Introducing Tea & Crayons - Rachel Clare Price

Name/Location:
My name is Rachel Clare Price, and I live in sunny Newcastle upon Tyne

Describe your style and how you work:
I like to create a delicate and ethereal image. I always start with a pencil, I just love the pureity of graphite - I build up watercolour and ink and scan all elements so I can compose and edit my image digitally.

What/Who inspires you:
I am inspired alot by nature and folklore, I like to create stories that the viewer can interpret. I surround myself with sketchbooks, magazines, books and music when I work so that influences me in a huge way.

Favourite type of illustration to work on:
Editorial and fashion illustration

Proudest moment of your career so far:
A double page spread in Oh Comely magazine (above) - my illustration about lost things was featured as the title image for the feature. I loved creating this, they were really great and gave me alot of freedom, it was really exciting to see it in print and I've had some great feedback from it too.

Ambitions for the next 5 years:
To continue to work as an artist and designer. I'd love to get involved with textile printing and surface pattern, and maybe have my own studio/gallery space/shop (or combination of all 3!) one day

Favourite Tea?
Tetley! Breakfast tea, a classic. Two sugars please

Favourite Crayon Colour?
A blue/turquoise combination

Guilty Pleasure:
Biscuits. Mmmm

If you were an animal you would be:
A cat. So I can sleep all day!

Cake or Curtains?
Cake!

Dogs or Dancing?
Dancing

www.itslikeart.net
twitter.com/rachelclarep

Introducing Tea & Crayons: Rachel Lewis

Name/Location: 
Rachel Lewis - London

Describe your style and how you work: 
My style is very much a blend of the hand-rendered and digital - all of the components of my pieces are drawn, painted, found or scanned, I then assemble it all using Photoshop or Illustrator and tweak pieces that way. I find this way a lot quicker for commercial pieces and also gives the opportunity for endless experimenting. I love a bit of old fashioned messy collage though, and want to try and start working more analogue.

What/Who inspires you: 
Everyday strangeness and found things; from shopping lists to old postcards. Fashion, advertising, new trends, baking, the future and the past all inspire me. I love the old Bauhaus movements; futurism, vorticism and de stijl, anything graphic and typographic with a strong sense of identity.

Favourite type of illustration to work on: 
Editorial pieces are my favourite because of the often short time constraints and the immediacy of the content; I love commenting on current and social issues, and editorial illustrations will often be commissioned to be published the following week. I love the challenge and deadlines that go with that. I also love working on advertising and marketing campaigns; it's my ambition to be commissioned for a big brand's campaign!

Proudest moment of your career so far: 
There's been a few - being shortlisted for the 2009 Penguin Design Award, and more recently, having an interview and my work published in the Australian fashion & lifestyle magazine, Cleo.

Ambitions for the next 5 years: 
To gain enough commissions to be able to work full time as a freelance illustrator, as well as pursuing collaborations with creative agencies and other fulfilling stuff :)

Favourite Tea? 
Chai, or fruity/herbal - can't stand the normal stuff. I'd much prefer Coffee & Crayons ;)

Favourite Crayon Colour? 
Pink

Guilty Pleasure: 
X-Factor! And also M&S Percy Pigs. Nom nom.

If you were an animal you would be:
A cat... or a lion. Rawr.

Cake or Curtains? 
Cake. Always, always cake. Although, living without curtains wouldn't be nice. And curtains don't make you fat.

Dogs or Dancing? 
Hmmm. Dancing? I love my dog though. Dancing with dogs?

http://www.rachelsayshello.com
Twitter: @rachillustrates