FROM the window of her ground floor colony flat, Alice Melvin has grown used to seeing the myriad inquisitive cats who regularly come calling.
As someone who works from home, the occasional visitor – even those of the feline variety – are sometimes a welcome distraction.
However, now the 26-year-old illustrator has decided to put her furry friends to good use and is appealing for cat own
ers from throughout Edinburgh to help her with her next project.
“What I want to do is to meet about 20 cats from all over the city to feature in my next book,” says Alice.
“I’ll find out about their quirky stories and their funny habits and then illustrate them within the part of Edinburgh where they live so it becomes like a tour around the city through the cats who live there.”
It is not the first time Alice has been inspired by the animal kingdom and next year will see her children’s counting book A Number of Birds released by Tate Publishing.
Her first children’s book, An A to Z Treasure Hunt – an illustrated interactive alphabet book – is already sold throughout the Tate’s gallery shops.
Alice’s break with the renowned art publisher came after she contacted the organisation’s publishing director because she wanted to get her hand printed version of An A to Z Treasure Hunt to a distributor.
Since then, she has also designed a bag and a T-shirt for the Tate shops, as well as a fun cut-out-and-make menagerie of cardboard animals.
“My work is designed and stylised and the things I enjoy drawing are domestic interiors and animals,” says Alice.
“I do a lot of black line drawings which are then filled in with flat colours. I’m also fond of repeat patterns like on wallpaper or on the feathers of birds.”
Books have always held a fascination for the artist, who lives in Leith with her partner Will Snow, 26, who works in the marketing department of the National Galleries of Scotland.
“I think I’ve always been a big book person and even for my degree show it was hand-printed books I created,” explains Alice, who graduated with a first-class honours from Edinburgh College of Art four years ago.
“I think that’s because a book is such a very nice object to hold, the reproduction of the illustrations is of high quality and there’s an awful lot of potential in how you lay the pages out.
“I am very fond of books and it’s nice making something that you know is important and is going to be enjoyed by children.”
Although her book of city dwelling cats is aimed at children, Alice, who has wanted to be an artist for as long as she can remember, also hopes that it will also appeal to tourists and locals.
She describes herself as a frustrated cat lover – unable to own a moggie of her own because her landlord won’t allow it.
“As soon as we get our own place, we’ll definitely get a cat,” she says.
“But there are so many around here, we really have plenty for company.” Once Alice has gathered nominations, with her camera and her sketch book in tow, she plans to immerse herself in her feline stars’ world.
“Once I’ve met the cats, the book will start to evolve and take shape from that,” she says. “The next stage will be to meet them and draw them and find out about them.
“I thought it would be really nice to use the real Edinburgh cats rather than fictionalising it all,” adds Alice.
“Real stories are often more entertaining than fiction and I thought this would be a nice way to involve local people as well as raise the project’s profile within the city.”
And she says it doesn’t matter if the kitties are Polwarth pedigrees, Tollcross tomcats or Morningside moggies, as long as they are not camera shy.
“It’s not like a cat beauty contest,” she laughs. “I’m looking for all kinds of cats and am really looking forward to the owners getting in touch and telling me all about them.”
• Alice Melvin is inviting cats of all shapes and sizes to take part in her study. If you would like to nominate your cat, send an e-mail to
. More information on Alice’s work can be found at
www.alicemelvin.com.
