Caroline Church

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Gin Craze! musical poster showing four women in period dress singing and playing instruments

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Intricate black and white drawing of a praying mantis by Caroline Church

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Black and white illustration of a running cheetah by Caroline Church

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Rummo Fusillottini pasta package with Italian text

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Black and white Monstera leaf illustration by Caroline Church

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Historical woodcut in the here and now.

The tradition of the woodcut awards your motifs this incomparable aura.

The subjects which Caroline Church illustrates can be varied, but her style gives everything an unmistakeable sense of age and distinction, lending itself well to all things rustic and antique but with a timeless quality nonetheless. Caroline intially studied wood engraving before moving onto scraperboard which she found faster and more immediate. She is equally adept at depicting some beery old scoundrel or imbuing something relatively modern with atmosphere, be it a label or an advertisment. Her illustrations are created using a craft knife on black scraperboard. The colour washes are added on a photoshop layer.

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Interview

It has been an exciting 12 months for you. What's been the best bit? It makes me smile to see my work on meat packaging in Marks and Spencers. What drew you to illustration/design? At school I discovered I got higher marks when I added drawings to the text, went on from there really. I had an ‘uncluttered’ childhood in Uganda. My sisters and I would clamor for my Dad’s architectural plans to draw on the back of. A local printing firm would put scraps of paper aside for us and we'd make our own cards and presents. We pored over every detail in the few books we were lucky to own. My teenage years were spent in a delapidated georgian house which dad was renovating, so I guess surrounded by so much creativity I couldn’t be anything else. Do you have any formal design training? Did illustration at Chelsea School of Art but I was briefly being taught wood-engraving as a guest student at Royal Academy Schools. This was most instrumental in the direction I took. I discovered scraperboard soon after. Where are you originally from? Born in Kenya, grew up in Uganda, settled in Richmond. Where is your studio and can you describe it for me? It’s in a pretty Victorian cottage a minute’s walk from my home. It’s quite empty, there’s just a large victorian desk, a chair, and 2 trunks of my favourite books. Do you collect anything? I used to keep everything I liked the look of, labels, cigar boxes, cards, packaging, feathers, books, tins, but thanks to google I’ve saved myself a lot of storage space. Do you keep a scrapbook? No, just piles, boxes and files. Tell us about a favourite project you've recently completed. Nothing recent, but I always enjoy when people ask for an example of what I’ve done and as luck would have it I can point to the logo on the beer glass they’re holding (London Pride) or pick out something from their fridge (M&S meat), or, at worst, some packaging in their bin! Please can you tell me a little about the technique you use to create your artworks? Scraperboard is cardboard with a thin layer of white clay that is coated with black ink. I scrape away the black surface with a craft knife. Who is/are your illustration hero/es? Thomas Bewick, Gustave Dore. Who is/are your musical hero/es? Muse, empowering on a sluggish day. If you were not an illustrator, what would you be? Something similar, prop maker, decorator. If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go? See my old home in Uganda. What's the funniest thing you have ever done? I had to draw Atlas holding up the world so took pictures of my scantily clad husband posing with a laundry basket on his shoulders. The photo developers lost the photos and I had to describe the images to them! Do you have any pets? Half of a dog. We do a dog-share thing. If you won the lottery what would you do with the money? Give it back, it wouldn’t be mine as I’ve never yet bought a ticket. Ok, I’d do something dull like pay off my mortgage. Would you continue to illustrate? Definitely. I get irritable if I’m not drawing or creating things. Picking at scraperboard is as therapeutic as stroking a cat, no really. If you could travel back in time which period would you visit & why? Always had a thing for Victorian/Edwardian England, I would want to take loads of photos for my reference files.

Favourites

Equipment/Tool: I will have to rethink my career if Swann Norton ever discontinue blade no2 Drink: first coffee of the day Art Gallery: Victoria and Albert Museum