Waddle by the Sea

Our penguin Jazzy Feet, is up for auction soon! This fellow is looking for a forever home. The great waddle auction takes place on the 25 September | The Boatyard, Leigh-on-Sea.

To find out more visit Waddle on Sea.

A bit about our penguin Jazzy Feet: This vibrant penguin, dressed in a striped jacket and playing a saxophone, celebrates Southend-on-Sea’s lively music scene, from the Southend Jazz Festival to the Jazz Centre UK. The design highlights jazz, community, and heritage, featuring penguins playing various instruments. Which one is your favourite?

Painting Lions, Penguins and Elephants.

Over the past year we have been busy painting sculptures for various trails, that are taking place across the UK. Find out about a few of them here.

One of trails that is on now is the Stomp Round Leicester trail. A herd of 40 elephants and 82 baby elephants are stampeding now around the city until 21st September! We painted this lovely elephant, which celebrates Leicester through time, from the Georgian New Walk promenade and Leicester tramways to the modern-day city centre. We loved adding the regal gold and blue details to this as well as painting in the local area in the circle foliage shapes.

Did you know that you can visit the Elephants Big Day Out farewell event at LOROS Hospice for a family fun day! It takes place on October 4 – 5, 2025To find out more visit: Stomp Round Leicester

Would like to own your very own elephant? Now you can at the grand auction, supporting LOROS Hospice.

“An Elephants Tail” for the Stomp Round Leicester Trail.

Waddle on Sea took place this summer, we had the pleasure of painting one of the penguins for this fab trail in Southend on Sea. You can have the chance of owning this colourful penguin at the Waddle auction. Visit https://www.waddleonsea.co.uk to find out more!

Painting lots of colourful stripes with neon paint for Jazzy Feet’s jacket.

We have also been painting two wonderful lions for the Lions at Large Trail, taking place until the 14th of September. The lions will then reunite for a fantastic farewell weekend, taking place at the iconic Cheltenham Racecourse from Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th October. So why not have a look at some of the fantastic art on display at the Farewell Weekend. Or visit the auction for your chance of owing a sculpture to take home.

Our trip to Birmingham to see our Bull Sculptures

A few days ago we had the chance to visit both our bull sculptures we painted for the Bulls in the City trail. This wonderful trail takes place now until the 14th of September and features 40 large bull sculptures as well as smaller calves dotted around the city.

We had the pleasure of painting two of these huge sculptures!

More about the trail: Teaming up with Wild in Art, the Bulls in the City is a fun interactive, vibrant art trail. Each Bull is painted by artists across the UK, with the smaller calves painted by community and school groups. The larger bulls will them be auctioned off to raise money for Birmingham Hospice. To find out more about the trail visit: Bulls in the City. To find out how you can bid for a bull sculpture at auction vist: Bulls in the City Auction

Us with our bull ‘On the Waterfront’ located in Brindlyplace and kindly sponsored by Brindlyplace . With thanks to Simon Ricketts for taking this photo.

This sculpture we painted called On the Waterfront, celebrates the stunning waterways of Birmingham and evokes a sense of exploration and discovery. Inspired by iconic narrowboat art Roses and Castles which was used decorate narrowboats in the 19th century. This design features colourful patterns, foliage and iconic Birmingham canal side locations such as Brindleyplace. With thanks to the lovely Brindlyplace for choosing this design.

‘On the Waterfront’ located at the lush and vibrant Brindlyplace

The second sculpture we painted is called Birmingham Explorer and is all about exploring Birmingham’s best loved locations. The design features an array of locations, from King Heath market and the historic Old School Yard of Harborne village to the iconic Bullring and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Also featuring lots of pretty flowers, birds and foliage. With thanks to Transport for West Midlands for choosing this pretty design.

Birmingham Explorer located in Grand Central Birmingham, Sponsored by Transport for West Midlands.

Music in the Heart of Manchester: Painting a Guitar

We have been busy working on a few sculpture trails these past months, one of the trails we had the pleasure to work on is Music for the Senses, a fun interactive art trail around Manchester! The trial is live now until the 31st of August-so why not take a look if you're in the area.

The trail features 48 guitar artworks, 9 musician-donated guitars, 4 brand new murals, 2 show-stopping installations!

Our design called ‘Music in the Heart of Manchester’ is on display in Royal Northern College of Music, Oxford Road. Kindly sponsored by Manchester Airports Group. Celebrating all thing Manchester, our design features some of Manchester’s iconic architecture and places to visit.

To find out more about this wonderful trail visit: Music for the Senses.

Music in the Heart of Manchester

Sculpture Trails this summer!

We have been delighted to have taken part in a whole host of wonderful trails taking place this summer. Here’s just a few we have been involved in!

Curious Rat outside Hull Library

• A MISCHIEF OF RATS from now until 30th August 2025, Across Hull and East Yorkshire. Our rat design called ‘Curious Rat’ features among other beautifully decorated sculptures around East Yorkshire.

• Stomp Round Leicester From 14th July 2025, this trail sees a herd of elephants parade into the Leicester this summer.

• Bulls in the City From the 16th of July until the 14th of September a whole herd of Bull sculptures Wii be parading around the city in this delightful public art trail!

• Book Bench Trail, coming to Aberdeen, the north-east, Moray, Orkney and Shetland from July.

• Lions at Large Taking place from 11th July to Sunday 14th September, the Lions will be stomping into Cheltenham and Gloucester.

