isabel greenberg's encyclopedia of early earth

I've been unwell this week and my lovely husband bought me Isabel Greenberg's graphic novel The Encyclopedia of Early Earth as a distraction for me while I was housebound.
I first came across Greenberg's work several years ago in the form of a daily diary comic called That's Well Art School, which is filled with hilarious scenarios, awkward moments and sharp observation.
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, published last year, is a more polished work with a rich and quirky narrative, rendered in a wonderfully minimal colour palette. It's an absorbing tale of love, adventure, spirituality and storytelling itself. It is epic in scale and filled with myth and folklore. Oh, and I love the end papers.
I'll be honest - I haven't actually finished it yet, but it's just so good I wanted to share it with you now.

gangsters

My Gangsters A-Z is now available as an A3 print in my etsy shop 

sushi

A little while ago I was getting into animated gifs and I had this 'great' idea to set up another blog just showing gifs themed around food. Turns out that's quite a commitment and I only got as far as making one more before I had too much other stuff to do! Since the idea won't become a reality anytime soon I thought I'd share it with you!

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

tweet tweet

I'm on twitter now! Follow me for tasty morsels from the illustration, art and design world - @NaomiSloman

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