Illustrated panels at the Booth Museum

6th April 2018 in _news by claire

Well this year has started with a bang – I have created some large illustrated panels at the Booth Museum of Natural History, to showcase some of our most endangered animals and the habitats they live in.

At the end of last year, the lovely people at the Booth Museum in Brighton (where I also volunteer, see various posts below) asked if I would like to illustrate 3 long panels to go up in their Discovery Gallery for young children. Having never illustrated at anywhere near this scale before (the biggest panel was nearly 8 metres long!) and with the chance to get really stuck in to doing a tonne of drawing, I excitedly said yes!

Beetle Cherry illustrated panels in Discovery Gallery at the Booth Museum of Natural History (Brighton)

The focus of the panels is endangered species, with a different landscape on each – rainforest, ocean and mountain. The panels are less than a metre tall off the floor, with the target audience being small children, so we wanted to keep it fun and colourful with loads of secondary creatures to spot and talk about. Where relevant we also included information about wider conservation issues, such as plastics in our oceans and palm oil causing deforestation.

Due to the ENORMOUS scale, I created the artworks a little differently to how I would normally work. I started with some very rough sketches, animal research and notes into a sketchbook. To get an idea of scale and how big to draw all the creatures, I also did a few rough drawings to scale on large sheets of paper in the gallery.

Research notes and sketches

Using my sketches and to-scale drawings as a I guide, I then created all the artwork straight onto my computer using a graphics tablet and Photoshop. Once everything was finished and the text was added, it was sent off to be printed on huge vinyl stickers and then very expertly installed without any creases or wonky edges or anything (this seemed like the trickiest job of the entire thing!).

Vinyl panels waiting to be installed onto the walls

Here are a few photos of the panels in place at the museum:

Rainforest panel – intro and Philippine eagle

Rainforest panel – orangutans and pangolin

Rainforest panel – end section with the palm oil plantation (sob)

Rainforest panel – section with two windows featuring leopard and pangolin

Mountain panel – featuring moon bear and rusty patched bumblebee

Ocean panel – featuring north atlantic right whale and a swarm of jellyfish

Ocean panel – coral reed with kemps ridley turtle

I’d love to know what you think of the panels if you’ve visited! And let me know how long it takes you to find the stick insect too 🙂

Photos all taken by the brilliant Kate of Oh Someday, who overcame the challenges of curved panels and low lighting like a total pro.

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Volunteering at the Booth Museum – BEETLES!

2nd June 2017 in Museums by claire

I’m still regularly going to the Booth Museum to help out with cataloguing their bird egg collection, but while I’m there I always get a chance to open a couple of drawers in another cabinet or delve into a different part of the collection. Its literally impossible not to, theres so many amazing things to look at everywhere!

So here are a few photos from a recent drawer-opening few minutes in the beetle collection:

Also, from the other week how AMAZING is this Great Hornbill skull?!?

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Brighton Artists Open Houses – Junkyard Dogs

17th May 2017 in _craft markets, _news by claire

I’m absolutely thrilled to be exhibiting at the wonderful Junkyard Dogs cafe and event space in Brighton with the Brighton Etsy Team this May.

I created a new ocean print for the exhibition, which went up on the walls alongside a few older pieces and a whole wonderful array of work by other Etsy sellers. We also had racks selling prints and cards, and it seems to have been very busy, I’ve restocked a couple of times already!

Do get down for a little look around if you, stop for tea and cake or even attend one of the many events they are holding in their new venue space.

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Volunteering at the Booth Museum – EGGS!

12th November 2016 in Museums by claire

A few weeks ago, myself and Sarah (from Sarah Edmunds illustration) started volunteering at the Booth Museum of Natural History in Brighton to help photograph and update the collection of birds eggs. I don’t think either of us had quite realised the enormity of the task until we started… there are SO MANY eggs in the collection, its really quite incredible. And such an amazing opportunity to get close-up to these beautiful natural objects.

I could of kept taking literally hundreds of photos, there is something so beautiful and haunting about them. Here are just a few…

The birds eggs are kept in hundreds of drawers in a whole corridor of cabinets like this:

Our main tasks were to measure the length and width of the eggs using really precise callipers, and enter the information onto the giant museum database. We also checked all the information on there was correct for each egg. Then we photographed each egg on its own and as a clutch if it was part of one, which will later be added to the database too.

