20 Years

A recent private commission from a couple who have just celebrated their 20 year wedding anniversary! What a wonderful way to mark the occasion...

Clarity

Jets - Squeeze - Coffee Morning - Upstairs - Thistle - Grow

 

With the muddled and forgetful brain I seem to have developed after having three children and getting older, I have started to draw things around me in a more basic form...it's really helping to give me some clarity! I plan to make some bigger paintings of these and other designs....they look quite nice small too!

Seventies Love

I was inspired to draw this from a family photo taken at my Aunt's wedding back in the seventies. The clothes were amazing and the hair styles even better!

A Fisherman's Tale

I painted this portrait a while ago and recently found him again. After a little re-working I wrote a poem to sum up a day in his life...

Weston-super-Mare

This is the first piece in a body of work of memories from the 70's with my brother's win of the Weston-super-Mare donkey derby.

A Century in Swiss Advertising

One of my posters for the Swiss Integration campaign appears in 'Stellen Wert Ein Jahrhundert im Spiegel der Schweizer Aussenwerbung'.....roughly translating to 'A Century in Swiss Advertising'. The campaign can be seen online here.

Industry Insights with the AOI

My interview with the AOI is now live in the members area of the AOI website...

VANESSA DELL

 

A Young Prince Charles - Annabelle Magazine 

Who and what keeps you inspired?

Definitely people, especially their faces, I love the visual differences between us and the individual ways we react to things. If I wasn’t an illustrator I think I would have enjoyed being a psychologist!

Portraiture is the subject of many of your illustrations, this has now become part of your style. What importance do you think style has on an illustrator's practice?

I think the most successful styles are where the illustrator hasn’t consciously created it. For me, you draw the way you draw, sometimes that fits into a ‘style’ box, hopefully it won’t.

Marie Antoinette - Elastic Creative 

You work as a freelance Illustrator as well as with Illustration Web as a Consulting Agent. How has this influenced your own practice?

 It’s been great to meet clients from both sides; working for them as an illustrator and liaising with them as an agent. Helping to find the right artist for a job and managing it through the commission process was exciting, I think it has made me aware of the huge competition out there and the many illustrators a client will consider before a commission happens, it’s not a personal thing if you don’t make it for that big job. So I guess I am realistic about the industry. Now, I deal with the social media side of Illustration Ltd, and really enjoy promoting the artists we represent.

Portrait - Dizzy 

You're also part of Lipstick of London, do you feel being part of both sides of an agency has helped with your work to date?

Yes, I think it is grounding. I am very lucky to be able to have contact with people within the illustration industry that being an agent/having an agent and being a freelance illustrator provides. Having a large network of other illustrators to touch base with is refreshing and keeps me on my toes.

Character is something you represent in your Illustrations. How do you go about researching your subjects?

For illustration commissions the person tends to be in the public domain so usually you have an idea of the type of character they are. For personal commissions it can be a little more difficult, if I haven’t met them I will ask as many questions as possible. Sometimes they’ll send me a picture of their favourite clothes, colour, tell me what they do for a living etc. I aim to make the portrait do more than look like the person, I’d love the painting to give goose bumps, or at least evoke a feeling in the viewer.

Alan Titchmarsh - Waitrose Weekend

From your commissioned work, what portrait has been the hardest to represent? 

Probably the people that are just too perfect! They might have had plastic surgery or almost be caricatures of themselves. I remember finding David Beckham tricky to paint, he has a lovely face but it was just boring! Give me some imperfection!

Auld Langsyne

Blow up your orange, brown and purple balloons this new year for a retro celebration!

Love Blossom

Draw, draw and do some more drawing...

Alan Titchmarsh for Waitrose Weekend

I was thrilled to be asked to paint a portrait of Alan Titchmarsh for Waitrose Weekend - a bank holiday feature with top gardening tips. Photography won in the end unfortunately, but it was good to have the opportunity to paint a well loved Englishman!

Dad

A grafter, a fighter, a husband, a son, a brother, a Dad, a man's man....

Good Housekeeping Collection

These are some of my Good Housekeeping portraits done between 2001 and 2003. They were all used to accompany articles written by influential women; including the actress Helen Mirren, politician Mo Mowlam and Radio 4's Jenny Murray. They were all painted fairly big on wood...

