Signature Illustration Blog

Anthony Francisco Schepperd: The Music Scene

Sascha — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:07:43 +0000

Great artwork by Owen Smith

Sascha — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:45:21 +0000

I love the way he exaggerate proportions and emphasise volume and movement. The 1900 to 1950′s figures crowd the frame and overlap each other in angular or swirling composition. He says he is often called on to depict scenes of sexual tension or implied violence. To which he added that it did not matter if the subject is serious or pure kitsch, his work is always about human interaction and isolation. I hope you enjoy his work.

Presenting the lovely artwork of Aron Wiesenfeld

Sascha — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:23:54 +0000

Audrey Kawasaki Engraved Brooch

Sascha — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:06:13 +0000

I have always loved Audrey Kawasaki’s illustrations and these brooches engraved with her signature illustrations are the latest to come out of her workshop. You can buy them here.

Tactile Illustrator Owen Gildersleeve

Alexandra — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:47:57 +0000

I got very excited when I came across Owen’s work. I truly love his handcrafted use of alternative materials in order to create something beautiful and communicative. The details in his cut out crunched up paper leaves and in his hand stitched poster is madness, patient-beautiful madness. Working from London, Owen’s as created illustrations for The TATE, The New York Times, Douglas & Gordon, Money Magazine and The Guardian. I love that handmade design/illustration still has a place in this world where artworks are created by means of a mouse click. I hope you enjoy Owen’s work as much as I do.

Stacey Rozich and a beautiful Folktale

Alexandra — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:21:10 +0000

Born and raised in Seattle/Washington, Stacey tells stories of an early culture, where she explores the relationship between nature and animals. Her brightly coloured and ethnically textured characters give the viewer a sense of nostalgia, seem slightly frightening hidden behind their masks and at the same time appear familiar and inviting. Stacey draws inspiration from cultures all around the world. I love how she portrays her findings in such a fresh and beautiful manner. Have a look at her blog for more folk art.

Illustrations by Asaf Hanuka

Sascha — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:43:43 +0000

While I was collecting examples of Asaf’s work I started to notice that it looked very similar to Tomer’s work. I have subsequently learnt that they are in fact twin brothers. Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka. I posted Tomer Hanuka’s work fairly recently and I guess this is now in part acting as a follow up post. Asafs work is equally good and one or two illustrations can be compared to Istvan Banyai in style.

Asaf also does a weekly comic which is a documentation of one family’s search of a home. Definitely worth checking out.

His subject matter is thought provoking and unique. I hope you enjoy his illustrations:

Paula Sanz Caballero lovely sewn illustrations

Sascha — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:11:32 +0000

Quote from the artist: “I began to experiment with fabric and embroidery, and my technique evolves from the figurative pictorial concept to the sewn finish, drawing on the topics full of irony, tortuous relationships, crime and scornful feminine revenge. Since then, my artwork, as well as my graphic design illustrations have been based on this stylistic pattern.” Paula’s Website

I really love the tactile feeling of these sewn illustrations. Note that there are the full pieces and to each piece there is one relating zoomed image which you need to have a look at if you want to get a feeling for her work.

Loretta Lux – hypnotising photography

Alexandra — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:07:53 +0000

HYPNOTIST Stare into the eyes of a Loretta Lux portrait long enough, and you’re bound to feel both completely mesmerized and completely spooked. Lux’s starkly pale, prepubescent subjects haunt the viewer from inside the image as if they were hiding some terrible secret. Remarkably captivating yet exceedingly eerie–the formula has turned the German photographer into an art-world phenom, earned her the coveted Infinity Award for Art from the International Center of Photography and made her a millionaire.

A former painter, Lux, 38, brings her images to life with the attention to form, shape and color that she learned at the easel. The artistry begins at the photo shoot, but her signature style–the brushstrokes of her new medium–comes later, at the computer. First she strips out the background and replaces it with a quiet setting–a grassy field, an abandoned building–from her personal stash of paintings and pictures. Then she erases any object that crowds the picture, like a tree or toy, so the child appears to be part of a dream. “I don’t care about traditional photography,” Lux says. “I want more control.”

Lux started taking children’s portraits nearly eight years ago, when she shot a couple of rolls of film of her nephew. It took her only one day with that little boy to realize what comes across so vividly in her work: children are the perfect subjects to photograph. “They have no reservations,” she says. “They are the most honest models.”

But exactly what her portraits are supposed to mean remains a mystery, and Lux doesn’t offer many clues, saying only that the images, which can take up to a year to complete, are less about the subjects than they are a metaphor for the idea of childhood. “I want people to decide what to see,” she says. Whatever they do decide, they’re not likely to forget it.

by Carolyn Sayre, Time Magazine

Lisel Ashlock

Sascha — Sat, 08 May 2010 20:40:35 +0000

Her art works are like vivid dreams, strangely familiar but from a time long passed. I think the following comment illustrates her work almost perfectly: “Lisel’s illustration work has been described as being expressive and semi-surreal, while still maintaining a tangible quality. Being the daughter of a photographer, she strives to bring a clear breath of reality to her paintins, while never ignoring humaity’s perplexed but subtle ambiguities.” - Unknown Critic

Hope you enjoy the art work:

Sweet Tooth – Everybody Wants To Be In Love

Sascha — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:09:02 +0000

School of Visual Arts Exhibition: April-30 to May-15

Sascha — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:00:49 +0000

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

Alexander Jansson – A mystical magical world

Alexandra — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:27:48 +0000

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.

Istvan Banyai – Politics, social absurdities, american pop culture

Sascha — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 20:22:05 +0000

Istvan is a very successful commercial illustrator and animator who gained prominence in the mid-1980s in the USA.

Its odd but I find his illustration unusually easy to visualize - flavor and setting. He seems to have a real knack for isolating the subject matter through clever use of colors and layout. Politics, social absurdities, american pop culture, war and sexuality are all things he infuses in his art. Enjoy!

Illustrations by Scott Musgrove

Sascha — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:21:41 +0000

It wasnt easy finding images, even on his illustration blog, of Scott’s work but above is a decent collection of his wonderfull work.

Lovely Illustration’s by Mateusz Kolek

Sascha — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:34:33 +0000

Mateusz has a playful feel to his illustrations but maintains an edge on his work through the subject matter. I like both the bright colors and the softer color sets which where used for the Coco Rosie pieces. I’m particularly fond of Tokyo Rain and Yakuza – almost ended up buying one of these pieces!

I hope you enjoy his illustrations as much as I have!

Nigel Cox’s photo-realism minimalistic paintings

Sascha — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:45:30 +0000

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.

A tribute to the legendary Norman Rockwell – Happy Birthday

Alexandra — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:20:08 +0000

“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