Violet is a recent graduate of Edinburgh Collage of Art (BA Hons in Illustration) currently based in Edinburgh, with a love for illustration! A majority of her work is created with gouache, along with other media such as coloured pencils, watercolours, as well as other digital techniques. She also has a great passion for screen-printing, risograph printing, and lino printing, and enjoys incorporating them into her work as much as possible. No matter the processes or methods she uses to create her illustrations, the aim remains consistent. To create playful, and colourful images that capture the fun in everyday life, and the beauty that it can hold! The inspiration she finds through this helps to fuel her practice, which centres heavily around storytelling, through creating books, comics and zines, whilst also exploring illustrative work through editorials and designing merchandise.
Violet Colley
Bio
The Early Bird
'The Early Bird' is an original illustrated children's book, which focuses on themes of friendship and adventure, whilst also tackling issues such as insomnia - with the hope that the book could be used as part of 'bed time routines' helping little ones who struggle with sleep to finally catch a good night's rest.
All of the illustrations are hand painted with gouache paint, and are paired with simplistic text to make bedtime reading acessible for both the child and the adult.
The rest of the book can viewed below.
Spring print triptych
This is a self-directed print project which combined drawing journal entries, creating a developed triptych of prints that mirrored the period of the year I was in at the time: Spring. The piece also follows a short narrative inspired by lockdown routine.
The final set of prints were printed through risography.
It gets better when...
A triptych in response to the project exploring themes around 'It gets better when...'. With limited space the three illustrations portray a short, light hearted narrative, whilst providing a brief escape in a time where so many people are stuck inside and dreaming of going to places far, far away.
All three images are painted in gouache, with some parts being partially collaged together on Photoshop. I have placed the text that accompanies the illustrations under my Instagram posts, below the images, to replicate the final effect online.
The Ice Cream King
The ‘Ice Cream King’ is an illustrative adaptation of a family story I used to be told by my parents before bed as a child. The book explores ideas of family, friendship and adventure, wrapped up in brightly coloured, hand painted, gouache illustrations which bring the story to life.
The whole of the childrens book can be viewed below.
Editorials
Throughout my main body of illustrative work, I peppered in editorial work to help enhance and develop my practice. Here are some examples of the edirorial work I created for papers such as 'The Student' and 'The Rattlecap' this year.
A range of media was used to create the final outcomes, from gouche paint to digital tools and collage.
Violet Colley
