illustration friday: summer

the best of see america

My poster design for Creative Action Network's See America project was chosen for their new range of t-shirts. I was chuffed to be picked from over 600 designs. There are some great images available as prints, mugs, bags and t-shirts. I looked through them all and picked my favourites:

From top to bottom: Montana by Victoria Fernandez / Montezuma Castle National Monument by Mr Furious / Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park by - Joel Kneuven / Muir Woods National Monument by Shayna Roosevelt / Mount Rainier National Park by Vanessa Rosales

brighton grad show 2014

It’s graduate show season. Again! Where does the time go? I usually get around to a few, but this year a busy few weeks is dashing any chance of getting the London shows this time round. At least the Brighton show was easy for me to pop into on my way home from work this week.

My absolute favourite, by a long margin, was Angela Hadrill. Her bold watercolours were the most eye-catching works in the room, even more so thanks to her stunning 3d piece – a multi-faceted, hanging object featuring views of seaside cottages, winding streets and sea creatures, with a lighthouse perched on top. I also loved Vivarium, a vivid and luscious concertina book featuring an Adam and Eve-esque couple living in man-made jungle surroundings, much like one of the glass houses at Kew Gardens. Stunning work.

I really enjoyed Tomas Rooney’s work as well. His pencil and ink drawings had a great sense of narrative and the characters and settings were instilled with mystery. I could see it working well as an awesome graphic novel or animation.

Here are the pics...

Angela Hadrill

Tomas Rooney

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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!