Email: sarahtheillustrator@gmail.com
All work © Sarah Tanat Jones. Do not reproduce without permission.
Read more about my work and process here:
Hi, I’m Sarah.
I’m interested in everything. Faces, places, history, printmaking, Eastern European folk music, dance music, punk music, hedgerow medicine, films, textile design, engine design. I love colour - they are all there for the taking, and I spend a lot of time choosing and balancing the colours I use.
I draw on paper first. Using Indian ink and a Chinese calligraphy brush is the central element of all my illustrations. I add colour using scanned-in print and paint textures and brushmarks, polishing the illustrations until they are a balance of bold energy and accurate drawing. I always look to create a vibrant mix of immediacy and energy with a refined and pared-back perspective, taking time to reduce the noise and extraneous detail.
I am the mother of two boys aged 2 and 4. My world is a heady mix of sitting quietly and trying to realise the images in my mind, and spending all day building towers and searching for ladybirds. I am challenged daily by this combination of thinking and doing.
I bring my illustrations to life using a stop frame animation technique of 12 or even 8 frames per second, each drawn by hand. It’s a deliberately loose and sketchy way to animate in keeping with the rest of my illustrations.
In 2019 I launched my online shop, featuring my bestselling Chicken Shops of London T-shirts and jumpers, plus other things, all made in the UK.
I won a D&AD New Blood Award when I graduated.
I’m also a musician. I play the drums and sing, layer harmonies and polyrhythms and aim to always improve my electronic production knowledge.
To commission me for a project, it’s sarahtheillustrator@gmail.com.
