Amelia’s Magazine | Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration Book Launch

Everything we do at Amelia’s Magazine is a collaborative and creative endeavor, viagra and this extends to the upcoming book launch of Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration (released this week) and the subsequent exhibition of 10 of the books illustrators. Seeing that the book takes pride in championing fresh new talent in the world of illustration, it makes sense that we would want Tuesdays book launch at Concrete Hermit in East London to reflect this. Letting our illustrators run riot, Concrete Hermit has turned its gallery space, and their walls over to them to bring their illustrations of renewable technologies from the Anthology to life. The results can be seen from Tuesday, 8th December onwards, and the exhibition will run until January 1st 2010.

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Our dedicated illustrators pitched up this Sunday to lend their unique talents to this project. Given that the gallery space is pretty compact, and that at any given time there were roughly ten illustrators, as well as Amelia’s staff on hand to document the day and decorate the outside window,  the atmosphere was relaxed, friendly and supportive – even if space was definitely at a premium! I was especially pleased to see some of the illustrators that I had been given the opportunity to interview for the Anthology, such as Jess Wilson, Craig Yamey and Chris Cox. While David Bowie played on the radio, coffee was consumed and cookies and cheese bagels were munched for much needed sustenance. I watched as white walls were transformed into bright and colourful ecological utopias, adorned with mythical creatures, talking whales and flying kites. Interesting and unexpected collaborations unfolded between many of the illustrators who were meeting each other for the first time; for example, when Chris Cox, Barbara Ana Gomez and Jess Wilson realised that their illustrations about renewable technologies all featured bodies of water such as lakes and the sea, they decided to share a large wall space, and while the illustrations are kept separate, they also seamlessly blend in with one another, each one complimenting the other. On another wall space, Karolin Schnoor (who was illustrating underwater technologies) and Andrew Merritt (whose work featured above water tech) shared the top and bottom half of the wall to weave their respective illustrations together.

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Illustrating a wall space on a tight time span is a very different process to how the illustrators are used to working; while Jess revealed that the process was ”less stressful than I thought it was going to be”, others were conscious of the fact that they only had one take. Despite this, all were incredibly proud of their work for the Anthology and were delighted to be able to showcase their work at the gallery. By 5pm, there was the slightly worrying fact that due to unforeseen circumstances, part of one of the main walls still stood glaringly untouched. Undeterred, Craig, Barbara Ana and Amelia stepped in to collaborate on what was quickly termed the ‘mad panic corner’. Despite the time constraints, everyone was in good spirits, and I look forward to see how the mad panic corner has taken shape!

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Leona Clarke adds some finishing touches

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Saffron Stocker gets to grips with her piece of the wall.

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If you are London based, please come along to the launch, which starts at 6.30 and runs until 9.30pm. Once here, you can pick up a copy of the book which will be signed by Amelia. There will also be carbon neutral beer provided by Adnams and Macs Gold Malt Lager by Madison on hand. If you can’t make it on Tuesday evening, you have a few more weeks to see the work of our super talented illustrators adorn the walls of Concrete Hermit. We are expecting it to get very busy on Tuesday night, so please turn up early!

Categories ,book launch, ,Concrete Hermit, ,exhibition, ,exhibitionreview, ,Gallery, ,illustration, ,illustrators

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