• GoGo Safari A whole host of animals will be appearing around Norfolk and Norwich this summer, We have been busy painting a rhino and elephant for this fun public art trail, taking place between 23 June to 30 August!

Stampede By the Sea

Delighted to share our elephant we painted for Stampede by the Sea Dorset trail!

A whole stampede of elephants have arrived in Bridport, West Bay, and Lyme Regis! See them until 27th May. So if in the area why not pop down and take a look. Stampede by the Sea is a public art trail organised by Wild in Art and raising funds for Weldmar Hospicecare. Over thirty large elephants and a host of baby elephants, make up this wonderful trail.

Our design called “Herbie” celebrates all things Dorset and exploring the outdoors. The design features some of Dorset’s much loved places including Lyme Regis Beach, Bridport market and harbour and West Bay. Paw-some pooches also feature on this fun design. Kindly sponsored by the lovely people at Dorwest.

To find out more about the trail visit: Stampede by the Sea

Go Go Safari

Last week we welcomed an Elephant and Rhino into or studio! We were delighted to be painting these fantastic sculptures for https://www.break-charity.org/gogosafari/ supporting the wonderful work of https://www.break-charity.org/charity/. This trail will begin in the summer, can’t wait for our rhino and elephant to join the parade. Sharing a few sneak peeks so you can see what we have been up to.

With thanks to the fantastic https://castlequarternorwich.co.uk/ for choosing our Rhino design- this fun design celebrates the diverse city of Norwich and has aunique I Spy theme! Be sure to take a photo of it when you spy it and tell us your favourite part.

Our elephant design evokes a sense of nature and relaxation, featuring the wobdeful railways across Norfolk and the abundance of wildlife, flowers and plants. The wonderful https://whitwellstation.com/ choose this design- be sure to visit when pass by.

A bit about the trail: This summer will see the big 5 out on the streets of Norwich and Norfolk. Take a trek to discover the wonderful artwork on display, from roarsome lions to amazing elephants, giraffes and rhinos! The sculptures will appear along the streets, parks and open spaces, and shopping centres across Norwich and Norfolk. Each animal sculpture represents the strength, resilience and hope of the young people from care that Break supports.

Paint, Sketchbooks and Sketches

Hi there,

This week we thought we would take a dive into some of our sketchbook work, sharing with you some of our process when creating illustrations. From the initial first ideas to sketches and drafts to experimenting with colour and light, our illustration process takes many forms.

When we first start an illustration we usually start sketching ideas up in a sketch book, these sketches are often quite rough at this stage. We find this process invaluable in getting our initial ideas out and exploring how a character our scene should look. Often we would also use our sketchbook as a place to try out different textures and colours, which helps us get an overall feel for the look of the illustration. Also sketchbooks are a great place to play and have fun with mark making and it doesn’t matter if it's a bit messy, it’s a great place to explore and produce vibrant and interesting illustrations.

Here’s an initial sketch of an Autumn scene we worked on recently. We find it helpful to keep the line work quite loose as it helps us create a sense of movement and light.

We often start with colouring the characters first as this helps us get a sense of what the scene will be like and we can think about how the characters can stand out from their background.

Here’s a fun sketch of some foodie Christmas characters, we love playing around with their expressions and posture.

Here’s some colour experiments in our sketchbook. We use a variety of mediums to create our illustrations, gouache is one of our favourites.

These colourful plants are created in a variety of different mediums, creating bold textures and colour.

As you can see we have used some of the lovely plants and foliage from the above textures to build up this illustration.

Public Art Trails

We have had the great pleasure to have been involved in a wide range of public art trails over the years. This year we have been involved in a few too. From painting a lovely owl for The Big Hoot in Chichester and Arundel and a very tall lighthouse for Southampton and the Isle of White to painting two barrels for The Burton Barrel Roll and a Snook sculpture for York.

One of our favourite aspects of working on public sculpture trails is creating artwork for something that is fun and accessible and enjoyed by local communities, from a flock of penguin sculptures in Worcester to Snook sculptures in York. Working on a 3D from is both challenging and exciting and provides a great base to paint on. We love coming up with designs that reflects the landscape and places to visit in different locations across the Uk.

Here are a few sculptures we have painted this year. In order of images: “Hop to Luton” “Up Up Up and Away” “Owl be in Chichester”

E.L.M.E.R Bot proudly standing outside Sandcastle Waterpark in Blackpool last summer.

We had the great pleasure of painting three wonderful Shaun the Sheep for The Shaun in the Heart of Kent Trail.

It was great to get involved in the Waddle of Worcester trail last summer. These two penguins called “I Spy Penguin” and “Penguins at Play” stood proudly in Worcester for the trail, then they were auctioned off to raise money for St Richards Hospice.

Penguins at Play for Waddle of Worcester Trail

I Spy Penguin Waddle of Worcester

Ey UP its a Snook! standing outside Middletons Hotel in York last Spring

Light The South

Our lighthouse “Light of Green” will be making its way from the Isle of Wight, Cowes to the Southampton Boat show from the 13th of September and then to the auction on the 20th of September.

Our Lighthouse is all about the natural word and highlights the amazing the fresh produce to be found across the south, from the vines, honey and tomatoes of the Isle of Wight to the apple and pear orchards of the New Forest.

To find out more visit: https://lightthesouth.co.uk/