World Building: Handmade Approaches to Illustration
Learn how to approach illustration using different hand-made tools and techniques such as paint and clay in this 6 week in person course at Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.
Students begin with things they can actually see and remember: photographs, places, objects, people, interiors, plants, childhood imagery, found ephemera. Over six weeks, they gradually distort, combine and reimagine these references, creating images that feel simultaneously familiar and fantastical, playful and personal.
The course moves from painting, into collage and finally onto ceramics, so that the imagined world gradually becomes something physical and tangible.
Whether you are a working illustrator looking to incorporate handmade ways of working into your practise or new to illustration and wanting to get creative and experiment with different mediums and materials, this course is for you.
If you are interested but have questions, please feel free to get in touch: learning@qbcentre.org.uk.
Charlotte Mei is a British artist and illustrator based in London. Working across painting, ceramics, sculpture and animation, her practice moves between mythology and domesticity, fantasy and nature.
Mei’s work has been exhibited in London, Hong Kong, Berlin and Tokyo. In 2024 she was the recipient of NOW Gallery's Future Space Award, transforming the Greenwich Peninsula space into a large-scale immersive installation, Like a Melody: Myths, Memories and Fantasy. Recent exhibitions include Sweetener at Fortnum & Mason, London. She has received commissions from Hermès, Nike, Rimowa, Ferragamo, Lulu Guinness, Beams Japan and The New York Times, and has led creative workshops at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Soho House.
Weeks 1–2: Painting from Reality + Memory
Explore painting as a way of translating rather than accurately reproducing reality. Students work from photographs, objects, places and personal memories, experimenting with simplification, distortion, colour and mark-making.
Weeks 3–4: Painting + Collage, Building Imaginary Worlds
Introduce collage as a way of disrupting reality. Students combine painted elements, found imagery and drawings to create environments that could exist somewhere between a remembered place and an imaginary one. Focus on composition, visual storytelling and creating a consistent personal universe.
Weeks 5–6: Illustrated Ceramics
Translate the visual language developed on paper into three-dimensional objects. Students paint, draw and carve onto ceramic forms, thinking about how an illustration changes when it wraps around an object or translated into a sculpture. The final pieces become small artefacts from the world they’ve created.
Please bring along your own found images and personal photos. Clay and underglaze paint will be provided. We will also provide access to some basic materials in the Creative Studio, including brushes, gauche and acrylic paints. However, you may wish to bring along your own gauche, acrylic paints or brushes.
We want our courses, workshops and events to be inclusive and accessible. If you have any accessibility requests or questions, please email events@qbcentre.org.uk.
Ahead of your visit, you can find out more about Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration’s facilities and accessibility: Access at the Centre. (opens in new window)