The Trick

Imtiaz Dharker

In a wasted time, it’s only when I sleep that all my senses come awake. In the wake of you, let day not break. Let me keep
the scent, the weight, the bright of you, take the countless hours and count them all night through till that time comes when you come to the door
of dreams, carrying oranges that cast a glow up into your face. Greedy for more than the gift of seeing you, I lean in to taste
the colour, kiss it off your offered mouth. For this, for this, I fall asleep in haste, willing to fall for the trick that tells the truth that even your shade makes darkest absence bright, that shadows live wherever there is light.

• Above: Daniel Fernández (also known as Albert Victoria) studied in Madrid at Complutense University and Escuela Superior de Dibujo Profesional. He takes influences from 19th-century art and literature, popular culture and photography

• Above: Yijing Li graduated from London College of Communications and specialises in children’s book and book illustration, for both UK and China-based publishers.

• Above: Mikki Lee is a Korean American illustrator and a student of Art Center College of Design. Studio Ghibli films are responsible for her love of storytelling and she hopes her illustrations will send similar messages about environmentalism, pacifism, and feminism
• Top left: Sophie Sarah Sitai Kehoe was born and raised in Brunei and comes from a diverse mixed lineage of both Asian and European cultures. Her artwork is deeply inspired by her fascinations with colours and textures
• Top right: Yuzhen Cai is a freelance illustrator and animator living in London Originally from China, she moved to the UK to study at Camberwell College of Arts. She creates art in both digital and manual mediums, combining flat, bold colours with handmade textures. Yuzhen studying at the Royal College of Art
• Middle left: Eva Münnich is an animator and illustrator based in London who favours vibrant colours, intriguing composition and appealing characters
• Middle right: Zuza Miśko is a printmaker and illustrator based in Warsaw. After graduating from the Polish National Film School in Łódź, she worked for over a decade in advertising, animation and digital illustration. Her passion for print, pottery and textiles led her to experiment with traditional media including linocut prints and linocut illustrations

• Bottom left: Leonie Woods graduated from the Chelsea College of Art in 1998. She currently lives and works in east London as a freelance illustrator specialising in photomontage illustration. Her work evolves from a process of layering found images and self-generated marks and textures using digital techniques
• Bottom right: Greg McIndoe (Headless Greg) is an illustrator and design writer from Glasgow in his final year at Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee. Juxtaposing simplified forms with contemporary colour schemes, his design work is all about abstraction

Wild nights 

Emily Dickinson

Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!

• Above: Kate Bird grew up in the West Midlands. She is currently a third-year illustration student at Birmingham City University. She particularly enjoys collage and watercolour

• Above: Lidiia Sargsian is Belgorod, Russia who has had a passion for illustration, drawing and painting since childhood. Lidiia likes to experiment with traditional materials such as watercolour, pastel, charcoal and to combine this with digital graphic work
• Top left: Jiachen Lin is an illustrator based in Bournemouth, who focuses on narratives inspired by women and the world around us. She is also passionate about studying the relationship between people and society
• Top right: Jurgita Vasiliauskaite is studying at DJCAD, University of Dundee. Jurgita creates illustrations digitally but also has a keen interest for printmaking. She explores analogue collage inspired by powerful composition and colour interaction

• Bottom left: Amita Sevellaraja is a Malaysian-born illustrator currently in her third year at Falmouth University. A lover of all things whimsical, her work is filled with emotion and drama, seen through her characteristic use of vivid colours, expressive strokes and atmospheric lighting
• Bottom right: Anastasia Izlesou is a multidisciplinary illustrator and designer from the UK. Using a mix of digital and traditional media, she creates vibrant work full of bold natural elements. Her inspirations range from natural sciences, literature and folklore to everyday items and kitsch objects

The Good-Morrow

John Donne

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

• Above: Marina Aleph grew up in a small town in the Urals, before moving to Yekaterinburg. Marina studied graphic design at the Ural State University of Architecture and Art

• Above: Han is an illustration student at University of Arts London. She focuses on the story behind the painting, and its most important elements instead of drawing skills

• Above: Ewa Wiktoria Malec is a Polish illustrator living and working in London. She studied fine art at the University of Bedfordshire and Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław

• Above: Yukai Du is a London-based Chinese illustrator and animation director who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014. Her inspiration comes from impressionism’s dichotomy of layered lines and dots, combined with a love for brutalism’s simplistic geometric structures
• Top left: Eleanor Hardiman is an illustrator and designer from Bristol, who paints all her illustrations in watercolour. Themes including sleep, dreams, femininity and identity are common in her work
• Top right: Sophie Mildner is a German illustrator, based in Halle, who studied communication design with a focus on illustration at the Art University Burg Giebichenstein
• Middle left: Sarah Perkins has been working as a collage artist since studying at Chelsea School of Art and Central St Martins 30 years ago. Initially working in analogue collage she now works digitally, layering with her own textures, painting and typography
• Middle right: Siki (Siqi) Yuan is a Chinese visual artist based in London and Shanghai, studying at Camberwell College of Arts. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, she draws on her background in fashion design and illustration, to work across various media to examine aspects of personality and emotional expression

• Bottom left: Manuel Šumberac was born in 1988 in Pula, Croatia. He obtained a masters in animation and new media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and makes animated films, music videos, and illustrations for children’s books and book covers
• Bottom right: Georgina Smart is studying at the Arts University Bournemouth. Born and raised in Guernsey, she takes inspiration from her surroundings and is an aspiring writer, enjoying storytelling in all its forms