Signature Illustration Blog

Working from his design studio “Sleeping House” in Sweden, Alexander Jansson creates mysteriously beautiful worlds where intricately drawn music vans fly through the air, cute characters play music and lively cities appear from the dark heavy mist. Although the artworks seem gloomy they evoke not feelings of darkness but rather feelings of life, light and music.

“Norman Rockwell was a 20th-century American illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell’s works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.” – Wiki

Based in New York Tomer Hanuka is an illustrator and a cartoonist. He works on a range of projects for magazines, book publishers, ad agencies and film studios. In 2008 he won the British Desgin Museum award as part of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. Currently he teaches at the School of Visual Arts and is working on a graphic novel with his twin brother Asaf.

On his blog he shows his illustration process from sketch to final artwork: www.tropicaltoxic.blogspot.com. Find below a selection of his work:

Every now and then there is an illustrator that blows you away and for me Sam Weber is one of those. We have posted Sam Weber before a long time ago – middle of last year. His new work is fantastic. I find them deeply physiological which make his illustrations absolutely captivating. Definatly worth adding to our Illustration Blog.

He has done a wide range of editorial as well as book illustrations. He was born in Alaska but has since moved to New York and lives there with his wife.

I hope you enjoy this selection:

This last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Norway – it was a short but sweet trip. We spent our time in the small town of Tofte in a comfortable wooden cabin. Our cabin was neatly placed right next to the Oslo Fijord with an awesome view over the water. Just on sunday I was running through a quite forest which was followed by a lengthily swim in the sea. I could have easily spent couple months there just relaxing and taking my time about my daily sustenance!

I had the time to look through some illustrations and stumbled upon Theodor Ketlesen (April 27, 1857 – January 21, 1914) who is one of the most famous artist in Norway. He was famous for his nature paintings but also for his illustrations of fairy tales, legends and trolls.

Below are some of Theodor Ketlesen illustrations:

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The author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson, gave birth to Gonzo journalism which is a type of ‘fictional’ journalism. It often includes the reporter in the story and is in the first person. By blending fiction and fact the journalist is able to engage the reader whiles expressing certain facts about a situation. Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic.

Hunter S. Thomas was good friends with a british artist called Ralph Steadman who provided visual representaiton for Gonzo journalism.  Ralph Steadman has won multiple awards and is renowned for his political illustrations, social caricatures, cartoons and also for illustrating a number of picture books.

Below is a collection of Ralph Steadman illustrations:

Hunter S. Thompson with Ralph Steadman Illustrations: A good collection of Hunter’s life

These illustrated prints excite me. Love the colours, love the texture, love the layering, love the depth and love the strange stories these prints tell. Icinori is a project by Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller, students from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg. Every singe aspect of these prints is hand made: hand printed, hand bound and hand cut- I love that – real beautifully crafted work.

“An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers” is a must have. There is nothing more precious then an artists journal or sketchbook. Journals are not just a planning and practice ground for art but are creative, honest and faithful, true and private expression of a persons experience of life. Danny Gregory has dived into countless sketchbooks and compiled a book with just over 260 pages of priceless sketchbook entries of artists, illustrators and designers. The author Danny Gregory introduces his book in the video below.

This post marks the beginning of a theme of posts on this illustration blog. I love to read novels. All sorts. I often look at the covers and am interested on how the artist has interpreted and expressed the book through the use of illustration, photography, typography and layout. I’ll start out with a poetic and famous book which is hailed to be one of the most widely read books of all time – Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 years of solitude.

“It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. It was an intricate stew of truths and mirages that convulsed the ghost of José Arcadio Buendía with impatience and made him wander all through the house even in broad daylight.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 years of solitude

“It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. It was an intricate stew of truths and mirages that convulsed the ghost of José Arcadio Buendía with impatience and made him wander all through the house even in broad daylight.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 years of solitude

“Carmelia Montiel, a twenty-year-old virgin, had just bathed in orange-blossom water and was strewing rosemary leaves on Pilar Ternera’s bed when the shot rang out. Aureliano José had been destined to find with her the happiness that Amaranta had denied him, to have seven children, and to die in her arms of old age, but the bullet that entered his back and shattered his chest had been directed by a wrong interpretation of the cards.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 years of solitude

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