They fly off gallery walls as fast as the real thing from supermarket shelves.
Nicola McBride’s Tunnocks-inspired drawings are shipped to fans all over the world including Japan. Her largest, featuring three teacakes is more than a metre wide and would set you back £2,750.
Created entirely with Bic biro pens, her incredibly detailed works have won the approval of the Uddingston-based sweet-maker.
The 46-year-old is now one of very few artists who will be able to trade as an official Tunnock’s merchandiser after signing an agreement with the firm last week.
She says she’s heavily influenced by pop artist Andy Warhol’s in “bringing everyday items into art” and recently had a commission for Mackays Marmalade.
She also created a pet portrait for Bob Geldof’s daughter Fifi.
However it’s her Tunnocks works that are the most popular and shipped to countries all over the world including Japan.
“They literally fly off the shelves in galleries,” says the Dundee-born artist who lives in Perth with her husband Tom and son Aidan, 12.
“I signed the agreement with Tunnocks last week - I’m delighted. They said they quite liked the individuality of the Biro pens.”
After graduating, the artist initially focussed on figurative art but after having a break to have a family she decided to try something different.
READ MORE: Artist brings the rain inside for show at Glasgow's Tramway
“I don’t have a big space at homes so pen is an ideal medium for me,"she says. "It’s something I can pick up and put down and I always loved drawing rather than painting.
“I started off drawing the dog and it just went from there."
A graduate of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, she works with eight colours and the biggest Tunnocks pieces can take up to a month to create.
Her smallest Tunnocks work measures 29 x 21cm and is priced £400.
“For the largest ones, I can get through 27 pens. You can’t work from an easel, you have to work flat,” she says. “It can be quite challenging.
“It’s quite an unforgiving medium, if there is a mistake, I’ve got to start again. It’s not like paint, where you could put on another layer but it’s quite therapeutic.”
When she is not studying the intricate folds of a Tunnocks wrapper she teaches art at Perth High School and says she uses Biro pens a lot with her pupils.
READ MORE: Caravan turned into giant Tunnocks caramel wafer
Most of her art is inspired by childhood memories including drawings she has created for a charity project with Kyle Falconer of Dundee-band The View.
They are based on visuals from his solo single Family Tree which feature drinks including Vimto and Famous Grouse whisky and will be sold to raise funds for Cash for Kids.
“Tunnocks was always something you got once a month and it just looked quite special with the red and silver wrappers.”
The Lanarkshire brand was founded by Thomas Tunnock in 1890, when he purchased a baker’s shop in Lorne Place, Uddingston.
Current owner Boyd joined the family confectionery business at 16.
Originally bought for just £80, the company grossed £64 million last year and produces more than six million caramel wafers and 3.5 million teacakes a week.
They are sold in more than 40 countries and is said to be extremely popular in the Middle East.
READ MORE: Illustrator creates set of dinosaurs made from Tunnocks wrappers
In the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Glasgow, the teacakes took centre stage as dancers dressed as teacakes danced around the main performers near the start of the show.
Sales of Tunnock’s tea cakes were 62% higher at Waitrose the day after the ceremony.
Boyd Tunnock lives in Uddingston with Anne, his wife of 63 years and is still in the factory most days at the age of 88.
Nicola McBride's original drawings are available for sale at the Whitehouse Gallery in Kirkcudbright and she has solo shows coming up next year at the Eduardo Alessandro Studios in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, the Torrance Gallery in Edinburgh and the Fotheringham Gallery in Stirling.
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