Chelsea Conlin

Find Chelsea at:

• http://paper-nautilus.com
• http://twitter.com/cacodaemonia

Rachael Rossman

Find Rachael at:

• http://rachaelrossman.com
• http://twitter.com/rachaelrossman

Kristin Bowen

Find Kristin at:

• http://doghousepetportraits.com
• http://www.twitter.com/doghousepetart

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For the Love of Dog: Pet Portrait Artists!

Entitled “The 3G Show,” the event boasts an impressive roster of over a dozen talented and diverse artist, each paying homage to a trifecta of pop culture cinema: Gremlins, Ghostbusters and The Goonies. Set to open next Friday, September 3rd from 7-10pm at Los Angeles-based Gallery 1988, the show will run until September 22nd 2010. Gallery 1988 has also announced that they will be featuring “an exact working replica of Ecto-1 (sweet!) and an original Ghostbuster” in addition to some of Mattel’s latest Ghostbusters action figures at the opening reception. Check out a sample of some of my favorites pieces from the show below.

Artwork © Alberto Cerriteño

Artwork © Germán Orozco

Artwork © Mark A. Fionda Jr.

Artwork © Jude Buffum

For more information on the show and its contributors, including more awesome art, check out The Autumn Society.

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Gremlins, Ghostbusters and Goonies… Oh My!

Hellboy II - Death

“[The notebook] contains visual ideas, character notes and plot details,” says del Toro in an interview with The Guardian,* “sketching a film can sometimes be more fun than actually making one.” With these same sketches, del Toro is able to establish the mood, style and presence of whatever world he’s currently creating and the characters that reside within. As it happens, many of these creatures are rather horrific in nature whether it be internally or externally, a trait that del Toro seems to be endlessly fascinated by as he told the New York Times in 2008**, “There’s nothing I enjoy more than creating fables about monsters, human or otherwise.”

Pan's Labyrinth - Pan

Having turned this obsession with monsters into a successful career I find his work to be both an inspiration as well as an impressive feat considering that he’s had no formal training. He did, however, spend eight years tutelage of SFX legend Dick Smith which might explain his attention to costume and character design. Among his many influences del Toro has credited Arthur Rackham, Francisco Goya, and William Stout as specific inspirations during his time on Pan’s Labyrinth and for those interested in hearing more about his sketches for Hellboy II I suggest checking out these soundbytes courtesy of The New York Times.

Hellboy II - Wink

*Pan’s people, The Guardian, November 2006
**Elves and Killer Beanstalks From Director’s Personal ‘Hell’, The New York Times, July 2008

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Sleep of Reason: The Fantasical Sketches of Guillermo del Toro

Ukiyo-e: The Floating World

One of these is Ukiyo-e, which, roughly translated, means “pictures of the floating world.” It was an art form in Japan in which artists printed amazingly detailed pictures on blocks of wood. The subjects of the paintings ranged from city life to mountain landscapes to ocean scenes. They were meant to show the beauty of the world around us. This technique was developed in the 17th century and became popular with townspeople who were not rich enough to own original paintings. Woodprints were easy and fast to make, taking one painting and making hundreds of prints. Because of this, they were mass-produced, so much so that soon there were far too many of them and their popularity waned. They were considered so worthless, in fact, that the Japanese began to use them as packing materials on ships. It wasn’t long before prints found their way outside the country and the rest of the world became aware of their existence.

European artists were in awe of the paintings. Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet were greatly inspired by the artwork, and the influence of the Ukiyo-e art form was given a name: Japonisme. Though the rest of the world had embraced it, traditional Ukiyo-e died out in the early 1900s, and despite attempts to resurrect it, it has never hit the popularity it had once enjoyed.

I own several different paper prints of traditional Ukiyo-e images, but have never had the opporunity to see an actual woodprint of one. Are there any art forms that you admire but are no longer around? I’d love to hear about them! Feel free to share. For now, enjoy some of my favorite Ukiyo-e prints. For more information about Ukiyo-e, please visit The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum and the very informative Ukiyo-e wiki page.

Clicking on any image will bring you to the Wiki page for the artist. Enjoy!

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Ukiyo-e: The Floating World

Jenny Clements

Git Git

Jennifer Miller

Ado Ceric

Chelsea Conlin

Laura Pelick

Camille Ching-Yun Kuo

Anry Nemo

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

BreeAnn Veenstra

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A Celebration of Spring!

• coveredblog.blogspot.com / Robert Goodin

Calvin and Hobbes by Chris Hoobler

The New Mutants by Ptricio Oliver

The Amazing Spiderman by Dan Lehane

The Spider-Woman by Paul Sizer

Star Trek by Alex Fine

Tank Girl by Nic Cowan

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Covered Blog: Comics Revised!

