Bye bye Blogger - new blog page below

Sadly all good things must come to an end and after three long loyal years it is now time to bid adieu to Blogger and move onto pastures new...

My new blog can now be found on my website homepage - www.thisismikehall.com, where I shall continue to post updates, new work and other interesting stuff.

In the meantime do check my archive and other interesting links on the right hand side of this page.

http://www.thisismikehall.com

Thanks for visiting!
Mike

Preview: new stock for the Crafty Fox market @ the Thames Festival, 10-11 September

The Mayor's Thames Festival takes place next weekend on the 10th and 11th September along the south bank of the Thames in central London and there I shall be running a stall selling exclusive prints and goodies with the Crafty Fox market!

The Crafty Fox people are a collective of designer-makers based in Brixton, who regularly hold pop-up craft markets and have teamed up with fellow marketeers Of Cabbages and Kings, Sannapanda and Friends, We Make London and Craft Guerilla to form the Craft Trail, a series of market stalls at various points along the river during the festival that will promote independent, handmade crafts by UK-based designer-makers. I have designed a trail map which shall be widely available during the weekend and which can be downloaded from their website www.crafttrail.co.uk.

This shall be only my second ever market but with the number of visitors at the festival anticipated to be high and big plans afoot for the market stalls, it should be a big one. Accordingly for the past few weeks I have had my nose to the grindstone churning out a new range of drawings, print designs and merchandise.

And now with a little over a week to go now until the festival opens, here is a sneak preview of some of the items I plan to sell!

A4 digital prints - reproductions of original pen drawings, each £15

'Battersea Power Station'

'City of London (Tower 42, Heron Tower and Gherkin)'

'The Shard Under Construction with Guy's Hospital'

'Tower Bridge Tourists'

Exclusive A3 digital map prints - preview copies, each £30:

London Borough of Hackney

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

'Tourist' Christmas Cards, two sets of eight designs, £10 each:

'Tourist' Christmas Cards, series 1

'Tourist' Christmas Cards, series 2

Exclusive 'Deptford Wives' silk-screen printed cotton shopping bags, £10 each

Also on sale shall be a selection of other illustration prints and postcards.

My stall shall be located with the Crafty Fox market stalls, beside the river in between the Founders Arms pub and the Millennium Bridge in front of the Tate Modern, and shall be open between noon and 10pm on both days of the festival.

Hopefully see you there!

For more info about the market stalls at the festival, visit the following links:
thamesfestival.org
craftyfoxmarket.blogspot.com
crafttrail.co.uk

I [heart] London

A bit of topical rain and sentiment.

Thames Walk - from Wapping to Battersea

Back to photography now, and on a sunny day last week I decided to embark on an EPIC walk from Wapping Overground station in London to Battersea Bridge all the way out west - following the Thames Path all the way.

Actually, Battersea wasn't my original target, I aimed simply to walk as far as I could be bothered and still have to time to travel to my studio in time for tea. Turns out as soon as Battersea Power Station came into view I'd decided I'd walked far enough.

This ambitious expedition was mainly an excuse for me to take lots of photos of the views across the river with the intention of using these for a future drawing project.

The full set can be viewed here on Flickr.

Graffiti as art?

To continue the series of monochrome images I've been posting online recently, here's a new image completed this afternoon, the idea for which I've had knocking about for quite a long while now. It's a portfolio piece which illustrates the status of street graffiti, being regarded as high art.

Commissioned portrait

To continue my recent series of line drawings, here's a commissioned portrait I completed last week for a lovely couple from New Zealand whose house is a few streets away from me (materials: Fineline pen on A3 size Bristol board).

Broccoli

A broccoli, yesterday. Fineliner on bristol board.

Brockley landmarks

Whilst preparing for Saturday's market last week, I completed this small series of pen-on-paper drawings of interesting buildings in Brockley.

Crofton Park Library

The Rivoli Ballroom

The Brockley Jack pub

There is something quite satisfying in drawing buildings and all their architectural peculiarities with crosshatch and pen. More like these to come! Look out for A4 prints of these becoming available on my Etsy shop soon.

p.s. For uninitiated Brockley virgins, this should fill you in nicely: brockleycentral.blogspot.com