Illustrator and dog lover Harriet Lowther will be at Toppings, Bath, this month to showcase her new book, Tell Your Dog I Love Them. Ahead of her visit, Joanna Lewis spoke with Harriet to learn more about her book and decidedly uncanny illustrations.
Harriet’s quirky illustrations adorn a wide range of items, from homeware such as mugs and tea towels to tote bags, calendars, prints, apparel, and hand-painted originals. While the focus of her illustrations is primarily dogs (of all shapes and sizes), there are also lots of cats too, and, occasionally, other critters, including geese, polar bears, badgers, foxes, and giraffes.
The illustrator’s inaugural book, however, is an ode to all her doggie illustrations, with 170 pages filled with some of her favourites from the past few years… “some scrappy, some quick, some detailed,” Harriet explains.
“I love creating work that’s playful, relatable, and brings a smile, often inspired by the animals – especially dogs! – that makes life so joyful.
Harriet started her journey as an illustrator when touring with her partner’s multi award-winning theatre band, The Zoots. While travelling, she used to sketch illustrations of dogs on the back of boarding passes at airports. What started as simple doodles soon morphed into more considered pieces. “I started trying watercolours, then launched a few greeting cards,” Harriet notes. “I was amazed when people bought them. It just kind of snowballed quite quickly from there. Soon, the illustrations started to take over my house. So, now I’ve got a lovely purpose-built studio at the bottom of my garden.”
She says her style has evolved over the years through constant experimentation and learning to let go of perfection. “I love creating work that’s playful, relatable, and brings a smile, often inspired by the animals – especially dogs! – that makes life so joyful.”
Dog fanatic Harriet says she’s always been a dog fanatic and had dogs growing up as a child. However, travelling with the band prevented her from having a dog of her own. Drawing illustrations of some of her favourite hounds offered her an outlet to combine her love of art with dogs.
The illustrator is especially known for her love of sight hounds and lurchers. “Anything that looks a little bit dippy, a bit unusual, a bit long… long legs, long nose, long body,” Harriet enthuses.
Her passion has morphed into a busy studio, Made by Harriet, with her illustrated homewares and apparel sold through her dedicated site. And, with her feet more firmly on the ground, she now draws inspiration from her mischievous studio sidekicks: Doughnut, her 50kg rescue lurcher, and her cat Sean Connery. “They’re both constant sources of chaos and love and endless inspiration.”
A highlight of her career came a couple of years ago, when she was selected to design a Christmas card range for the RSPCA. She says it felt “overwhelming” at times as she feared the charity would not like her designs. However, the illustrations, based on animals that were currently in RSPCA shelters, were a resounding success.
Experimentation
Throughout her work, Harriet experiments with a wide range of media and mixes it up with various scales and sizes.
“So, I’ve been doing some large-scale pieces to take on the book tour with me, some big cardboard dogs,” Harriet says.
Ah, the book! Harriet says a book wasn’t even on her radar; however, she was contacted by publisher Francis Lincoln, who asked if she was interested in putting a book together. You could say, the rest is history.
“It was the most perfect project that I didn’t even know that I could do,” Harriet says.
She gave Francis Lincoln access to her oeuvre and gave herself a year to work on the project. The result is a coffee-table style publication that has the look and feel of Harriet’s personal sketchbook, filled with delightful illustrations and snippets of text.
“Originally, we were going to try and put it into sections, like tall dogs, small dogs, but it didn’t really work.
I was also conscious that my illustrations are quite sight-hound heavy, and I wanted the book to have some variety, to have a few more different breeds. So, I started working on more varied illustrations, then I would add some text here and there. I’d never done a book before, but the whole experience has been really lovely. It has just been a joy to do.”
Harriet says the book is designed for anyone who loves dogs. “They [dogs] kind of tap into the human psyche and mirror our own feelings or our own uncomfortableness. That’s what really makes them so great.”
So, on the back of the success of her new book, what’s next for Harriet? She’s working on her inaugural exhibition in San Francisco in January, and she has also started taking on a limited number of commissions. But, get in quick, they are in high demand!
You can meet Harriet on Thursday, 11 December at Toppings, from 4pm, where she will be signing copies of her new book. The signing is priced at £14.99 and includes a copy of her book, and Harriet will even draw your pup as part of the cost. Visit toppingsbooks.co.uk.
To learn more about Harriet’s work, visit madebyharriet.co.uk.