Party Animals: a closer look with artist Nicholas Hughes

From a martini-sipping sheep to turkeys in black tie and wild rabbits throwing snowballs, our Party Animals range of linens, crockery and gifts for Christmas 2023 feature a charming family of mischievous farm creatures.

Read on to discover the stories behind the illustrations in this Q&A with artist Nicholas Hughes.

How did you find inspiration for the “party animals” characters? 

The idea was that the animals would be having a Christmas party in the Cotswolds farmshop after everyone else had left. I imagined the party would be utter chaos! Calm would come only after all the animals were exhausted from over-eating. 

The Daylesford design team helped choose animals from the Cotswolds farm, and we decided to include some of founder Carole Bamford’s beloved shih tzu dogs too. 

It was my dream brief: animals having fun is what I love drawing, and it was exciting to reconnect with the spontaneous joy that ink drawing offers.

Could you tell us more about your artistic process and how you set about creating the illustrations for this range?

It all starts with a blank page… the project began in January/February 2023 when I set about filling a sketchbook with quick pencil drawings to work out what the party animals wanted to be. It’s all about a feeling: “this animal feels like this”. 

After sketching, I choose a drawing that seems to work well and pick it out in watered-down ink – I love the splatters and scratching, I think that’s an important part of the process. I will draw something 20-30 times until the right one arrives. Sometimes I use a light box with lovely thick paper. 

There are so many fun details to spot in each illustration. Did you have any particular traits in mind for each animal when you were illustrating them?  

Drawings only work if you follow that gut feeling or instinct and don’t worry about being factually accurate, for example turkeys don’t really have long arms but I loved the idea of the turkeys going to a Christmas ball in black tie. The lady turkey is wearing a 1920s hat made of feathers and it was fun to put something feathery on their heads.

Could you tell us more about the personalities in the party animals range?

All the drawings are much friendlier than I normally do. We’ve got a big, gentle, heavy, docile cow, sitting down and offering a present – nice and calm. Similarly, I didn’t want the fox to be sly like foxes often are in stories, so I made her warm and welcoming, leaning down after baking mince pies and offering tea. With the rabbits, I thought of naughty, playful bunnies. The pompom tails reminded me of snowballs and I wanted them leaping, throwing and being silly. 

My own character is probably in all of the illustrations – perhaps especially in some which didn’t make the final design such as a sheep driving a sports car. 

Which did you have the most fun designing? Which was the most challenging?

The pig character came quickly, I loved the idea of a big fat pig teetering on a teeny thing and I had lots of fun visually, drawing flicks in the ears, nose and ribbons. 

The sheep character was by far the hardest because a fluffy, fleecy lump is not interesting to look at. I experimented with different poses and objects and ended up with a standing sheep holding a martini glass.

Is anthropomorphism (the attribution of human traits to animals, often seen in traditional fairy tales and fables) something you have done before? 

Animals and humans all have characters, we’re the same in that sense. 

I knew the party animals characters had to be clothed, I always put clothes on things and it’s often useful to include clothing such as scarves as it can help to suggest movement and exaggerates things.  

I try to make my own story but we can never escape the influence of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. It’s important to avoid being too twee, soft or fluffy. 

Do your designs evolve once they have been drawn up? 

Ink drawing only works if spontaneous and quick. The gestures and expressions come out in the moment, and the characters evolve in the process.

The range spans linen, tableware, accessories and food & drink. Does knowing where the illustrations will end up affect your artistic process? 

From the outset we considered the different ways the illustrations would be used: on boxes, plates, food packets and so on. It’s like a family, a collection of things that creates a body of work. I wanted to provide the design team with lots of options so I made sure to illustrate animals from many different viewpoints: side view, straight on, sitting, standing, running. 

Why did you decide to work with Daylesford on this project? 

I think animal welfare, the farming industry and connection to the landscape are very important topics. I am a meat eater who dislikes intensively reared meat and prefer to support small, local farms instead. Daylesford aligns with my values. 

We hope the Party Animals range will make a joyful addition to your Christmas celebrations this year. Discover more of Nicholas Hughes's work at diddletron.com