Glasgow's New Year's Resolution

2014 was Glasgow's year as it was the year we hosted the Commonwealth Games. It was the year we realised people make Glasgow - with their hearts, heads and humour. With the world watching Scotland this year I have never been prouder to be a weegie - let's keep the pace going. Onwards and upwards! Stay Pure Dead Brilliant Glasgow.

Here is my wee tribute to my city - it is the famous duke of wellington statue wearing the traffic cone that the locals campaigned to keep firmly placed on the duke's head. #OnlyInGlasgow

Happy Hogamany, happy new year, all the best for 2015!

Glasgow - Weegie Street / Red sandstone tenements

Glasgow is many things to many people. According to the Commonwealth Games folks it's...

 "Historic and avant-garde, quirky and elegant, rainy and heartwarming - Glasgow is a city of opposites and of inspiration, dear to anyone who's lived here and unforgettable to any visitor. It's a city where people like to dress up and have fun, to party all night, to soak up culture and to have a bit of banter with the next person in the queue. It's a city where you'll see charity-shop hipsters rub shoulders with stylish high-flyers, where indulgence can mean cocktails and designer handbags or a stroll through a Victorian park. It's a city of underground music venues and architectural jewels, of art and music festivals, of lazy Sunday morning brunches. It has a vast cultural offering and it's like no other place in the world."

To me it's home. I do lots of different illustrations and some of them have focused on Glasgow. After completing this image, I really want to pursue some more Glasgow related projects. For those of you who live in Glasgow, Weegie Street will be a bit familiar with the iconic red stone tenement, the variety of characters and also the little neds stealing pizza. I wanted to create an snap shot of a tenement, full of life and also full of detail so that you always spot something different when you look at it.

Anyway, I present...Weegie Street!

Tip Tap Flat : A View of Glasgow - Book OUT NOW

The rumours are true - I have been published in a book and I am chuffed to bits!

The book is called Tip Tap Flat: A View of Glasgow and has been published by Freight.

Last year, when I was studying comic illustration at Glasgow School of Art, Louise Welsh asked for submissions for a book about the city of Glasgow. She was looking for poems, short stories and illustrations. As a lover of Glasgow AND an illustrator - I jumped at the chance. My contribution to the book is a 3 page comic about the Duke of Wellington. This statue has become the most recognised landmark in Glasgow since it was "coned". Everytime I walk past the statue sporting a traffic cone for a hat it makes me laugh. I can't help but wonder how did someone get that all the way up there?!

Here is what the book looks like....


And here is what my 3 page comic looks like...

I'm really proud to be a part of this unique depiction of Glasgow. The book really is worth picking up if you have lived in, worked in or visited Glasgow. If you want to buy the book it is availabe from Amazon, Waterstones and various other outlets. (I'm on page 82 if you do)

For more of my work please go to www.karentoons.co.uk