Hartlepool Festival of Illustration

June sees the return of Hartlepool's Festival of Illustration. Why should all the illustration fun be down in that there London? We here at Grillust towers don't think it should be and neither do the good people of Hartlepool.

Grillust pen wrangler and illustration lecturer, Dwayne, was invited to both exhibit work and be a keynote speaker at this years event.

Here's Dwayne, awkwardly standing beside two pieces of his 'Drawn Together' project, exhibited as part of this year's Festival of Illustration

"It was a great honour to be invited along and to talk about my work. Having just completed large project as part of my ongoing MA, I formed my talk around that but also included a brief run down of my path toward an illustration career. Essentially Transformers, cartoons, drawing, college, uni, work".

Dwayne delivering the big questions whilst utilising a delivery style that he calls 'drunk eyes & flappy hands'

The festival included work by many prominent illustrators including Gerald Scarfe (trying to get some of Dwayne's limelight in the photo above), Reg Smythe, Sandra Dieckmann, Lucy MacLeod, Jim Stoten, Drew Millward, Nik Holmes and Felt Mistress - take a look at the Festival's site for details of the extensive line up.

Here's the reportage project 'Drawn Together' that formed the basis for Dwayne's talk / ramble



and here's some of the artists who were talking and exhibiting

Black Hawk Down. Storyboard from Ridley Scott. GEEK SPASM!!!

Jim Stoten AKA Jim the Illustrator

Drew Millward

Warwick Johnson-Cadwell

Felt Mistress's work with Lucy MacLeod's fashion illustration in the background

Thanks to the event organisers for all their hard work and fantastic hospitality. It was a great event and it's very welcome to see illustration getting some attention so far north. Very inspiring. Right, Carlisle, what we gonna do?...