceful moments within a sometimes slightly mad city. My illustration refers not only to the farms' animals, but also to the their pseudo-hidden nature-- thus, the animals 'pop' up from behind buildings. London farms are not particularly advertised, and are tucked quietly away amongst their city environments, community residents often unaware of their presence. I truly hope city farms always remain a part of London life. Support your local farm!

The first two images below show the full final illustration in different colour variants, and the subsequent images depict zoomed views of detail in the illustration. Spot the various bits of London hidden in there!

Birth Announcement Illustration & Design

I was recently privately commissioned to create a bespoke birth announcement, to be printed and sent out to the couple's family and friends. I worked from several photographs to create a portrait of the couple and their new baby, using a combination of traditional and digital methods, and hand-drew the text. Here is the final product.

The idea for the piece was Hannah Bullivant's, a crafty lady whose rad blog you can check out here: seedsandstitches.blogspot.co.uk

Illustration/Design for The Lines Single

Recently, the lovely UK band The Lines asked me to illustrate and design the packaging and CD artwork for their new single, 'No Illusions, No Cheap Tricks,' available soon through iTunes and HMV stores. Visit their website, their Facebook, listen to their music, because they are quite good lads. 

Artwork/design for the front cover:

 

Artwork/design for the back cover:

Artwork/design for the CD itself:

When creating designs for this sort of thing, I like to send clients a variety of final options, so that they can decide what will work best for them. I sent The Lines about twenty options for them to choose from. Here are some examples of alternate front-cover designs the band didn't use: