Get the creative juices flowing...

Recently I have had a huge desire to start sketching/painting/collaging again for myself. Working in a creative, albeit corporate environment all day let's me express myself to a certain degree but clean technical drawings and photoshop are not what I grew up loving. I used to spend hours and hours of my childhood sketching and interpreting anything I could find, I would create wonderfully mazes in my school maths book (I had, and still have a mini obsession with geometry and the symmetrical delight of squared paper).

Over Xmas I made myself a beautiful black, suede covered sketchbook (which I should show you in another post). Now comes the time to fill it!! I've been drawn to collage recently, not because of the huge trend for collage in fashion editorials now but purely because of the instant nature of it, and the speed with which you can quickly create an amazing visual, which I will use as a base to start sketching or painting.

Matthew Craven is a mixed media artist who reworks vintage photographs, giving them a new graphic quality.

Maurizio Anzeri is another mixed media artist who works into vintage photographs, but he uses embroidery and string-art techniques to add an eerie dimension to the portraits.

Charlotte Cory is an artist and writer who counts the Queen among her customers! She also has a collaboration with All Saints at the moment on a range of t-shirts baring her prints (if only they had men's versions!). She is also currently exhibiting here in London at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery.