My inky handiwork for British company ‘Next’ (Home)

‘Beachcomber-themed’ hand-drawn art  © Peter Gander 2014

© Peter Gander  2014

Just a quick snapshot of only one item we spotted featuring our designs at Next (Home) in the UK. Next produced quite a swathe of ‘beachcomber’-themed products from coffee cups to wall art based on our www.haveagander.biz designs that we hand-drew many moons ago for the Summer 2014 season.

‘You’re a Legend’ Father’s Day A4 print

© Peter Gander 2014

Work-in-progress chalking  © Peter Gander 2014

Again, printed from a hand-drawn chalk original, a new print design for www.haveagander.biz for Father’s Day in June. Out soon. Original: chalk on board.

‘You are Ace’ greetings card  © Peter Gander

‘Happy Father’s Day’ greetings card  © Peter Gander

You’re a Legend’ greetings card  © Peter Gander

From real chalk originals, this series for www.haveagander.biz continues to grow. Printed in Kent on A6 GFSmith Callisto Pearl 300gsm.

60th milestone birthday card  © Peter Gander 2014

One of a series of real hand-chalked designs for ‘milestone birthdays’ for www.haveagander.biz

‘The old ones are the best’ hand-chalked greetings card

Working freehand

‘The old ones are the best’ greetings card  © Peter Gander

It’s good to chalk. ‘The old ones are the best’ is our first in a new line of www.haveagander.biz hand-chalked cards. There is a dearth of ‘chalk-like’ effects that you can computer-generate. They are all poor imitations. You don’t get the subtle things happening naturally that make it authentic, like dusty ‘ghosting’ on the blackboard, or the beautifully imperfect line. Unsurprisingly only the real thing looks properly convincing, so this is real chalk - Stephen’s brand, from nearby Folkestone in Kent, UK, in fact, on a real blackboard.” Chalk & blackboard.

‘Alias Smith & Jones’ hand-lettered image for Photo Mosaic

Typical Photo Mosaic  © Fiona Howarth

‘Hand-lettering Western style’  © Peter Gander

The top pic is one of my wife Fiona’s ‘Photo Mosaics’. A tessellated square of many squares, they are given as gift to loved ones to celebrate birthdays and suchlike and are comprised of the tiniest detail to the big things in life. They are part photo, part scanned original art. Fiona does the photographic squares and I paint mini originals for the remaining ‘favourite TV programmes, brand of jeans/custard’, etc. Some come along that are really nice to do, such as the ‘Alias Smith & Jones’ panel, above. The original lettering was rendered in pencil and watercolour on paper as it the paint can have a lovely inconsistency when used in a ‘scrubbing’ fashion. This was later superimposed onto a scan of driftwood that I had, with transparency allowing the background through slightly. 

Hand-drawn Whitstable icons print

Whitstable icons print  © Peter Gander

For lovers of ‘The Bubble’, a reminder on the wall of why they keep going back to this lovely north Kent seaside town. Famous for its oysters and Oyster Festival, the Hammer House of Horrors actor Peter Cushing and the brass diving helmet (it was invented here). Whether a beer at ‘The Neppy’ is you bag or a plate of fish and chips on the beach is more your style, there’s sure to be a personal favourite on here. Printed on archival-quality A3 (297mm wide x 420mm high) paper with great lightfastness. Buy one on Folksy Original was painted with brush and black Indian ink, plus marker pens.

‘You, me and a cup of tea’ greetings card

You, me and a cup of tea greetings card  © Peter Gander 2012

Unlike our tea towels, the greetings cards have the capacity for full colour, but not wishing to move too far from the original design, I added just a tinted green background variation and infill to the hand-lettering. Ink and dip pen on paper with digital colour.

Chocolate greetings card design

Chocolate greetings card  © Peter Gander 2012

Hand-lettered Chocolate A6 greetings card for Have a Gander range. Pen and ink, digital colour.

Tea towel: You, me and a cup of tea

© Peter Gander 2012  You, me and a cup of tea

Another hand-drawn design for our Have a Gander tea towel range in ‘tea-leaf’ green. Original artwork drawn with dip pen and Indian ink. We now have over 10 independent Kent, Sussex and Surrey shops making orders for the tea towels and the brilliantly-named To Dry For specialist tea towel retailer has placed an order for our Jubilee design. Available May 2012.

Tea towel: teapot

Teapot tea towel © Peter Gander

This one of our 5 new Have a Gander tea towel designs for 2012 in a lovely shade of slate grey. All hand-drawn and featuring ink and brush hand-lettered pure tea varieties (we’ll do a favourite fruity infusions one day) in the shape of a traditional teapot with tea leaf pattern wallpaper. Illustrated in Kent and printed in Great Britain on 100% cotton.

Hand-drawn type Phrenology head

Phrenology Quiz head  © Peter Gander

The original for this design drawn for a school quiz was painted with brush and black Rotring ink on paper and converted to colour in Photoshop. Inspired by antique Phrenology busts used to map out the supposed workings of the brain.