Illustrator and animator, Patrick Vale will be holding an exhibition of new work at Adam Street Private Members Club. Entitled “People & Places”, it will  showcase his dramatic panoramic illustrations of London. Private view will be on 17th of February between 6pm-9pm and if interested, you will need to RSVP to jenny@jennyhewitt.com

www.patrickvale.co.uk

EFDEAY host their debut show around the theme of guilt.
Five creatives have produced individual pieces for you to view, touch and enjoy.

Opening on the 8th February to the 12th February (6.30pm -11.00pm)

Private view on the 11th of February with guest DJ’s (6.30pm 2.00am)

@ the Arts bar 25a Camberwell Church Street, Camberwell (Above the Funky Munky)

Look for the balloons!

The V&A’s Childhood Museum will be running the exhibition Sit Down:Seating For Kind with text illustration contributions by Images winner Emma Houlston. The show will run from the 6th of February till 5th September 2010. Special preview night will be on Thursday 4th of Feb from 6pm. Click here for more details.

Taking the classic children’s tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears as its starting point, Sit Down invites the visitor to consider just what makes a successful seat. Is it comfort? Is it style? Or ease of use?

For more of Emma’s work, please visit her website.

Thanks to Jakob Westman for sending us a copy of his book Colour Blast: Issue#2 to the studio. Some really nice work from his folio in there. Buy your copy here or see his whole folio here.

The AOI held another successful session of the ever popular Open Portfolios last week. Advisors from all aspects of the industry were on hand to look at the portfolios of illustrators from the experienced professional in need of feedback to students starting out. This is an event that the AOI aim to do at twice a year so keep an eye on the website for the next date. A full review of the event will be up on the website soon.

had a very production time @theaoi portfolio evening. thank you guys WhatIsPeterUpTo

teaching and a portfolio review at @theaoi. long day but really good tigzy

went to @theaoi’s Open Portfolio sessions last night, got some really valuable feedback, feeling super energised to create new work! rachillustrates

Iconic artist Shepard Fairey who is iconic for his iconic OBEY images, has landed himself in hot water with his other iconic image of iconic President Obama. It seems that no matter how iconic you are, copyright can still come back to bite you.

It has been an ongoing battle of copyright since photographer Mannie Garcia spotted her image being used as source material for the HOPE posters seen all over last years election run-up in the US. Intially she was perfectly okay with it but then opinions changed once the Obama campaign took off. And copyright laws are now on her side.

left: photo by Mannie Garcia / right: image by Shepard Fairey

At the AOI, we frequently get asked these sort of questions. If I use a photograph as source material, then am I violating copyright? The answer is YES everytime. Even if you treat the photo, distort it and colourise it as Fairey has then you can still get significantly stung a few years down the line.

And to avoid being stung ourselves for copyright violation, the above information was taken from the wonderful and more coherent Petapixel

Nieves Books have just released this lovely book by Geoff McFetridge. He has this to say:

This book is a small collection of some of the work I have done for Spike Jonze’s film adaptation of the book Where the Wild Things Are. I met Spike around 1998 and I have worked with him a lot over the years. This usually involved creating piles of work that amounted to a very small contribution to the project. This never bothered me, because it was an incredibly creative, fun and rewarding process that led up to the scrapping of my work!

I noticed a difference when I began working on Where the Wild Things Are. For the first time I felt that Spike and I were working on a project where I could actually contribute in a significant way. Much less of what I was making was being thrown away, which was a first. I was given the opportunity to interpret not only Spike Jonze’s interpretation of Where the Wild Things Are, but also Maurice Sendak’s original book.

Like any kid growing up in the 70’s I was greatly influenced by Mr. Sendak’s books. His books are not just on my bookshelf they are in my blood. What I did with the titles, type treatments and marketing graphics also owes greatly to the heavy creative lifting done by Sonny Gerasimowicz who designed the creatures in the film and the Art Direction of K.K. Barrett.

Geoff McFetridge

www.nieves.ch

We got some stunning postcards through the post all the way from Vancouver this morning. Illustrator Jessica Romberg will be exhibiting 60 portraits of Olympic Gold Medalists through time at Gravity Pope, 2205 West 4th Avenue 5-29th of Feburary. If you can’t make it then marvel at the samples she sent us below.

Popshot have published their second issue of illustration & poetry entitled “Us & Them”. Topics include prejudice, hierarchy, class, the rat race and the possibility of us being replace by robots. Also contains the work of AOI Members and Staff. Buy your copy here.

We’re enjoying illustrator George Butler’s journey from the UK to the Equator – interesting reportage drawing along the way.
He’s currently winding his way through Tunisia, sketchbook in hand. See the journey unfold on the Times travel blog.

A drawing of all his equipment for the journey to the equator.