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:

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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:

I thoroughly enjoy the way James Jean takes different organic, physiological, social and emotional elements and with his brilliant imagination mashes them into this wonderful art work. Death defeating life and life defeating death. Social messages illustrated with savvy depth. Ignorant evil. Depicting our struggle through clever metaphors.

You have probably seen some of James Jean’s illustrations if so it’s always worth another look as there are many layers to his art. If you haven’t heard of James Jean you are in for a treat!

Welcome to Joe Sorren’s world. Joe Sorren originally wanted to be an “art historian and conservationalist. Or a botanist. Or work with horses. It would be interesting to be behind the scenes in politics, at least for a while. Or maybe a studio musician, or invent games, or a … I would rather paint”. And what beautiful, surreal and rich paintings he creates. Joe Sorren currently lives in Arazona with his wife, daughter and son and is a drummer in a band called Sparkleface.

I have had a stupendous 2 weeks at work and tonight I lull myself into browsing for illustrations and art – a simpe joy, little effort and a good cup of green tea. This evening I felt Ruud van Empel was a best pick. He is offbeat without any cheap shock, macabre, bazaar or horror themes attached to his work. They are outlandish and curios. Perhaps you could describe the feeling the work emanates as ‘a recollection of an imagined memory’.

Ruud van Empel works and lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PS:  Donnie I picked ‘Souvenir 2 baby‘ especially for you

Tip: ‘world 17‘ makes for a great desktop BG! 

“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.

How much influence did art, the politicians brand and exposure thereof have in the 2008 American elections?

Is there an integral role between art and politics which can guide us in discovering truth or does art and design in politics walk dangerously close to propaganda?

How much does art and design influence the way people think and act? Or is art an embodiment of people’s perceptions implying that the art is in-fact preordained? The logo of a political brand is then a personification of a symbol or in other words the embodiment of the person it represents – similar comments in the video at the end of this post.

To what degree has art and design influenced the way Americans voted in 2008?

With these questions in mind please take a look at the collection of illustrations, caricatures, logos and video’s relating to the 2008 American Elections. You will notice there is more material on Obama which has nothing to do with my personal views. There was simply more of it. For example there were no real variations of the McCain logo like there was for Obama nor where there video’s talking about McCains brand development.

Enjoy: (Click on the images to see fully)

Obama Brand & Logo Development:
An interview with Sol Sender about the Obama logo and the brand that was built.

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Other Videos:

This is a video compilation of varies political expressions

Obama And Pop Culture – CBS News

HipHop Scratching Video

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed!

Definitely one of my favourite artist at the moment is James Jean.. Here is a painting from his up and coming exhibition at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York.

James Jean

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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Stumbled across these illustrations by Kyungduk Kim. The more I see watercolour pieces the more I like it. Kyungduk has done a great job here.

Kyungduk Kim – Clouthing Girl

Kyungduk Kim – Dylan

Kyungduk Kim- Its Pouring

Last night I went to visit a friend in Piccadilly Circus. She is one of 4 people living there in this awesome top floor flat which had an incredible view over London. The owner who also lives there used to be an art dealer and his place was littered with antiques. One of the guys staying there happens to be Sam Kaprielov aka Sam Sturis. He was there last night and so I got to know about his work and had a a look at his latest work which was in progress. Really amazing stuff especially his old stuff which is unfortunately not available online. I actually prefer his earlier work as it is a little darker. The work included in this post is his more recent stuff. He uses Charcoal which is not an easay meduim.

“Sam Kaprielov was born in Ventspils on the West Coast of Latvia; he attended art college in St Petersburg before returning to Riga. Many a nineteenth century artist started their career as a painter of theatrical scenery; Sam Kaprielov began his as a billboard painter, as it was the most lucrative form of employment for an emerging artist. He moved to Venice to become a mask-maker in 1992 and arrived in London via a two-year spell in Avignon in 1998.” Sam Kaprielov Website

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He has a real command of human anatomy which he then likes to distorts. Chris Scarborough likes to add a lot of detail to hands and feet which draws your attention to them – I wonder if it has some meaning or just for effect. Either way I like the extra detail. He also gives his characters these big eyes (Seems to be quite the popular effect to give more emotion to characters). His characters generally have quite a macabre feeling. Ohh and then the spaceship is great I want one just like that!