Mickey Gibbons Artist
Mickey Gibbons is a local artist/designer who formerly had a long-standing career in the print/publishing industry. Look out for limited edition intagliano prints, digital reproductions of charcoal drawings, postcards from drawings of local scenes; as well as his self-published book 'Sheet 137 - Lowestoft'.
Website: www.mickeygibbons.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArtByMickeyG
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mickeyboygibbons/
Website: www.mickeygibbons.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArtByMickeyG
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mickeyboygibbons/
Interview With A Maker
Name/Business
Art By Mickey G
Describe your art/craft?
I have been an editorial designer and publisher of independent magazines, newspapers and books for 25 years.
More recently I have been returning to my illustration roots and focusing on refining my skills as an artist and printmaker.
How long have you been creating? How did you learn your craft or were you self-taught?
I have been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil but after leaving school, I went on to study Technical Illustration in Portsmouth.
After a short stint as an archaeological small finds illustrator for English Heritage I moved to the bright lights of London where I learnt to use computer design software and this initiated my undying love of typography. I would consider myself a self-taught graphic designer with an avid love of reference libraries. Working as a freelance designer for 20 years in consumer magazines also gave me the confidence to try out anything and everything, because by the time the next issue would hit the stands my previous risky experiments would have been forgotten.
What are your favourite art/craft 'tools of the trade'?
My current favourite tools are a cheap pack of PoundShop felt pens which are lightweight and highly expressive for drawing on location.
In close second would always be a Xerox machine.
Where is your creative space?
When I have a sketchbook and my felt pens with me, everywhere is a creative space, but I have a very messy small studio set-up in the bedroom my childhood home, much to the annoyance of my mother.
What do you watch or listen to when you're creating?
I've been collecting digital music for 20 years and my time as a publisher of a music newspaper has helped me to dig out new gems. There are always great new things to find, if you can be bothered. I always have my music on headphones when I'm out drawing and it can shuffle between Joanna Newsom, Nick Drake, Nirvana and my new favourites Dry Cleaning.
What's your best selling product?
A self-published hardback book of drawings that I produced called 'Sheet 137 – Lowestoft'
Favourite thing you've ever created? Do you still have it, or did you sell/gift it?
I think, for me, my favourite thing is the project that I'm currently working on. Like a love affair, a new project it should be all-consuming enough to blot out all its predecessors. I think that if I ever felt 100% happy with the outcome of any project I should retire right there. It's that energy and quest for creative challenges that drives me.
Random fact about yourself?
I was the drummer in a Finnish tango band with three Finnish friends.
What new craft would you love to try?
Living within spitting distance of its old factory in Lowestoft, I would love to follow in the footsteps of many Lowestoft women and children and make some blue and white porcelain.
Where can customers buy your products?
https://www.mickeygibbons.com/store
Give a shout-out to a fellow artist or crafter you admire!
Current practitioners that I follow are artist and writer Annabel Dover whose brilliant new book 'Florilegia' is a joy to behold.
All-time favourite influences of mine are the Suffolk artist Harry Becker, and the printmaker Sybil Andrews, both of them innovative outsiders with an unquenchable appetite to create beautiful work in the face of commercial obscurity.
Name/Business
Art By Mickey G
Describe your art/craft?
I have been an editorial designer and publisher of independent magazines, newspapers and books for 25 years.
More recently I have been returning to my illustration roots and focusing on refining my skills as an artist and printmaker.
How long have you been creating? How did you learn your craft or were you self-taught?
I have been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil but after leaving school, I went on to study Technical Illustration in Portsmouth.
After a short stint as an archaeological small finds illustrator for English Heritage I moved to the bright lights of London where I learnt to use computer design software and this initiated my undying love of typography. I would consider myself a self-taught graphic designer with an avid love of reference libraries. Working as a freelance designer for 20 years in consumer magazines also gave me the confidence to try out anything and everything, because by the time the next issue would hit the stands my previous risky experiments would have been forgotten.
What are your favourite art/craft 'tools of the trade'?
My current favourite tools are a cheap pack of PoundShop felt pens which are lightweight and highly expressive for drawing on location.
In close second would always be a Xerox machine.
Where is your creative space?
When I have a sketchbook and my felt pens with me, everywhere is a creative space, but I have a very messy small studio set-up in the bedroom my childhood home, much to the annoyance of my mother.
What do you watch or listen to when you're creating?
I've been collecting digital music for 20 years and my time as a publisher of a music newspaper has helped me to dig out new gems. There are always great new things to find, if you can be bothered. I always have my music on headphones when I'm out drawing and it can shuffle between Joanna Newsom, Nick Drake, Nirvana and my new favourites Dry Cleaning.
What's your best selling product?
A self-published hardback book of drawings that I produced called 'Sheet 137 – Lowestoft'
Favourite thing you've ever created? Do you still have it, or did you sell/gift it?
I think, for me, my favourite thing is the project that I'm currently working on. Like a love affair, a new project it should be all-consuming enough to blot out all its predecessors. I think that if I ever felt 100% happy with the outcome of any project I should retire right there. It's that energy and quest for creative challenges that drives me.
Random fact about yourself?
I was the drummer in a Finnish tango band with three Finnish friends.
What new craft would you love to try?
Living within spitting distance of its old factory in Lowestoft, I would love to follow in the footsteps of many Lowestoft women and children and make some blue and white porcelain.
Where can customers buy your products?
https://www.mickeygibbons.com/store
Give a shout-out to a fellow artist or crafter you admire!
Current practitioners that I follow are artist and writer Annabel Dover whose brilliant new book 'Florilegia' is a joy to behold.
All-time favourite influences of mine are the Suffolk artist Harry Becker, and the printmaker Sybil Andrews, both of them innovative outsiders with an unquenchable appetite to create beautiful work in the face of commercial obscurity.
