Alice Tams is a travelling illustrator, largely, of birds wearing hats.
She has been drawing since she was dexterous enough to pick up a pencil crayon and is obsessed by colour, fine detail and the natural world. After graduating from Goldsmiths University in 2011 with a creative writing degree she decided to make a career out of animals wearing human clothing. Namely, different birds wearing different hats.
After a couple of years of turning up at Brick Lane market in East London every Sunday with her wares, she became a full time illustrator - running her small business and taking on commissions from her studio in Bermondsey.
Last year, after 8 years in London, she decided to pack up her studio and take it on the road. So far she's travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Borneo, Cambodia, Vietnam, driven the length and breadth of New Zealand and travelled up and down Taiwan, settling in Taipei for now, where she continues to find new, more exciting ways to put birds in hats.
Her latest passion project is to get birds on walls - big birds - on as large a wall as she can find. So if you live somewhere fun and have a wall… send an email!
All products - unless otherwise specified - are dispatched from the UK and are posted within 24 hours of ordering.
You can find her products online here - or in the Etsy shop - and physically at one of her stockists.
If you'd like to commission a personal or commercial project, have any questions or just want to say hi, please get in touch via the contact page.
See instagram feed for:
- Artwork in progress
- Birds in Hats fun stuff you can buy
- occasional travel photos
- occasional sock photos
- & more...
Here are some questions I get asked/emailed pretty regularly;
Where did you study art?
I didn't, I studied English Literature & Creative Writing at Goldsmiths. I did, however, spend most of my degree drawing.
What materials do you use?
All sorts of fine liners but my favourites are Zigs, Copics & Sakura Pigma Micron Pens. Try www.cultpens.com - it's the best. Coloured pencils; Faber Castell Polychromos are my favourite, or prismacolors. I use Bristol Board for my usual Birds in Hats illustration and a nice 300gsm+ cold pressed watercolour board for my ink illustrations, with thick chinese black ink and traditional chinese paintbrushes.
Can I get a tattoo of your work?
Sure, try not to change the image though and y'know... have a think about it (And send me a photo!) I do also design tattoos if you're interested in a personalised commission, send me an email.
What's your favourite bird?
This changes a lot, but Red Crowned Cranes, Little Egrets, Goldfinches and Blackbirds have all held the top spot for a while.
Why birds?
I like birds.
Can you draw birds without hats?
I cannot.
