sign up/login
The Big Draw
  • Festival Festival
    • About The Big Draw Festival
    • All events
    • Awards
    • Care UK & The Big Draw Festival 2021
    • Derwent & The Big Draw Festival 2022
    • Organisers Area
    • Sponsor Partners 2022
    • The Big Draw Festival 2022: Come Back To Colour
    • What the Organisers Say
  • Blog Blog
    • Support Support
      • Shop Shop
        • Gallery Gallery
          • Our Work Our Work
            • 2021 Digital Residencies
            • About Us
            • Concepts & The Big Draw
            • Concepts Drawing Challenge
            • Contact
            • Drawing in Schools
            • FAQ's
            • Opportunities
            • Press
            • Russell Walker & The Big Draw
            • The Big Draw Ambassadors
            • The Big Draw Patrons
            • The Ruskin Prize


          Membership area

          Drawing Changes Lives

          The Big Draw
          • Festival Festival
            • About The Big Draw Festival
            • All events
            • Awards
            • Care UK & The Big Draw Festival 2021
            • Derwent & The Big Draw Festival 2022
            • Organisers Area
            • Sponsor Partners 2022
            • The Big Draw Festival 2022: Come Back To Colour
            • What the Organisers Say
          • Blog Blog
            • Support Support
              • Shop Shop
                • Gallery Gallery
                  • Our Work Our Work
                    • 2021 Digital Residencies
                    • About Us
                    • Concepts & The Big Draw
                    • Concepts Drawing Challenge
                    • Contact
                    • Drawing in Schools
                    • FAQ's
                    • Opportunities
                    • Press
                    • Russell Walker & The Big Draw
                    • The Big Draw Ambassadors
                    • The Big Draw Patrons
                    • The Ruskin Prize

                  Membership area

                  The World's Biggest Drawing Festival


                  Interview with Kethi Copeland

                  Kethi Copeland is a visual artist specialising in creating screen-printed artwork for the home alongside colourful, quirky stationery to make people smile. You may recognise much of her work from The Big Draw Shop! We caught up with Kethi to find out more about her practice, and to get some advice on working in the creative field...

                  Hi Kethi! Could you start by telling us a little bit about your practice?

                  I am a visual artist, I specialise in creating screen-printed artwork for the home alongside colourful, quirky stationery which aims to make people smile. 

                  I love colour and humour, and highlighting the extraordinary in the everyday, these characteristics run through the artwork I create. I use several different processes to create my designs ranging from drawing to paper-cutting, photography and screen-printing. Fun and silliness are essential parts of my design practice.

                  You have such a distinctive style - how has this changed and evolved over time?


                  The product that started it all for me was a Christmas card.  I made a Christmas tree costume, which I wore around town, and used photographs of this adventure to create a 3 colour screen screen-printed design.  I really liked the way people reacted to my costumed character, making people laugh and engage with me - and each other!  My work has evolved and changed since this first design, using different processes and subjects but the spark of this interaction with the viewer carries on through all the designs.

                  Where do you work? Does your working environment affect your work?

                  I have a studio in Deptford at Cockpit Arts. Place really does influence my work, my current work is focused on drawing London and offering new perspectives on familiar surroundings. I have been inspired to create artwork of our local High Street, the nearby Greenwich riverside and the houseboats on the hidden Creek which runs behind my studio.  Part of what I do feels like taking a snapshot of an ever changing city.

                  We have all experienced those frustrating moments when we fall short of ideas and inspiration… How do you deal with ‘creative block’?

                  I more often am trying to catch up with my ideas, as there are too many to act on.  

                  I am frequently inspired by music, such as the Dolly Parton song that inspired my range of  sketchbooks "I Will Always Love.." for people to declare their love for drawing, reading or list-making. The city is another massive inspiration, so there is always so much of both to explore to counter ‘creative block’. 

                  Drawing is one of the key tools I use to generate new ideas or gain a fresh perspective on a problem, creative or otherwise. I take myself off on a walk and sit and draw something or somewhere that interests me. I find it quite calming to sit and draw and the slowness of it gives me understanding of the subject. 


