“Ooh, look at that ampersand!”… Exploring anywhere with me is a thing of constant distractions. Here, two signs I designed for a pepperpot lodge house in Suffolk, created to do their job in directing deliveries and visitors while being part of the place and its setting; and from a visit … Read More
Teamwork… Last year, I drew portraits of everyone at Bowen Craggs, and a self-portrait, for its online celebrations. This year, I’ve drawn two new people. Now, there’s a portrait wall. In that, there are two things: That you can’t see the join between my work and the Bowen Craggs team’s … Read More
The Christmas gift guide… Two of this year’s projects have generated large bodies of illustration work: 26 Habitats and my lockdown project turned illustration blog Dispatches from a Small World. So “What else can we do with these?” questions have come up. Et voilà: Christmas cards from my Dispatches from … Read More
Artist Angie Clarke introduced me to Beaucatcher salon in Stoke Newington, Hackney. Beaucatcher gave me my first exhibition, my first illustrated shop window and orchestrated A Very Stokey Christmas, a local shops initiative, which I illustrated. Through that, I worked with Karen at homeware shop Know & Love – who won … Read More
26 Pledges in print… 26 Habitats and 26 Pledges have seen writers’ organisation 26 producing daily posts of beautiful writing in support of endangered UK habitats, in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts. It’s been a huge collective effort, for which I’ve sketched and illustrated places and species. We’ve found ourselves with … Read More
Fit for the job… As COP26 starts, 26 Habitats and its follow-on, 26 Pledges, a creative collaboration between 26 and the Wildlife Trusts, hands over to 26 Habitats New Zealand, where writers, each with a different artist, are working in partnership with Forest and Bird. So I get a chance … Read More
Learning about people from a personal project… My Autumn / Winter range of t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies has gone up on my Teemill shop. It’s an offshoot of my Dispatches from a Small World blog, which started as a lockdown project (do keep up…). But it’s also a lab that’s … Read More
“How does Lydia do this!”… It’s always a delight when a client enjoys the work from a live sketching commission, here, an assignment for long-time client Ideas Foundation covering the Disrupt Space exhibition at The Department Store, Brixton. And this time, my client Heather’s comment set off a stock-take of … Read More
Questions and answers… As the launch of writers’ project 26 Habitats gets nearer, Philip Parker has caught up with me for a Q&A for 26 about the illustrations bringing a visual element to the project. Though there’s knowledge and method behind all of my work, I approach every project differently. … Read More
What can a garden teach us? In times of restriction, what can a garden teach us? Born in the stillness of lockdown, my illustration project Dispatches from a Small World has been documenting the growing season in over 200 sketches. In a feature for sustainable lifestyle magazine Sublime, I write … Read More