IllustrationMemberPrintmakingSolo artist

Rosie Leech

posted by POP Members February 11, 2021

Rosie Leech is an illustrator, printmaker, and ceramicist based in the UK. Her work is extremely small and precise, pushing the extents of scale within printmaking, and reflecting her fascination with material processes. Graduating little over a year ago with a BA(Hons) in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art, Rosie continues to be influenced by the experiments she partook in whilst studying. She says; “There is an excellent printmaking department there so I spent a lot of time etching and screen printing, and part way through my degree they bought a Risograph printer, which was wonderful! Most of the projects in my degree show were showcasing the different types of printmaking in my practice.”

Rosie finds little everyday moments endlessly interesting and uses these as sources of material for illustrations; “I love slightly strange and surreal stories, chance encounters or small moments of interaction”. Although a lot of her illustrations take the form of silent comics, she is starting to incorporate more and more text into her images, experimenting with how this can affect the pacing and the structure of the narrative. “I’ve always been very interested in typography, so it’s exciting to start to combine these two parts of my practice” says Rosie.

Working almost entirely analogue, Rosie sketches out designs on “scrappy bits of paper” over and over again in crayon until she is happy with them, finding that “it takes the pressure off the beginning of a new project”. She then takes her favourites and creates a final drawing in pencil using a light box. If she’s creating a design for Riso or screen printing, Rosie uses black ink on drafting film laid over the pencil drawing to create the layers. “It’s often quite an arduous process, but I find that there is something very satisfying about the methodical nature of it” states the printmaker.

Currently, Rosie is working on an exciting project that involves writing and illustrating a children’s book; “I am very drawn to the opportunities available in the publishing world, I would love to illustrate books, both for adults and children”.

www.rosieleech.com
@rosieleechillustration

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