                  It's great that drawing helps you to slow down and gain fresh new perspectives - we often encourage drawing for this exact reason! Does drawing play a big role in your day-to-day life and work?


                  I love drawing but there are periods of time when I do loads of it, and then other times when I am printing and I do hardly any.

                  I find it really exciting that you can make a mark on the page and something new will appear, even when I get really out of practice. The process of building up the skill again is really fun and you can see it happening before your eyes.

                  What would your advice be to young people considering embarking upon a creative career?

                  Working in a creative career is really fun and varied, both challenging and satisfying, I would advise people to try it. Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know about the business side, you can learn and there is lots of help; just like with creative skills, There are things that start out really challenging and difficult that are now familiar tasks and skills.

                  Thank you Kethi!

                  Interview: Matilda Barratt in conversation with Kethi Copeland.

                  facebook twitter instagram pinterest YouTube
                  Find an event

                  search Advanced search »

                  Receive Big Draw News

                  Subscribe to our mailing list

                  Add me to the list
                  Side view of The Red House, Aldeburgh
                  Side view of The Red House, Aldeburgh
                  Britten-Pears Foundation
                  Hybrid Creatures@Gary Allan High School
                  Hybrid Creatures@Gary Allan High School
                  FreshOrange Studio
                  Paul Weller
                  Paul Weller
                  Danielle Vaughan Art
                  Boyden Gallery, SMCM
                  Boyden Gallery, SMCM
                  Boyden Gallery, St. Mary's College of Maryland
                  drawing workshops at TAAG this weekend
                  drawing workshops at TAAG this weekend
                  Teignmouth arts action group
                  glow stick drawing
                  glow stick drawing
                  Whitley Bay Big Draw
                  There was a lot of beach to draw on.
                  There was a lot of beach to draw on.
                  Saltburn Community and Arts Association
                  Big Draw 2019
                  Big Draw 2019
                  Midlands Arts Centre
                  Local Primary school children working with Hodgson students
                  Local Primary school children working with Hodgson students
                  Hodgson Academy
                  Haring figures
                  Haring figures
                  North London Collegiate School Dubai
                  So much texture to use!!!! Painting big trees with little trees at Shrewsbury Schoo
                  So much texture to use!!!! Painting big trees with little trees at Shrewsbury Schoo
                  Shrewsbury School
                  Illustrate & Print
                  Illustrate & Print
                  The Mercury Shopping Centre
                  Wild is The Wind
                  Wild is The Wind
                  Danielle Vaughan Art
                  STEAM Powered Big Draw in Berwick
                  STEAM Powered Big Draw in Berwick
                  Berwick Visual Arts
                  last year
                  last year's first prize winner
                  Pintar Rapido
                  'Out of the Maze'
                  Bethlem Museum of the Mind
                  LoveThyNeighbor
                  LoveThyNeighbor
                  Sunnyvale Art Club
                  Bangladeshi, Iranian, Syrian, Kurdish, Somali, African refugees together with Polish, Italian immigrants and huge support from local families. Such a beautiful and humanitarian day that the poet Eric Ngalle Charles wrote a poem about it:  As we waite
                  Bangladeshi, Iranian, Syrian, Kurdish, Somali, African refugees together with Polish, Italian immigrants and huge support from local families. Such a beautiful and humanitarian day that the poet Eric Ngalle Charles wrote a poem about it: As we waite
                  Beyond Borders
                  Year 1 artwork by Minnie
                  Year 1 artwork by Minnie
                  St Leonards CE Primary School
                  Salvatore Rubbino at Park Primary year 2
                  Salvatore Rubbino at Park Primary year 2
                  Park Primary School Newham
                  Gallery View The
                  Big Draw

                  @ The Big Draw

                  Tweets by @The_Big_Draw
                  • About us
                  • Terms and Conditions
                  • Organise an event
                  • Press
                  • Privacy policy
                  • Contact
                  The Guild of St George Urban Space Management East London Chamber Alan Davidson Foundation Foster and Partners Trinity Bouy Wharf Trust Trinity Bouy Wharf Here for Culture Concepts Derwent Lottery funded