#HomoPromo

Here's my poster for the #HomoPromo campaign by Albion London, in support of Stonewall and to encourage protest against Russia’s homosexuality legislation...

Ten#2

Here's another (and better I think) version of 'Ten'; the portrait of my daughter to celebrate her tenth birthday. The drawings have been reworked giving the end result a better balance.

Sketching Party

Running a sketching party for some budding young artists last weekend was great fun! After showing them a few pieces of my work, we talked about what Illustration was and how it can be used.

We started off doing some fun drawing exercises; really quick drawings as I didn't want them to think too hard about 'getting it right'. Four 9 year olds and two 5 year olds took part, they were very keen which helped. After drawing without taking the pencil of the paper, and then drawing the person infront of them without looking at the paper, (some interesting results!) they were ready for paint...

We started mixing with gouache paints; the colours to use to get flesh tones, and which colours to mix to get a colour near to black (without using a tube of black). They chose a photo and started to work on a portrait.

After drawing and painting for 2.5 hours, we were all quite tired! I'm hoping they gained some confidence in drawing and feel a little inspired.

Ramsgate Rooftop Prints

For sale very soon are these limited edition prints of my painting 'Ramsgate Rooftops'. Printed on A3 Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm paper, this is the first time I've had prints done of my work!

Scarf Lady

Found this sketch in my 'drawing chest'...

Sketchbooks

 

I have created a 'Sketchbooks' album on my Facebook pages: Vanessa Dell Illustration and Vanessa Dell,  here are a few of the drawings included and I hope to add to this collection regularly. It'd be lovely to work on some drawing based commissions!

100 Illustrators - My Spreads

I'm delighted to see these three spreads in one of Taschen's latest publications '100 Illustrators'. Showing some of my older work alongside some new, the book which is in two volumes shows off illustrators such as Alice Wellinger, Olaf Hajek, Brian Cronin and Anita Kunz. As you can imagine I'm thrilled to be included and among this very fine company.

Taschen say of the book "Culled from our Illustration Now! series is this selection of today’s most successful and important illustrators from around the globe. In his introduction, Steven Heller fleshes out the challenging process of narrowing down a field of 600 illustrators to a selection of the 100 most significant. The final cut, including artists such as Istvan Banyai, Gary Baseman, Seymour Chwast, Paul Davis, Brad Holland, Mirko Ilić, Anita Kunz, and Christoph Niemann, provides a snapshot of the highly dynamic and diverse world of contemporary illustration."

Ten

A gift for my eldest daughter to celebrate her first decade, long may the power of her imagination continue!

Rafe Esquith

I was asked to paint Rafe Esquith (teacher and writer in the US) for his new column in Scholastic Instructor Magazine.

100 Illustrators

Looking forward to (and seeing my work in) the publication of 100 Best; out in December...

Lipstick of London

Excited to be represented by the new boutique agency Lipstick of London launched by the lovely and very experienced Marie-Claire Westover!

Muse

My portrait of one of the best bands in the world; Dominic Howard, Matt Bellamy and Chris Wolstenholme of Muse.

Muse... Work in Progress

I was hoping to have finished this piece by now - at least before I saw them live tomorrow night at the Emirates Stadium! So.... this is 'work in progress' of Muse, 2 done ,one to go...

Smithsonian Magazine

My portraits for the contributors page of Smithsonian Magazine can be seen in the December 2012 issue.

Marie Antoinette

Commissioned by a design agency in Edinburgh for a pitch to re brand a big online company (whom I can't mention), this is my version of Marie Antoinette.

Stable Cottage

Stable Cottage is a drawing done for use on business cards/compliment slips, a local commission.

Me by Donya and Donya by Me

Donya Todd by Vanessa Dell, and Vanessa Dell by Donya Todd, a portrait swap to raise money for Autism. A project put together by Hellohead.

Donya Todd for Hellohead

Great to finally air this recent portrait done of illustrator Donya Todd for Hellohead. Can't wait to see Donya's of me!

Oasis: The Way They Were

For sentimental reasons I'm posting my first ever commission. Just out of Uni and a call from Warren Beeby at 'Time Out' back in 1995 produced this portrait of Oasis, at a time when some would say they were at their prime. And then the illustration was bought by illustrator Peter Till, which was icing on the cake!

Meow

Luna and Hesper...for a friend. Cats who mean business.

Jeanne Moreau

 Here's one I quite like of the French actress Jeanne Moreau.