the weird and wonderful illustrations of Inca Pan

I chanced upon Taiwanese illustrator Inca Pan while trying to find work by someone else and I'm glad I found him. His surreal work is eye-catching and colourful and it was hard to pick just a few examples to show here. There's a strong sense of narrative in his illustrations, almost as if each image captures a moment in a story. He doesn't seem to have a website as such, so the best way to see more of his work is on flickr or facebook.

jack hudson's little people

One illustrator I really wanted to feature in my Pick Me Up post was Jack Hudson, whose colourful illustrations from his 'If I were Small' project were some of my favourites from the show. At the time I couldn't find the images anywhere online and I was annoyed with myself for not taking photos while I was at Somerset House. Happily, he's now updated his blog with them - the cactus and jelly are my favourites:

house of illustration/ folio society book illustration competition

I only just got around to looking at the longlist for the annual book illustration competition run by the House of Illustration and The Folio Society. This year's book is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I've entered the last three competitions, but took a break from the challenge this year as I thought my style was ill-suited to the book. However, I enjoyed looking at the really diverse mix of artists that made it to the longlist and these are my favourite images:

Enzo Peres-Labourdette

Katerina Chadoulou

Gareth Courage

asparagus season

Oh man, I love asparagus and never more than when British asparagus is in season. As a salute to this magnificent vegetable here's a new little animation I cobbled together this morning. It's a visual recipe, albeit a very simple one, and darn tasty!

pick me up 2014

I went to Pick Me Up, the annual graphic arts festival, at Somerset House last Saturday. It was a mistake to go on a weekend as it was so very busy, but it's a sure sign that illustration is maintaining it's popularity and credibility as an art form. I spotted some familiar illustrators there as well as some that were new to me. I bought a delightful black and white print by Eleni Kalorkoti to add to my kitchen 'art gallery' wall. I also enjoyed works by Isabel Greenberg, Nick Alston, Thomas Dathony and Claire Scully. Here they all are:

'Good Witch in her Garden' by Eleni Kalorkoti

'The Great Dag' by Isabel Greenberg

'N' by Thomas Danthony

'Escape' by Nick Alston

'Valley of Cape' by Claire Scully

nancy liang

I came across these illustrations by Nancy Liang on Illustration Friday. The look and feel of the illustrations remind me of one of my favourite illustrated books: Un lion a Paris by Beatrice Alemagna (100% worth checking out if you aren't familiar with it already!). The images have a real sense of depth while at the same time having a flat, stage set-like quality. The loosely drawn pencil work and the cut out shapes give the works a real sense of freedom and I love the use of textured papers. Sadly there's not much more of her work to be found online but I really hope we see more like this from her soon!

johan thornqvist

Johan Thornqvist draws on photographs. I think it's a really difficult thing to get right, but it's clear that he's sensitive to the contexts and the colours. The results work incredibly well and I love the exciting new worlds that he creates from very ordinary photos.

federico babina's archist city

Architecture is at the heart of Federico Babina's work. The Fox is Black recently wrote about his series of posters celebrating architecture in film (Archicine), which are pretty fantastic and made me visit his website. I was even more taken with his Archist series, which reimagines the work of major modern artists including Lichtenstein, Picasso, Mondrian and Damien Hirst, in architectural form. It's a witty and incredibly satisfying collection and I do hope he goes ahead with his intention to publish it in book form. There are too many fab buildings to post them all. Visit his website to see the full series.

my first animated gif

I'm on annual leave from my day job this week, leaving me lots of free time to mess around with ideas that I've had floating around in my head. Here's one of them...

rob hodgson

I bought my dad gig tickets for his birthday and a book about Brixton Academy and wrapped it all up, super-appropriately, in Rob Hodgson's awesome Musicians wrapping paper. Check it out below - how cool?!! Anyway, I viewed more of his work online and I was rather taken with his collection of his wooden characters. They are simply made, with minimal detail, but they are full of personality and joy...