Alice is a freelance illustrator based in London. Twice shortlisted for the Macmillan Prize, Alice's clients include Random House, Pavilion Books, The Cheese Society and Ivy Press.
We first came across Alice's work when she started following us on Twitter – we liked it so much that we invited her to become a part of the illustrato.rs community.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m currently working on two picture books with Pavilion that are due to be published next year. One is about a group of very loud animals and the other is about cowboys, so I’m delighted to be tied up with both of those at present. At the beginning of this year I was selected for the Sendak Fellowship, so in September I'll be heading to a forest in Connecticut to stay at Maurice Sendak’s residence. It’s a great honour to have been chosen and I can’t wait to get there.
Can you describe how you make images?
I normally do a couple of tiny thumbnails of an idea, mostly hashing out the layout. Then I’ll draw out a character or section of the image and using a lightbox I'll separate out the layers of it, like the shape of a tiger from its stripes. I’ll then scan in the drawings and add colour and texture in Photoshop.
Apart from your illustration, what else do you do?
I’m also one fifth of Zombie Collective [a group of five illustrators and designers, including Joely Brammer, Rebecca Jay, Maggie Li and fellow illustrato.rs member, Frann Preston-Gannon].
Together we work on a variety of projects; most recently we held a three week pop-up exhibition at the Hayward Gallery called ‘Fathoms Deep’. We decided on a nautical theme for the show and every Saturday we put on workshops that included everything from treasure map making to mini boat building. It was a fantastic experience and we met some incredible people doing it. We’ve got a couple more projects in the pipeline that I’m looking forward to after I get back from the US.
Is where you live an influence on your work?
I grew up in London and now live in Elephant & Castle which is a pretty busy and vibrant part of town. The general sprawl of the city tends to mean I spend a lot of time schlepping across it – eighty to ninety percent of the time this is when I get the germ of an idea. I’m very bad at thinking sitting still.
What would be your ideal project to work on?
It would be incredible to design an edition of stamps; they’re both utilitarian and really pleasing on the eye, plus there is the added bonus of their tiny tiny size.
Take a look at Alice's artwork for sale on illustrato.rs or visit her website.