Michael Jackson

(credit: Edel Rodriguez)

If 2009 was rough on illustrators, it was really rough on celebrities, every week it seemed there was a report that a movie star, socialite or politician had passed away, the most iconic of them being the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. News outlets couldn’t get enough of the story, and illustrators didn’t disappoint, all the while Thriller playing loudly in the background.
- MJ collection from drawger.

Cliched Themes

While starting a new illustration project is usually exciting, inevitably you get the call or email, read the article, and now have to figure out for the umpteenth time how not to draw windmills, euros or a medical bag. Yes, we’re talking about the assignment featuring the global financial crisis, the healthcare debate, or environmental jobs. All important topics of discussion….but please, don’t make us draw anymore dollar signs!

Death of Print

Unfortunately, this year we saw the shuttering of more magazines and newspapers. While calling it the death of print is a bit overstated, it’s sad to see them go for a number reasons, not least of which that these are an illustrator’s bread and butter. We wish magazines and newspapers better health in 2010.

Where The Wild Things Are

(credit: wikipedia )

Okay, okay, technically, this book is not from 2009, but it’s reemergence is. With the excitement that came from the release of the movie by Spike Jonze, Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book re-won it’s way into our heart, with drawings and story that are still as magical as ever.

U2 – I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight

Here’s a brief musical interlude featuring our favorite illustrated/animated video of the year. Full disclosure, we don’t even like the song, which speaks to how good it looks.

The Twitters

Like everyone else, we love our social networking, particularly twitter. Whether showcasing a new piece, complaining about a deadline, or mostly (and preferably) simple irreverence, we illustrators love us some twitter. Here are some of our favorite chatty illustrators (aka, twitterstrators) from 2009: @jenniferdaniel, @TheHeadsofState, @dirtbagg, @uberkraaft.

Radiolab

(credit: Jez Burrows)

Working in the vacuum of freelance illustration, we all need something to listen to. While music is constantly in rotation, if you ask illustrators about podcasts, someone will always pop up and ask, ‘ooh, do you listen to Radiolab!?’ Heck, they even had a series of posters made for them.

Portfolios

Trends for online portfolios come and go, and this year we have seen the rise of two services allowing illustrators to post their work online with a familiar look. Some of us love the tech, some of us hate it, but there sure are a lot of us using indexhibit and cargo.

New Yorker Cover

(credit: Jorge Colombo)

One of the more entertaining discussions in the illustration world this year was over the New Yorker covers by Jorge Colombo using only his iphone, his finger, and the brushes app. Are they inspired drawings from real life? Technical masterpieces? IPhone overload? Was the New Yorker giving all its reader the finger? The debate was most entertaining.

Happy New Year everyone.

WANT MORE?

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Best of 2009 in the Illustration Industry

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Happy Turkey

• Library of Congress on Flickr, Illustrated Newspaper Supplements
• Library of Congress Website

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Library of Congress: “My Sweet Doggie”

In America, hippies dreamed of a world full of love peace, and sharing. The Beatles were heard everywhere. Dylan began. Students were the driving force, effecting politics through peaceful demonstrations and colorful decorations.

The illustration scene was highlighted by much improved color printing. Drawing was freed from the constraints of realistic representation, and fantastic imagery flourished. Photography enriched texts, Illustrations combining graphic art and collage became a standard.

The counter culture of the 1960’s produced various independently published and distributed underground papers.

But the revolution that did happen in the 60’s wasn’t as a result of protests or manifests, but due to a technological development. The invention of the birth control pill led to a feminist assault on the old order. The Pill was first available only for married ladies who had enough children, but very quickly spread and became popular also amongst single women –who just wanted it have fun, without worrying about traditional pregnancy burden that was until the sixties forever placed on their backs.

Finally, they got a chance to fearlessly enjoy sexual experiences. The 1960s heralded a new culture of “free love” with millions of young people embracing the hippie ethos and preaching the power of love and the beauty of sex as a natural part of ordinary life.

Advertisement became more sophisticated, sometimes even taking an artistic approach. Ads in the late sixties were brightly colored, wavy and mystical, as seen earlier on the hippies’ painted Volkswagen. Posters portrayed a flowery gentle counterculture.

60’s illustrated books for children were at times as crazy as the decade itself. New York born Maurice Sendak published “Where the Wild Things Are” (1963), a story made of ten sentences only, displaying a surreal and menacing world of make-believe creatures.

