Collaborating with artist Emma Gosling
This commission was a special collaboration between two South Shields creatives that will hopefully become a family heirloom.
When the request first landed in my inbox, I knew just the person to contact for the illustration aspect of the piece – Emma Gosling.
I have been following Emma on Instagram for quite some time and love her style.
I’ve even interviewed her for my other job, as a press officer for The Customs House in South Shields, when some of her work was exhibited there.
Artist Emma Gosling with her dog, Bonnie.
Jon Orrock was looking for a hand-written copy of If, by Rudyard Kipling, for his son’s first birthday and wanted to customise it with an illustration of some description.
We settled on an image of a father and son, which eventually turned out to be a pencil sketch of Jon holding Oram as a baby, taken from a photograph.
Oram comes from an Old Norse surname, so we opted for uncial script for the poem to give it a medieval feel. We also added Oram’s full name and date and time of birth.
Emma’s original drawing on her easel.
With Jon working offshore, everything was arranged via e-mail and I didn’t meet Emma until I dropped the paper off or her!
We were both as nervous as each other when it came to writing/drawing on each other’s work, in case either of us made a mistake, so we opted to do them as separate pieces, ready for framing.
(We kept this local too, with another great job from The Westoe Gallery in South Shields).
Jon was really lovely and trusted our professional judgement throughout.
The final piece was A2 in size and very much appreciated by Jon, his partner and their families.
I’m sure it will be treasured by Oram, too, as he gets older.
About Emma Gosling
Emma offers a range of bespoke services, including greetings cards, wedding stationery, logo design and wall murals.
She works in a range of mediums, but mostly pencil, ink and acrylic.
You can visit her website here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.