The Handsome Frank Illustration Podcast

Join us as we catch up with one of our 2024 Handsome Future winners, Molly McCammon. We talk about what she’s learned over the past year, how she’s tweaked her work to gain more commercial success, and what it’s like to be an illustrator picking colours when you have Synesthesia. Check out Molly's portfolio over on our website! 

In this episode Tim talks us through his 15 years in illustration. From an initial love of collage, before pivoting to pen and ink and disagreeing with his tutors on the way to winning a D&AD New Blood Award. Today he is established as one of the most sought after in the business and has become a go to artist, for The New York Times and Star Wars.   Join us as we hear how growing up on a Virginian commune, surrounded by rattle snakes and snapping turtles, helped him develop his macabre brand of illustration. Why he holds his breath when he paints and how acting might just be his back-up plan.  View Tim's portfolio on the Handsome Frank website.

If you've travelled on the London Underground recently, you'll have seen the work of Charlie Davis. A Handsome Frank superstar since 2019, Charlie's profile has grown to new heights in the past few years and is now on show all over London. He joins us to share his journey—from starting out as a junior designer to making the leap into full-time illustration. Offering a fascinating insight into his craft, he reveals how making one small tweak to his work opened the door to increased commercial success, why he doesn't draw faces and explains why he prefers short deadlines.    www.handsomefrank.com/illustrators/charlie-davis    

Parisian-born Londoner Marylou Faure joined us at HFHQ to talk about the personal and professional journey, which has shaped her bold, bouncy, art style. In our final podcast of the year, Marylou discusses female empowerment, which is a central theme in her work and how she learned to love colour. We also cover how her 3D 'babes' come to life, her dream projects and whether Die Hard is a Christmas film.   Check out Marylou Faure's portfolio

On a brisk November day, we travelled by train to Dorset and sat down to talk with award winning illustrator Paul Blow. In a conversation that  spans the full length of his career, we discuss the highs and lows of being an illustrator for over three decades.   Paul talks to us about everything from awards, to losing his life's work, to why he avoided drawing smiley faces for so long. His bold conceptual illustrations often mix themes of humour, sadness and the absurd and his podcast almost perfectly mirrors the variety in his work.

In a Paris hotel room, beneath the Eiffel Tower, we finally tracked down the wonderful Luis Mendo. Join us for a ranging conversation, taking in a career designing magazines in 90's Amsterdam, a life changing decision to relocate to Tokyo and how his work as an illustrator was born from a language barrier. Trigger warning, contains mentions of AI that artists may find refreshing.  Check out Luis' portfolio at handsomefrank.com Feeling a strong desire to stroll through Tokyo with Luis? You're in luck! Join him on his daily routine in our 'Little Film About...Luis Mendo'. Watch now on vimeo    

Part illustrator, part model maker, part engineer and full time Handsome Frank royalty, paper artist Helen Musselwhite visited our studio for our 20th episode. 
 We catch up with perhaps our most analogue artist to discuss her childhood fascination with model villages, thinking in 3D, and how she uses her photography skills to bring her paper worlds to life. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch our 'Little Film About...Helen Musselwhite' in full, here. Visit Helen's portfolio page at www.handsomefrank.com            

Matt Murphy brought his customary warmth and good conversation as he called in to see us and record podcast EP19. We discussed colour theory, great music and dream commissions past and (hopefully) future. 

Brooklyn's finest, Niege Borges, flew over to London to fill our studio with colour and recount stories of her art journey, her cat Shakira, and her inflatable sidekick Elizabeth.      

From driving taxis, sleeping in a gallery, to working in a homeless centre on Skid Row, Dakarai’s journey to becoming a freelance artist is one of the most fascinating and eventful we’ve ever heard. Warning this podcast contains rattle snake references.

For latest episode we jumped on the Eurostar and headed to Amsterdam to meet with artist and illustrator Leonie Bos. From her studio, tucked away on the ground floor of an old Victorian school, we talk about everything from squatting in abandoned buildings to punch needle and the difficulties of growing vegetables. 

In our latest podcast we embark on a magical mystery tour into the world of Liverpool based artist Luke McConkey. Luke spills the beans on how he first grabbed our attention, the fact that he "draws like he's a nice guy", and his side project as an independent record label owner.

Once again we took the Handsome Frank podcast on the road, this time to a snow covered Liverpool to meet up with the wonderful Joël Penkman. Based in Maghull, on the northern outskirts of the city we turned up at the beautiful mid-century family house that Joël and her partner James call home. The smell of fresh coffee and freshly baked bread greeted us, offering a very welcome sanctuary from the unseasonable elements of the morning.

Illustrator Andrew Joyce is perhaps best known for his maps and building illustrations. As such, we thought it would be fun to take the Handsome Frank podcast to the streets and check out some London architecture on the move. Grabbing some newly acquired roving recording equipment, we wired ourselves up, clipped some microphones to our lapels and went for a little walk and talk around one of our favourite neighbourhoods.

If you love beautifully rendered buildings and hate the price of train tickets, this is the episode for you! This week we’re off to Norwich to chat to the equal parts talented and lovely Zoë Barker. (Leave your Alan Partridge impressions at the door please!) A small content warning - we discuss themes around mental health, including OCD and anxiety. Many many thanks to Zoë for her candour and openness in discussing how she’s learnt to manage her life and career while looking after her mental wellbeing.

We took a trip to Paris to meet with the wonderful Agathe Singer and discuss all things gouache, juggling childcare and tiny lifts.

We headed to rural Norfolk to speak to David Sparshott, an illustrator who creates all of his work using pencils. David lives off-grid and we were chased by his geese during a tour of his home.

We headed to the Essex countryside to meet up with collage expert Michelle Thompson to find out about what she'd been working on and why she chose illustration as a career.

We had a lovely chat with typographer and illustrator Tobias Hall. He treated us to pizza and we got to stroke his giant cat. 

We headed to glorious Brighton to chat to the lovely Paul Thurlby.