(Please note egg collecting is illegal in the UK – the eggs in the collection are all from a long time ago when collecting was quite common. The eggs are now used for research and education).

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Illustrating endangered animals – my favourite artists

25th May 2016 in Illustration and wildlife by claire

There are quite a few people out there illustrating endangered animals, all trying in different ways to raise awareness of these animals in the hope that awareness aids conservation. Science, research and campaigning are all well-known elements of conservation today, but often to inspire people to fall in love and take action, you need a different approach. Illustration and visual communication are very powerful tools – so here is a little list of my top favourite illustrators doing just that. They are all absolute inspirational creative geniuses, hope you like all the amazing artwork!

1. Jonathan Woodward

I’ve been a huge fan of Jonathan’s work for many years – I love both his paper collage style and his obvious passion for the natural world. Not only does he sell prints of his work, but you can download amazing FREE Children’s Wildlife Activity Kits (see images below) and monthly desktop calendars.

I asked Jonathan what inspires him, and whether he thinks illustration has a role to play in conservation:

“I’ve always loved wildlife (I used to collect bird ceramic figures while the other kids were collecting Star Wars figures!) and although it took me a while to combine my passion for wildlife and Illustration, spending 10+ years as a Graphic Designer, I now feel very privileged to work on the projects I illustrate.

I think illustration has an important role to play in communicating conservation issues to children and offers a unique opportunity to engage with them in a way that photographs can’t, breaking down complex subjects like trophic cascades and making shocking practices like shark finning less gruesome, but still impactful enough to fire up future conservationists.

The thought that through my work personally and professionally, I could help in some small way to inspire kids to engage with and want to protect the natural world, makes me very proud.”

I couldn’t agree more! Though I also think its never too late to get grown-ups inspired too 😀

2. Brendan Wenzel

From Brooklyn, New York, Brendan is a passionate conservationist, and has collaborated with many organizations working to ensure the future of wild places and threatened species, especially within Southeast Asia. You can see a whole gallery of Brendan’s illustrated animals, all endangered in the wild, on his website, plus he has a book coming out this year called They All Saw a Cat.

Louis Masai

Louis Masai is a London-based street artist who uses large, visible public platforms to depict endangered animals. His work is absolutely beautiful, and the contrast of seeing these ‘wild’ animals on the streets of East London makes you think about the space we are giving these animals in our modern world. He was part of the recent Endangered13 Project in London too, a mural project raising awareness of endangered species – visit the website, there’s tonnes of amazing photos on there!

Bryan James’ Species in Pieces project

Bryan’s project is an incredible mix of endangered animals and modern, digital artwork.Here are a few images of his project but you really must go look at it on his website – the animals move, the pieces spin into place to create each new animal and there are loads of links to information about each species. Its mesmerising.

Patrick George

I’m in love with Patrick’s Animal Rescue book… I’m always on the look out for kids books that deal with conservation or endangered animals, and I think this one does it so well. So simple yet so clever, plus some of the profits go to the Born Free Foundation. Watch the video to see how the acetate pages work:

Patrick has also been involved in other conservation projects, recently a poster for World Wildlife Day (the theme was In Our Hands):

And a poster for Wildaid’s Year of the Elephant (2016):

He has an exhibition in London at the Coningsby Gallery called Wildlife Matters from 27 June – 9 July. See his website for more artwork.

Frann Preston-Gannon: The Journey Home

Sticking with amazing children’s books, this is The Journey Home. I LOVE THIS BOOK TOO! I hadn’t heard of the illustrator when I stumbled across this book a few years ago in London. I read it in the bookshop and had to choke back the tears at the end – a beautiful book about endangered animals, with a hard-hitting final page. Get yourself a copy, and then I challenge you not to cry. It’s been turned into a stage show for kids too, see more on Frann’s website.

Bria Neff: Faces of the Endangered

My final artist I know very little about but came across her recently on the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots website. Bria is an American-based artist and conservationist who is “painting these pictures of endangered animals because I want people to know that they are loosing their habits and food. It makes me feel super sad so I want to help by selling these paintings and donating the money to make sure none these wonderful animals ever go extinct. She plans to paint 3000 paintings in the next 9 years and so far has already raised $1,600 for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Oh yeh, and SHE’S ONLY NINE YEARS OLD. Beyond inspiring. Check out her website.