The 1960’s offered a new kind of picture book, in which the illustrations dominate the text. Brian Wildsmith – a legendary author-illustrator from Yorkshire, England – made expressive use of intense, shiny colors for many works.

American Eric Carle introduced a new style of illustrations. His 1967 classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” included bright, bold collages – made from painted tissue – and has since been a preschool favorite.

The world seemed to have shrunk in the 1960s. For the first time, transcontinental and even intercontinental travel became easy and efficient. Advances in transportation and in communication, the two pillars of commerce, started turning the world into a global village.

By the ended of the eventful decade much of the optimism had gone out, especially in the US. The endless Vietnam War – along with a growing Cold War and a volatile economy plagued by inflation and tax increases – changed the atmosphere. A new and more rational age was coming to stage.

Sources:

• cwluherstory.com
• xroads.virginia.edu
• community.livejournal.com/vintage_ads/940963.html
• grainedit.com
• thepeoplehistory.com
• www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/culture
• enotes.com
• infoplease.com
• wikipedia.org
• vi.sualize.us
• redtreetimes.wordpress.com

Image Credits:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/joan_thewlis/3816569911/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkponk/517262247/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftydogma
• http://mbeans.com/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/judibird
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/wardomatic/212631859/
• http://www.thevine.com.au
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/27688135@N08/3771257238/
• http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/
• http://www.posterclassics.com/Vintage-Exposition-posters.html
• http://www.bobtheil.com/psychotron/blacklight.htm
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/23023719@N04/2767310142/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/28628523@N08/2667056262/
• http://www.analucia.net/imsblog/Eric-Carle/
• http://www.scoresbyps.vic.edu.au/Content/Curriculum/Specialists/Library/library.htm
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/31493432@N08/2981532374/in/set-72157608301316031/

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1960’s Illustration: Freedom, Peace and Flower Power

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Drawing with Milton Glaser

• www.terribleyelloweyes.com

Joe Pitt:

Allie Biondi:

Jacob Souva:

Nate Wragg:

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Where the Wild Thing Are: Terrible Yellow Eyes

While the drawings are simple, the interaction between these flowers, the roadway, the city, the people and cars is spectacular. Makes us want to draws nuns and flowers today.

(via www.streetsblog.org)

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Felipe Morozini’s Asphalt Garden

Welcome to the wonderful world of the 1950’s illustration. It is filled with illusion, abundance, naiveness and optimism. In no other time in history has illustration been so incorporated into the society – representing and defining it’s ways and norms – as it was in the 1950’s.

Illustrations were everywhere; on books, and magazines, and billboards. They covered food and beverage packing, they were even on Television. The 1950’s were a Golden Era of Illustration.

The 50’s in the United States were a time of constant expanding of advertising and media tools, and illustration became a common and popular method of transferring ideas. But the 50’s illustrations are about more than just selling brands. They offer a story. They reveal the decade’s political, economical and social events.

Life in the 1950’s was simple and comfortable. And for those who rode on top of the the wave of the rising middle class – even luxurious.

Following the end of WWII western economies bloomed, and consumerism began to spread. During the 50’s the average salary in the USA went up by 50%, a middle class arouse, credit card was introduced, babies were booming all around, a good future was there for everyone.

Men were supporting their families working long hours in office job. Finally, they could afford to own a car.

Housewives were still nice and polite smiling happily while following the on box recipes from the newly introduced out of the box products, cleaning their new all electric house and trying to stay fit and with the latest fashion.

In a decade marked by economical growth, there were many new brands and products that came to life.

Big Depression was over, WWII ended, and people were living a new kind of life, which meant treating your self good.

Increased leasure time lead to fast food restaurants and outdoor cinemas spreading everywhere.

Everyone seemed to live a dream come true – happy and content.

To this ideal world there was just one threat. An invisible yet deeply threatening Cold war was over everyone’s heads. Still, all worked hard to maintain the illusion of a dream come true reality.

For having more than their basic needs taken care off – people started searching for more, looking up in the skies. Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launched Space Age.

Following the evolving of mass media – popular culture was created.

It was all about radio, jukebox, drive in movies and TV.

1956 belonged entirely to “The King”. Mass media helped Elvis become the first pop culture product to become a global icon.

The motion picture industry took over showbiz. By 1958, there were more than 5,000 drive-in’s in the U.S. More than 10.5 million US homes had a TV set.

Young people wanted new and exciting symbols of rebellion and Hollywood responded. Anti-hero’s like Marlon Brando took on the role, and sexy non conformist anti-heroines like Marilyn Monroe added excitement.

Illustrators were a necessary assets in the advertising industry, in the Movies-TV industry, and even around the news desks in the leading newspaper.

