Magic Show at Solihull Gallery

Since the publication of the Magic postcard book work has started on the exhibition which will accompany it. The Magic Show will be at Solihull Gallery from early April until June 2011, but rather than just exhibiting illustrations from the book, contributors will be creating new pieces especially for the gallery. They will be printing, painting, paper-cutting, stitching and conjuring up an array of exciting artwork ranging from large scale installations to miniature models. 

Throughout the Magic Show there will be opportunities to meet and even work with some of the illustrators involved. As well as live illustration and painting, drop in activities and printing demonstrations there will be Magic themed workshops run by Sarah Ray and Karoline Rerrie.

In case you're wondering where the wonderful Tommy Cooper illustration has come from it was an extra postcard design by Beth Morrison which she decided not to use for the book. We love it and so does the gallery, in fact it’s proved so popular they want to use the image for some of their publicity material for the Magic Show. 

Secrets behind the Magic

The illustrators featured in the Magic postcard book are all very different and each one creates artwork in a unique style using their own particular technique.Over the next few weeks some of the girls will be revealing what inspired their postcard designs as well as how they created the finished artwork for the book.

Sarah Ray does magic.

Sarah Ray has designed postcards for all three of the Girls Who Draw books and she is one of our favorite Birmingham based illustrators. Originally from the dark depths of Herefordshire, Sarah completed a degree in Illustration in the lovely city of Cambridge and since then has been working freelance, drawing for clients such as Orange, The Artgroup and Friends of the Earth. When she isn't busy creating funny characters in comical scenarios you can often find her screen printing work for galleries and shops around the country. In between drawing and drinking cups of tea she found time to answer a few questions about her Magic postcards.

What are the ideas or inspiration behind your Magic postcard designs?
My first design was a continuation of my 'chicken and egg' series. I decided to use these characters in a magic scene and thought of egg magicking a chick out with a wand. It went from there!

My other design started from the idea of a magic carpet. I thought it would be funny to put two rabbits on the carpet complaining about being there in a very English manner... I like to take situations out of the norm and take inspiration from people - who are all funny onions in their own way!

How did you develop your ideas for the postcards?
Just kept drawing, until it looked/sounded right. Once I decided what they were going to say I worked on the composition. From start to finish it wasn't actually a very long process... the longest part is thinking up the idea at which point I have to work in silence otherwise my brain won't work properly.

And how did you create the finished artwork for the postcards?
I drew the elements of the designs and then scanned them into photoshop. I fiddle about quite a bit with colours/lines/layout see what looks best until I'm happy, and hey presto! they were complete! Oh, yes and this wouldn't happen at all without numerous cups of tea and music! 

www.sarahray.co.uk 
www.squeakyunderpants.blogspot.com

Girls Who Draw present Magic

Magic is the third postcard book from Girls Who Draw, a group of UK based illustrators who, as the name suggests are all women. The cover of Magic was designed by the remarkable Kate Hindley, who seems to spend most of her time conjuring up new characters to amuse and delight us all. Kate also created two postcards for the book along with a brilliant lineup of regular and new contributors. They are Anke Weckmann, Gemma Correll, Mary Kilvert, Beth Morrison, Alys Paterson, Sarah Ray, Jane Anderson (aka Currentstate), Yee Ting Kuit, Ruth Green and Karoline Rerrie. All the group are already very busy selling the Magic books from their online shops as well as sending them to stores and galleries around the country and even further afield. It's hard work keeping up with everything that's going on but we hope to find time to tell you more about Magic, the illustrators involved and keep you up to date with the group's exhibitions and adventures.