Eel postcard image

Eel postcard image  © Peter Gander

A client who works for CEFAS commissioned me to come up with some eel-themed designs for a conference coming up later in the year in Edinburgh, Scotland. After forwarding some rough ideas, we settled on this celtic design-inspired ‘Eel knot’ as it was seen to not only look striking but also represents one of the creature’s habits of writhing underwater in huge ‘eel balls’ where hundereds of the creatures form a rolling sphere of eeldom, careering downstream in a dark shiny mass! Hand-painted ink linework with charcoal and digital colour. As usual, the type is hand-drawn too.

Re-drawing the design in pencil with a tad more precision thank the original scamp

Getting knotted over the puzzling shapes...

Painting the final linework on Canson Detail Paper, beautifully thin and transparent, so I can see the pencil sketch underneath

Treating this as a completely seperate layer, I drew some stylised ripples in charcoal, later turned to white

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.

School postcard painting

St Edmund’s Pre-Prep School postcard  © Peter Gander

A recent commisssion for local Canterbury school, St Edmund’s. The painting was used for a promotional postcard sent out to prospective parents. I put together a composition portraying different aspects of the school and despite my rather grey-looking reference pics taken on a dull autumn day, managed to infuse the postcard with plenty of sunshine! Watercolour on 300gsm Langton Grain Fin paper.

Tea towel: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee design

Working on the layout

Inking out a 1st-stage visual in black and white

Drawing the corgis

Diamond Jubilee tea towel  © Peter Gander

To be launched at The Spirit of Summer Fair at Olympia, London this is one of a series of tea towel designs Fiona and I have devised to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Unapologetically patriotic and cheerful, it’s inspired by a playing card design and features a couple of flag-waving and crown-wearing corgis and is completely hand-drawn. Printed in Great Britain and available in Royal Blue on 100% cotton from 16th May 2012 at the fair and thereafter online.

McIlhenny’s Tabasco Sauce bottle

McIlhenny’s Tabasco Sauce  © Peter Gander

Some objects at first sight at least, appear quite bland, yet always look great painted or drawn, I always think. Whether it’s a tin of soup (Warhol), a smoker’s pipe (Magritte) or even my loosely-painted sketch of a tabasco bottle, their representation as a screenprint, sketch or painting, brings interest anew to an erstwhile uninspiring item. Forgive the pun, but that’s what draws me to bringing them to light. As a graphic designer, I love the simple label typography, limited in colour, but on a richly-hued pepper-red product. An icon-in-the-waiting perhaps. (Black) Indian ink, Winsor & Newton Polar White ink and watercolour on Paperchase Kraft Cream hardback sketchbook.

Fishy fundraiser: Local mackerel III in Kent Messenger

Macmillan Folkestone Art Show curator Tom Langlands with ‘Local mackerel III’

Local mackerel III appears in today’s Kent Messenger. Hundreds of postcards of Local mackerel III have sold at a pound each, 100% of which goes to the charity.

Winter hedges

Winter hedges  © Peter Gander

Driving down the motorway tonight I saw this dramatic scene of a high row of hedges chopped with a ruler-straight top against a cool blue darkening sky. I tried to retain the image as best I could in my head and set brush to paper soon after getting home. I think there’s much potential in this image - it would make a particularly nice three colour print, for starters. Painted with Winsor & Newton watercolour on 400gsm Three Rivers extra rough, mould-made paper.

Abreast of plans, cover of today’s Herne Bay Times

Today’s Herne Bay Times

‘Abreast of Plans’ saucy postcard-style painting

‘Abreast of Plans’  © Peter Gander

My local Herne Bay Pier pier pavilion, a bit of a loveable but ugly 70s architectural icon, is currently under the demolition man’s hammer. However, plans are (ahem!) abreast to design a more aesthetic replacement for the main pavilion which was once home to a legendary skating rink now at Herne Bay High School.  I had gander at the plans in last week’s local paper and the new design gave me erm, a couple of pointers regarding a painting opportunity. The above is my Donald McGill-inspired watercolour entitled ‘Abreast of Plans’, (dimensions approx 30cm x 30cm). This will be on the front page no less of The Herne Bay Times tomorrow morning, (Thursday 16th Feb 2012) so this is a sneeky peek! Original for sale - please email me with enquiries.

Painting details

A shocked seagull drops his chip

Sweet feet

Skates

Crane and demolition ball

Face

Cuppa and Thermos flask

Swing-top flask

Swing-top flask  © Peter Gander

A quick sketch on a new supply of Jacksons Eco Handmade Watercolour Paper (extra rough) 425gsm. The extremely rocky surface is hard work for a scratch pen and the lines bleeds a lot of course, but makes for a rich base for the watercolours. A touch of wax candle in places gives us some white relief within the glass.

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.