What’s it all about?
LondonSketchbook.com was launched in September 2008.
It is run and art-directed by Marf, pen-name for Martha Richler, a London-based artist and art historian. LondonSketchbook.com combines Marf’s drawings, cartoons and T-shirt designs with her writing on art.
Who’s Marf?
You can hear Marf talking about her work on Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’.
Marf has been a newspaper cartoonist for over a decade, beginning with a strip cartoon called Lucky, first published in the Daily Express in 1996,
and then she drew a daily news cartoon for Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.
In 2002, she joined the Evening Standard, and became the first woman to draw a daily cartoon in the history of Fleet Street.
She has drawn cartoons for the daily news online magazine, The First Post, including the illustration for ‘The Mole’, their unnamed Westminster insider.
She has illustrated several books, including ‘Being a Girl’, Kim Cattrall’s guide to the ups and downs of teenage life, co-written by New Yorker Amy Briamante.
Last year, Marf spent several months covered in fur sketching a very fluffy dog called George, for ‘My Life With George’, Judith Summers’ bestselling memoir about how one very special dog helped a lone mother and son cope after her husband died of cancer.
Marf has designed bestselling T-shirts and accessories for Topshop, Britain’s all-singing, all-dancing fashion mecca.
Marf’s cartoons are in several private collections. Among those who own Marf’s original cartoons are Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Models; writers Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser; Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair; Allen Jones, RA; chefs Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver; theatre directors Peter Hall and Trevor Nunn; and Debbie Moore, founder of Pineapple Studios. A recent visitor to ‘Beckingham Palace’ even reported seeing Marf’s cartoon of baby Romeo, surrounded by baby “Juliets” in the imaginary hospital ward, on the wall of Romeo’s bedroom – it was a gift to David and Victoria Beckham from Sir Elton John.
There is a collection of Marf cartoons, including her work during the Iraq War and the final days of Tony Blair’s premiership, in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s cartoon collection. This one is available as a free e-card on LondonSketchbook.com.
Martha Richler – Marf’s alter-ego – is an art historian. She was a lecturer at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and later wrote the official guide to the museum, A World of Art, a history of art told through the gallery’s permanent collection. It was first published in 1998 and remains a bestseller at the gallery.
What next?
Marf will expand her T-shirt range with regular new designs – both her own and those of a team of young artists who are being recruited right now.
Marf welcomes applications from artists who’d like to join LondonSketchbook. Please send only two samples of your work to martha@londonsketchbook.com.
You will not be ripped off – as a working artist, Marf knows what it’s like to have her designs stolen, so you’re in safe hands
Starting in November, the online store ASOS will regularly showcase designs from LondonSketchbook.
Advertising
London Sketchbook.com is open to advertising from small, independently-run businesses and artisans. If you wish to advertise with us, please contact martha@londonsketchbook.com for details and rates.
Complaints and sales inquiries
We don’t want anyone to be unhappy with any product purchased from LondonSketchbook.com. Please let us know of any problems. Write to sales@londonsketchbook.com.
Thankyou to all our models
A big thank-you to our models, Jessie, Lara, Emma and Alex, who brought the T-shirts to life on Hampstead Heath. It was a lot of fun because of you.
And a final big thankyou to . . .
Ray Watkins and Nigel Horne, and last but not least, the unflappable Jonathan Noone, Digital Producer and ronin (a samurai with no lord or master – that is, freelance). That’s him in the Coffee Plant ad, levitating on caffeine! You can contact him here.
