Signature Illustration Blog

The exhibition brings together books, figurative paintings, comic books and narrative series by 19 students graduating from the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department.

I recommend anyone who is either an artist or is an art lover to make a trip to the exhibition as I’m sure it will be very inspiring . It starts at the end of the month, April 30, and will run till May 15. For more details click here. I truly wish I could attend but unfortunately I wont be able to make it to New York.

If you have not already heard of SVA then you should know that it is arguable one of the worlds most prolific schools when it comes to the visual arts. To mention a few of the well know illustrators who attended the school: James Jean, Sam Weber and Yuko Shimizu. The other faculties such as film, photography and design have equally impressive credentials.

Below is a selection of beautiful illustrations from the Thesis Projects all of which will be on show:

Hope you enjoyed the illustrations and are able to make it to the event.

Sascha

His work is lucid and technically brilliant. I have selected 3 of Nigel Cox’s art works and you may see the rest on his site.

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:

Below is a collection of portraits. If you have any additional portrait illustrations/artworks that you feel we should add to the list please send me the link and perhaps we can add it to the collection!

Painting in Gouache, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson creates candy-coloured hyper-realities of deconstructed landscapes and flora, anatomical dissections, cross-sections of cells, veins, roots and hidden terrains. I love the detail and the pulsating colours and am happy to add it to our illustration blog.

Brian M. Viveros illustrations are sexy, provocative and dark.  The below illustrations are Brian’s trademark: Sexy, dark, feminine yet strong women who have a cigarette in the corner of their mouth. Despite the seemingly macabre air and batted state of the women their expressions are filled with lust and sovereignty. The overall effect is sexy and powerful. (ps: Compared to some of his other work this selection is less hardcore.)

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:

S

Blogging in a sense is more about exploration then it is about purveying what you already know. It ebbs me on to find new things and what I find I share and then in turn people share their ideas and knowledge about that topic. A similar thing is happening with our Facebook Group, which has been growing steadily. People are actively discussing/sharing their favourite illustrators and artists.

Ok so yes this is how I found Utagawa Kuniyoshi. He was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints. I am aware of Katsushika Hokusai and I have posted about him. What is interesting about Utagawa Kuniyoshi is that I think that there is a correlation to the well known contemporary illustrator James Jean - (note the previous post). 

Here are some of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s art works: