A big thank you to everyone who has submitted their news to the LCS over the past year! You make the site what it is, so please do keep it coming!

Please note that we will not be publishing or updating anything on the LCS between 25th December and 2nd January. We will back in action from the 3rd January 2012.

We would like to wish all our users and visitors a very Happy Holiday and hope you have a fantastic New Year!

The LCS team

It’s finally here! We would like to officially announce that the upgraded hire an illustrator website is now live, with improved portfolios, better and faster searches and integrated video galleries! Check out the new and improved hire an illustrator! Want to know more? Check out the hai staff blog.

External Link: hire an illustrator – Rebuilt from the ground up

It’s that time again! Why not get into the spirit (woooooo!) of Halloween and create an entry for the annual Anna Goodson Management Pumpkin Carving Contest?

The contest is open to all, so have a go and create a wild and spooky pumpkin of your own to share with everyone!

Check out the link below for more details.

External Link: The 2011 AGM Pumpkin Carving Contest

This isn’t new news and I’ve been meaning to post about it for a while. Our friends at Thumbtack Press are back! They have brand new and feature-rich website and are serious about getting people into tasteful art affordably – prices start at under $20 and they’re still stock my fav, Bob Dob! Check them out at http://www.thumbtackpress.com

We are pleased to announce that we now have more of the Mail Me Art: Medium Without a Message books back in stock! There are limited numbers of both Mail Me Art project books available on the website, so why not hop on over and snap one up before they all go…

The MMA website has also had a bit of an update and we will be releasing news about any upcoming MMA events on the site and in the LCS newsletter.

(Artwork © Joseph Wilkins)

External Link: The LCS – Mail Me Art 2 Books

Dear Members of The Little Chimp Society,

I am writing to you about the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Low Residency MFA in Illustration program. We are reaching out to the professional illustrators in your group who seek personal growth and wish to advance their distinct creative voices through challenging work, exposure to top illustration professionals, and exceptional student/faculty relationships. Our program, the ONLY program of its kind dedicated exclusively to illustration, offers students the requirements for a 60-credit MFA in Illustration – the standard for teaching at most colleges and universities – without disrupting their lives and careers.

Sincerely,
Ronni Mitten

Co-Director, Advertising and Marketing
Hartford Art School, University of Hartford
Low Residency, Master of Fine Art in Illustration

External Link: Hartford Art School – Low Residency MFA

Tomorrow (6th April) sees the start of the Pictoplasma Festival in Berlin! The Festival features four days of all things to do with contemporary character culture, including presentations, talks, workshops, exhibitions and much, much more.

Wish could be there!

External Link: The LCS – Pictoplasma Festival 2011, Berlin

Fancy creating your own custom vinyl toy? Kidrobot have announced the MunnyWorld MegaContest. There are loads of different categories and lots of cool prizes.

External Link: The LCS – MunnyWorld MegaContest

The deadline for entry into the 2011 Creative Review Illustration Annual has now been extended to Tuesday, 26th April 2011.

Work is being accepted in the following categories:
Personal/non-published, Advertising, Editorial and Design.

Check out the link below for full details of how to register and submit your work.

External Link: The LCS – Creative Review Illustration Annual 2011

Have a great Christmas and New Year!
Darren & Jane

Babel – Beautiful, unsayable, meaningless, profound

An Exhibition by Stewart Brown

September 20th – November 30th 2010
The Drum Arts Centre
144 Potters Lane, Aston
Birmingham B6 4UU

More information – the-drum.org.uk/event/babel

The running costs for the project are currently at around £6000 ($9120). We’re hoping to recoup most of that by selling the book and we’re also hoping to make the artists lots of money by selling their work at the exhibition! We’re working on the book at the moment and we’re going to to try and get as many of the mail artists into the book as possible in some way or another this time round!

The book will be the Little Chimp Society’s first official publication and by making a pledge you’ll also be pre-ordering a copy of Medium Without a Message, subject to your pledge amount. If you would like to pre-order the book or make a pledge please follow this link… http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/pledge/

We’re also depending on the amount you pledge, giving away lifetime memberships to Hai! and mail art by a number of internationally renowned artists!

Before anyone leaves a comment asking us why we’re not using kickstarter.com, KICKSTARTER requires you to have a US bank account and that is something we don’t have. So we would appreciate if you can spread the word and redirect people back to our little site!

The Jamaica Street artists would like to invite you to their annual open studio event in Bristol, UK.

The studio is home to over a dozen illustrators working in a variety of media, from children’s illustration to advertising. Clients include Cbeebies, Waitrose Magazine and The Beano to name a few. This event will be a unique opportunity to see the work of a number of talented illustrators alongside the studios fine artists and view and purchase a piece of original artwork…

Please visit our website here to see the type of art that will be shown, or visit our Facebook page here for info leading up to the event and details of how to find us. [Facebook link] | [Website]

If you would like to be invited to the private view on the 10th please RSVP direct to jsadevelopment09 at yahoo dot co dot uk

The studio will be open to the public on Friday 11th June 7-10pm and Saturday and Sunday 12th and 13th 11am-6pm. If you require any additional information please get in touch.

Introduction

TBFH is a graduate of the world famous Crayola Institute of New York, from where he earned his Black Belt in Illustration & Character Design (learning from his master, Sensai Wax). Clients include: Honda, Disney, Nickelodeon, BBC Movies, Macmillan Books, Time Out London, The Guide, The Observer, FHM, Computer Arts, DDB London, TBWA London, EVB (San Francisco) amongst others. Advertising. Editorial. Enjoyment. The Boy just loves to draw.

Why are you called The Boy, would it have been The Girl Fitz Hammond if you were born XX instead of XY?

Dead right. I was born with a little pencil so “The Boy” it was. The “Fitz Hammond” part came a few years later whilst traveling with the circus in Bavaria. The act I was involved in saw me, night after night, escape the clutches of a Dancing Bear by hiding inside a Hammond organ. For three laps of the circus ring, Helmut (a very polite Brown Bear), would chase me round in a rather comical manner. On the third lap I would evade Helmut’s paws by clambering into the back of said Hammond organ. The rouse was that Helmut (a Dancing Bear by nature) would become distracted by the organ music thus leaving me to flee to freedom.

The act was originally called “The Boy Fitz in a Hammond Organ to escape Grizzly”.  However after time this was condensed down to “The Boy Fitz Hammond”.  And here we are today…

Apart from art and illustration what other things are you into?

Obtaining tee shirts (not in an unscrupulous manner). I’ve got two (large) drawers full and I’ll always being encouraged to send some to the clothes bank. I’ve always loved tee shirts. The first one that I can remember thinking ‘this is my best ever tee shirt, I’ll never have a better tee shirt than this’ was a Hot Tuna one bought on holiday in Newquay in the early-mid eighties. Pink it was with fluorescent ‘puff’ inked Phirana’s on the back (yea I was cool!) I worn it till I went it got holes in it. Something I still do to this very day.

Who are your favorite artists/illustrators alive today?

I would have said Charles Schultz but sadly he is no more. Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder et al are fantastic creations and translate beautifully to print or motion. Much like all of the stuff from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. When I was little I had Hanna-Barbera wallpaper that was covered in all their characters and I would spend hours copying Huckleberry Hound, Dastardly & Muttley and all the others. I grew up with those characters so they’re ingrained in my eyes, my memory and my heart. Today there are so many to mention.  I’d find it difficult to name one with out naming numerous more.

If your opinion what’s more important skill or style and why?

Are these not essentially interwoven? *scratches head and lets out pondering sigh*

If you’ve developed a style then you obviously have the skill to execute it. And if you… oh hang on a minute… I’ve confused myself.  I’ll come back to this later…

Right so I’ve had more of a think and I see to have got myself even more confused. If you have a skill you don’t necessarily have a style… or do you? A friend of mine in my first job used to say “skills that pay the bills”.  Does that help with this answer?

Has your work ever been animated, is this something you’re interested in?

Animation is something I’d love to do but sadly I don’t have the talent (or patience). Luckily for me I was introduced to Sam, an animator who has become a good friend and so he’s responsible for making things move. Sam and I have now worked together on a number of projects – the first being six animations for BBC Films in 2005. Since then we’ve developed a good understanding of how the other person works. (I did few animation workshops whilst I was at university so I can visualize how best to draw things to make Sam’s life easier too). 

But possibly the most important factor of us working together is that Sam’s style of animation seems to compliment and my illustration/characters and vice versa.

Why don’t you keep a blog?

I have thought about it. A couple of people have even mentioned that I should keep one. And I do like reading/looking other peoples blogs. But to be honest I’m not the greatest with technology – it was confusing enough getting my website together.

Another important factor that I would have to consider about having a blog is that my life is not the most exciting. So I doubt very much if I would capture nor captivate people with tales of me sitting at my desk, in a pair of pants (sorry no webcam) eating toast and drawing pictures.

Are you involved in any collaborative projects at the moment?

I’ve been working on a project (website) where the aim is encouraging people to “work towards a more sustainable, greener Scotland”. The whole ‘go greener’ thing is something which seems very prominent at the moment and one which seems more people are opening up to. The illustrations/animations on the site help deliver the information and illustrate how little things such as turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, can make a a big difference. It’s really nice being involved in a project like this (even though I usually have my computer on all hours).

What’s next in the pipeline for The Boy Fitz Hammond?

Right now I’m about to start work on an illustration for Heinz – what it is I’m yet to find out.  I’ve also got a website to illustrate (which Sam will be animating) and another project someone has asked me about but is yet to confirm. After that who knows… I’ve got an idea for a story book that I’d like to develop. The way I’m picturing it, it’ll be a change of style so maybe I’ll get a chance to work on that. We’ll see.

Baseman or Biskup?

I love Gary Baseman’s eyes (those of his characters) but both him and Biskup are magical and my eyes could happily dine on both, one or the others pictures for a long long time.

Rodney or Del boy?

Probably Rodney.

Snickers or Mars?

A Mars a day helps you work rest and play. But a Snickers (nee Marathon) has peanuts in so that gets my vote. Washed down with a packet or Opal Fruits. Living in the past you say?  Not me.

Latex or Leather?

It depends on the occasion.

Moyles or Edith?

You mean if I could only turn one of them off? 

Pop Tarts or Pop Tarts?

Neither. Both should be outlawed or at least renamed ‘Parcels or Lava’.

You can see more of The Boy Fitz Hammond’s work at
www.tbfh.com

My wife once put a worm in her grandmother’s bed, what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

“I killed a man in Reno just to watch him die…”

I know you no longer work for Microsoft Xbox as an Art Director, but I would like to know how you got that job and what jobs you had before that?

I was very into computers and art in college… that was around 1994 when the web was just starting to become know. I learned how to design/program web sites early on… and because I had programming skills mixed with art skills… it allowed me get to get my foot in the door at a well known advertising agency… at the time not many people could do both… not many hybrids. The ad agency had some big clients… so I had the opportunity to work on sites for Gateway, Intel, Iomega, Netscape and some other high profile technology clients.

I then decided to move to Seattle. When I applied at Microsoft Games… I had a lot of web experience for that time… and I was young and into art so I think that helped out because we were making video games and I was around the target market. Microsoft has a brutal interview process… you interview all day… for 8 hours with different people and then I had to give an hour presentation about my work… anyway… I worked for Microsoft Games as a designer/programmer for a few years and when Microsoft decided to create Xbox… I was asked to be the Art Director for Xbox.com.

You have put your skills as programmer and designer to one side although they have aided you in become and establishing yourself as an illustrator; have you ever considered putting illustration to one side to become an Artist or do you see that as the same thing?

Yeah… you’re right. I used to use those skills to earn a living… and now they just help me promote my illustration career and market other ideas I have. I think… ideally I would to do many things at one time. I think I will always illustrate… it’s what I do in my free time… I really love it… so I think that will always be a part of my life… but I would also like to invent things… I don’t know how helpful my illustration style will be in that endeavour… but who knows.

Apart from illustration what other things are you into?

Laughing, exercise… Jui Jitsui, learning about how things work… space, nature, animals, etc, walking, people watching, body language, I want to learn how to read lips, playing with my dog, making jokes with my wife, travelling, eating, being in the ocean, DISCOVERING NEW ENVIRONMENTS, taking subways and buses, figuring out patterns… or frameworks, reading quotations, learning odd facts, listening to history and scientific podcasts, music, watching movies… Etc

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

There are so many… it’s hard to narrow it down … but at this exact moment… MWM Graphics, Calef Brown, Jeremyville, Clayton Bros, Charles glaubitz, Jordin Isip, Roman Klonek, Michael Slack, Dan May, Klaus haapaniemi, Pierluigi Longo, Modern dog, Christopher Nielsen, 3TTMan, Gary Baseman, Camille Rose Garcia, Christian Northeast .. Plus a zillion more

¿Qué harías si te besara ahora mismo?

Es común en argentina… entonces te lo devoleria

Are you involved in any collaborative projects at the moment and is there anyone you would like to work with?

No… not at the moment… but I would like to Penople Cruz… can you arrange that?

What’s next in the pipeline for Nate Williams?

I don’t know what’s next… Just enjoying the present.

Spongebob or Ren and Stimpy?

South Park… then Ren and Stimpy.

Watching it or doing it?

Relaxing It Drinking a Coffee it… then People watching it.

You can see more of Nate Williams’s work at
www.n8w.com

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