4 minute read
Artist focus
Quite absurd
Iain Hamilton is the somewhat warped brain behind card publisher Bewilderbeest. Here he talks about how he gets inspired and why he never draws people
Tell us about you!
I’m Iain (with two ‘I’s, put ‘em wherever you like). My business is Bewilderbeest, and I run it from sunny Suffolk, with my wife Maddy.
Our cat, Colonel Mustang, is head of comms, and our dog, Major Ajax, is head of logistics. Tell us a little about the story behind you becoming an artist and starting Bewilderbeest.
I started Bewilderbeest with the unorthodox approach of falling off a (very small) ski jump and injuring my leg. While recuperating I did some painting, got asked by a gallery to sell my art through them, refused in shock, and then decided to see if I could sell it myself. After that, I printed some cards on my home printer, took them to an agricultural show, and now, several years later, we’ve won a Henries award (2022 Most Promising Young Designer) and make a living from my daft cards. Do you have any artist ‘heroes’ that inspire your work - and why?
I love people who have a few bats loose in the belfry, such as Spike Milligan, Edward Gorey and the poet Tim Key. They just make you think about things from a different angle. As much as I love them, I do also regularly curse them for coming up with so many good ideas before me. What was your very first card design?
The first one that I sold was our How Now Brown Cow card (below). It’s very silly, and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but then the same could be said of me. Talk us through how the process works when you design a card.
Once I have an idea that I like, I’ll make a ridiculously small sketch of it in my sketchbook, leave it a few weeks, then see if I still like it. I then gather up some reference images, think of any odd details I’d like to try to include, and set pencil to paper... then pen to paper, then paintbrush, then pen once again.
Once the painting is done, I scan it in, pop it on a 5 x 7 inch card, and then bully my local printer into doing multiple variations for me, before declaring it done.
In case you haven’t picked up on this, I’m not very quick at drawing, which is why most of my designs tend to be evergreen, rather than ‘on trend’. I mean, I’m only just finding out about Line Of Duty now! There’s a lot of humour in your cards - how do you get inspired to make things funny?!
There are lots of jokes and puns that have been done many times before, so I do my best to think of something a bit offbeat where I can.
I’m always playing practical jokes and look out for weird signs, misspelt adverts, odd sayings taken out of context, and anything that, to my mind, just seems a bit ‘off’. I then leave my brain to simmer, giving it the occasional stir, to see if it comes up with something absurd. As my wife Maddy will confirm, a lot of the things I come up with are less ‘funny, haha’, and more ‘funny, that’s a bit weird’.
Thankfully, enough ideas are considered ‘funny, haha’ to allow me to make a living! What’s your favourite subject to draw and why?
I love drawing animals because people relate to them so much. If I draw them in clothes, or have them do ‘human’ things, then so much the better. I’ve never heard anyone turn down a drawing of a cod in a flat cap walking two pet pollocks (the cod’s pollocks).
Also, and possibly more importantly, I’m rubbish at drawing people. Top tip – if you can’t draw faces well, never agree to draw someone’s child. It’ll all end in tears. Any designs you have in the pipeline or would like to do in the near future?
I’ve more ideas than you can shake a disturbingly big stick at. Several dog designs are on the way (people love their pets), along with some historical figures, and a drunk koala. I’m also gradually working my way through an alphabet of animal collective nouns – suggestions for the letter Y welcome!