Extremely fruitful was the field of children’s illustration, characterised by flat characters, use of bright colors, expanded color palettes and basically no 3 dimensional space.

Theodor Seuss Geisel – better known under the pen name Dr. Seuss – might be considered the most famous illustrators of his time. After drawing political cartoons during WWII, Geisel returned to children’s books. In 1955 he published his most known book – The Cat in the Hat – based on simplified vocabulary accompanied by distinct drawing style, verse rhythms and incredible imaginative power.

Mary Blair began working for Disney in 1934. Rather than faithfully reproducing the old illustrators Mary used a new approach – flat color, complementary contrast and various color shades creating her own, widely recognisable world. Her illustrations are poetry and we still read them with ease and excitement as they in the 50’s did.

At the beginning of his career Art Seiden did corporate and advertising work for some of the largest companies in America. However, his unique style expressed mainly through use of transparent watercolours and gouache showed to be the biggest match on children’s book illustration. Seiden illustrated over 300 books.

It would be impossible to conclude the 50’s without the famous Pin Up girls. According to Great American Pin Up Gallery ‘Every business, restaurant, theatre, club and locker room was decorated with these beauties.’ They offer a new fresh view on sexual freedoms that were evolving at the time.

We just love Fifties illustration. It brings us into some other time, a time where it all started – consumerism, fast food, liberate sex. A naive world created by innovative people who believed in a better future.

Sources:

• todaysinspiration.blogspot.com
• animationarchive.org
• loti.com
• fiftiesweb.com
• flicker.com – Big thanks to all the people who uploaded this wonderful material!
• thepeoplehistory.com
• chickenhead.com
• plan59.com
• ffffound.com
• greatamericanpinup.com
• wikipedia.org

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1950’s Illustration: When Mass Media Met Pop Culture

The ability to evoke a narrative with great draftsmanship and a 
’lively’ line is something most artists strive for – we’ll look 
at five illustrators that have it in abundance.

Gustav Klimt, Franklin Booth, Chris Van Allsburg, Bill Sienkiewicz and 
James Jean – all have been recognized as gifted artists with 
countless awards bestowed upon them. While they all have distinctive 
styles they share many qualities as artists. A strong narrative 
displayed throughout books or graphic novels is one commonality 
between these stellar artists. Another would be the strong sense of 
anatomy necessary when the work is reliant on the human figure. A 
sense of drama and mastery of composition and brilliant handling of 
color (even with the black and white work of Booth!) are evident in 
all of these artists.

Chris Van Allsburg

Chris Van Allsburg is another talented artist with an indentifiable 
style of linework. His books (Van Allsburg is also an author) have 
been entertaining children for decades and a couple have even been 
adapted into motion pictures (Jumanji and Polar Express). While many 
of the books are children’s books Van Allsburg has shown that 
exploring the darker corners of the human psyche is rich fodder for 
his work. There is an incredible stillness, a perfect snapshot of 
frozen reality that gives his work a unique signature. Unique vantage 
points and clever perspective along with deft-linework permeate every 
Van Allsburg piece.

• Chris Van Allsburg

Bill Sienkiewicz

Bill Sienkiewicz is known for his comic-art as well as his work in 
music industry (and characteristic style that, at times, has some 
echoes of Klimt). Slashes of color over sure-handed linework, a sense 
that everything in each piece has been filtered through the artist’s 
mind comes across as well…an internal consistency that all the artists 
here have, in their own, indelible style. Combining mixed media and 
collage continues to push the expressionistic qualities of his 
work as his career progresses.

• Bill Sienkiewicz

James Jean

The envy of many creatives, James Jean is as one of the hottest 
artists at the moment. Another artist/illustrator who has risen to 
prominence from graphic novels/comics—initially from covers 
illustrated for DC Comics. Truly an artist of our time, masterfully 
bridging the traditional and digital realms, he has a moved from 
illustration to more of a fine art pursuit. His blog has a huge 
following and has to managed to transcend the stigma sometimes 
associated with ‘comic books’. As awards from the Society of 
Illustrator’s and a diverse client base counting the New York Times, 
Rolling Stone and Prada among them. Sharing his proces has become a 
part of his connection with the audience (one of his many web sites – 
Project Recess is an online destination that is ‘a book blog and a 
store designed by James Jean’.) Smooth brush work and and amazing use 
of color permeate Jean’s work. Influences from classical Chinese and 
Japanese aesthetics combine with both a humor and irony and that mark 
any piece by James Jean.

• James Jean / precess recess

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5 Great Draftsmen: Chris Van Allsburg / Bill Sienkiewicz / James Jean