Newspaper and magazine articles
Here are a few press clippings and articles about my work, writing, Draw and the Drawing Circus. Below the clippings you'll find links to online articles and reviews.
Broadcasting Appearances
Radio 4, June 2015
Short interview on 'Will Gompertz Gets Creative' recorded at Draw [Listen here]
Periscope, April 2015
Self broadcast studio tour for Where I Write [See more...]
Heart FM, April 2014
Life drawing session for the breakfast show with Tom and Nic.
Juice FM, April 2014
Interview about The Drawing Circus with Bugaloo Stu
The Discovery Chanel, Sept 2011
Life drawing session for 'My Secret Body' (Maverick TV)
Short interview on 'Will Gompertz Gets Creative' recorded at Draw [Listen here]
Periscope, April 2015
Self broadcast studio tour for Where I Write [See more...]
Heart FM, April 2014
Life drawing session for the breakfast show with Tom and Nic.
Juice FM, April 2014
Interview about The Drawing Circus with Bugaloo Stu
The Discovery Chanel, Sept 2011
Life drawing session for 'My Secret Body' (Maverick TV)
Reviews and online articles
Local newspaper coverage of a two day residency, Shoreham Herald, July 2016
For the first time, Steyning Decorative and Fine Arts Society has funded an artist in residence to work with 15 selected year-ten students for two full days...Jake has been encouraging the students to work on life drawings in the way they would for A-levels, giving... [Read More]
Art Superstar Interview, Cut Out & Keep, Oct 2015
Have you always been creative and what’s the earliest work you can remember creating? " I have always drawn, painted and made things. As a kid I was constantly switching from one making activity to anther! We didn't have a TV when..." [Read More]
Anyone can learn to draw, Cass Art Blog, Oct 2015
Jake Spicer is an artist and author, well known for drawing portraits, faces and animals fluidly and accurately, as well as a tutor that teaches drawing across the country. His 'Draw in 15 Minutes' book series offers helpful tips on learning to draw certain subjects... [Read More]
5 of the all time best TEDx Talks, Feb 2015
We can all associate with the joy of drawing and illustration, yet so few of us see that happiness through to making it a part of our work, or better yet our livelihood. Jake Spicer is one of Brighton’s...[Read More]
Preview of DRAW for North Light books, Jan 2015
Author and artist Jake Spicer has carefully crafted this book to teach you how to draw while having fun! Enjoy 30 carefully planned lessons taking inspiration from the studio and the real world to build a solid foundation and learn the fundamentals of drawing...[Read More]
Interview for the Cass Art blog, March 2014
Author of Draw Faces in 15 Minutes and dedicated campaigner for the practice of art among everyone, Jake Spicer is a name to remember! Jake is based in Brighton and as well as a practicing artist is also the director of Draw... [Read More]
Review of the All Very Well exhibition with Bobby Baker, Oct 2013
Amateur and professional artwork is displayed in the exhibition All Very Well in Brighton which focuses on visualising illnesses. The free month long light box exhibition shows work created in local art and mental health groups under leadership from Jake Spicer, a Brighton based artist and drawing tutor. These are displayed alongside Bobby Baker’s renowned Diary Drawings, a series of images that reflect her decade spent in the mental health system. [Read More]
Roly Allen interviews Jake Spicer for the Ilex Blog, June 2013
I was lucky enough to catch up with Jake Spicer – artist, educator, author of Draw Faces in 15 Minutes - and took the opportunity to ask a few questions about his life in drawing…Let’s start at the beginning. How did you learn to draw? [Read More]
TEDx Brighton Interview, Oct 2012
We wanted to catch up with some speakers from last year’s TEDxBrighton and see what they have been doing since. I met with Jake Spicer recently, who gave a talk on drawing which included some wonderful audience participation. He had a live model on stage and managed to get the audience absorbed in drawing, despite a complete mix of abilities and level of experience with drawing. [Read More]
Penny Tristam interviews Jake Spicer for Represent blog, May 2012
It’s so intangible what makes drawing one person so much more engaging than another. That wish to capture an image of someone is really fascinating. I don’t know why we’re driven to do it, but I’m definitely drawn to some models more than others. At the same time, I think everyone is interesting to draw in some level, and it’s important to be versatile in your attitude. [Read More]
Review of Grimm Tales exhibtion by Mary O'Conor for Nouse Magazine, Dec 2011
Before coming to the exhibition, I had a lot of preconceptions as to what it might be like. With the current wave of cinematic reinterpretations of fairy tales like Red Riding Hood and Snow White, I thought “Grimm Tales” would be much the same as its forbears: an unsuccessfully commercial effort to recapture the fundamental tenets of the Grimm fairytales through a modern prism. I was veritably corrected on exploring Brighton artist Jake Spicer’s inversion of the traditional stories in more depth. [Read More]
Review of Fugitive Ink exhibition by John Park of Fringe Report, May 2011
Jake Spicer is an artistic tour de force. His focus is women, in paint and drawing, naked, in costume. They relax, sprawl, pose on beds, sofas and chairs. The interiors they inhabit and the costumes they wear are often - but not always - ornate, decayed, some with a feel of the past. [Read More]
Article about the theater of drawing by Bella Todd for The Guardian, Feb 2011
For Spicer, using theatre in the creation of visual art seems to be all about avoiding the stiltedness intimated in the term "still life". A fan of Punchdrunk's performance installation The Masque of the Red Death, he has set out to create immersive theatrical environments with loose narratives that will stimulate amateur and experienced artists alike. Last summer he went to the trouble of staging fully rehearsed, butt-naked sections of A Midsummer Night's Dream in an Alfriston glade purely so his artists could sketch what he calls "the dynamic tension between Oberon and Titania" as the characters fight over the changeling. [Read More]
Article about The Brighton Life Drawing Sessions by Nione Meakin for The Argus, Sept 2010
Forget the traditional notion of students staring earnestly at a goose-pimpled man in a state of undress: at the Brighton Life Drawing Sessions you’re more likely to be gazing on Lewis Carroll’s Alice, a Gorgon or a Shakespearean faerie queen. [Read More]
Article about the Curiouser and Curiouser drawing event by Nione Meakin for The Argus, April 2010
"I’m on a personal crusade to get everyone to draw,” artist Jake Spicer admits. As the brains behind the Brighton Life Drawing Sessions, Spicer has hosted classes in a museum of taxidermy, all-nighters with poses based on cards from the tarot deck and tomorrow, he launches a day of artistic pursuits based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Throwing aside the traditional life drawing set-up, seven models in an array of top hats and other costumes will be dotted about the studio in New England House, holding different poses inspired by Arthur Rackham’s Alice illustrations. [Read More]