Blog of Francesco Mugnai » Illustration

The Amazing Vector Character Illustrations of Jonathan Ball

Starr-Anjelica — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:26:28 +0000

Jonathan Ball is a freelance illustrator and designer from Newport in Wales, UK where he also runs Poked Studio. Jonathan says he loves to draw and is eager for you to pay him for his efforts as this helps him feed his family and a small flock of sheep.

Jonathan’s clients include MTV, BBC Sports, BBC Bitesize, FHM Magazine, Sony PlayStation, Britvic, Computer Arts Magazine, Creativity Magazine, Trend Micro, Auto Trader Magazine, The National Library of Wales, Digit Magazine, Argos, Channel 4, E4, AVG, O2, Stuff Magazine.

You can catch Jonathan’s amazing work at Poked Studios and on Behance Network

Here is some great samples of vector and 3D illustrations by Jonathan.

The dominatrixes of Nicoz Balboa, illustrator

Pablo Lara — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:48:13 +0000

This week we have (again) Italy as a guest, with the fantastic illustrations from Nicoz Balboa.

As she tells us in her website:

” She graduated at the I.E.D.(European institut of design) of Rome and did a 3 month stage at the E.S.A.G. of Paris. In 1996 she start to self-produce her comics with some fanzines called Catholic Girls, Caccapiscia (PeePoo) and she went on the years with several minibook as Cuoricini, Pochi Intimi, Axe Rouge, Maison, Adesivi, Njcoz’s Girls. in 2005 she publish her first solo comic-album “Nicozrama” with the Centro Fumetto Andrea Pazienza. and in 2008 she publish another solo comic-book named “Les Larmes the Crocodile” for the french publisher “DIANTRE!“ She participates in lots of collective exhibitions as “Beautiful Dreamers” at the Angel Art Gallery of Milan with Ana Bagayan, Marcel Dzama, Greg Gossel, Alex Gross, Kukula, Takashi Murakami, Aya Takano and others; “Whaleless” at Strychnin Gallery in Berlin and in London; “World of illustration” at Intoxicated Demons Gallery in Berlin; “Don’t say motherfucker, motherfucker” at the MFGallery of New York; “Knock your socks off” at the Head Quarters GalleryDirty Show” in Detroit; “Immigrant punk” at Black Maria Gallery iof Los Angeles; ”SKULLS OF ROME” in Rome organized by DRAGO Editions; “Girls Adventures” at Arkel gallery in Bruxell; “Pop Invaders” and “Money-Lisa” at Mondo POP gallery in Rome. She did also 2 personal exhibition in Paris, at the Toast Gallery and at theTribal Act Gallery.”
What can I say about her?

She is very talented and meticulous. There is a mix between the innocence of girls with red or brown hair, very detailed drawned. Girls using masks and leather close as S & M dominatrixes from Wonderland. Big heads and small feet. Girls in relation with animals. Maybe the animals are a sweet metaphor of men. The Greek said zoom politikon about men: Men are political animals. She simple says Men are Animals. The girls are representations of different historical stages and famous tales. Everything seems doodlish and naive, but we can read the wink of a Wicked Intelligence behind.
Her husband make tatoos and he has a blog at
http://outsider-ink.blogspot.com/ (By the way, I am a Tatoo Lover).

Watch her website at
http://nicozbalboa.com/

http://www.petit-dejeuner-chez-nicoz.typepad.com/

http://nicozbalboa.blogspot.com/

Watch her illustrations:

Source box:

Images and text

http://nicozbalboa.com/

I am Domenico Marazia, Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Pablo Lara — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:11:17 +0000

I’m a 27 years old graphic designer and an Illustrator. I live in south Italy, near Naples. Now I’m trying to become an art director. I started almost by chance. After Art School I thought of doing many different things. I learned to use Photoshop and the God Old QuarkXpress because it served to a group of which I was part. After that the graphic design had become a passion and I decided to take a course in Graphic Design (for advertising). After this course I won a scholarship in Art Direction. During this course in Art Direction I started doing illustrations to diversify my portfolio from that of my classmates. Even this has become a passion.

I don’t have a personal style. For example: All my poster for reggae dancehalls are different. It is the target of the poster what finally determines the style. All these posters were made for the same sound system, but by changing their guests (and the location), even the target, changed. This also applies to my “personal” illustrations.

My carrer? I’m not famous (yet), and sometimes I accept unworthy work (very low level) as graphic designer. But there isn’t only the work. Now I’m looking for some collaborations, maybe for some project beyond graphics and illustration. Something more comprehensive, involving other people, in a collective and multidisciplinary project. Maybe something with social implications.

Always I use the Adobe “Holy Trinity”: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign. I don’t have some particular tips to share, but I know that study, experience and experimentation are the only way to learn. I can only say: be professional. Creativity isn’t enough. For example: be cautious when you are using Photoshop effects (maybe found in tutorials on the web). If you don’t know the printing techniques, you may have some bad surprises!

Sometimes I follow my inspiration. But usually I try to start thinking about what I want to achieve. And then I do some sketches (Some of them are scanned later). Only after that, I sit in front of my Mac. Sometimes I trace with illustrator (NEVER USING LIVE TRACE!) some particular gestures from a picture, (for example a human posture).
I’m very lazy, but when I like a project, I love to work hard on it, and sometimes I spend a lot of time for the details and the colours.

The best website is FFFFOUND! (http://ffffound.com/). There is no doubt. It is the first site I look every morning. Then I take a look at the new projects on the Behance Network. I also like a lot of others websites (about art, graphic design, typhography, architecture and intetior design, fashion… etc. ), and I follow some of it by social network. Must keep abreast. This passion for research is so strong that I also collaborate with an Italian website: enquire.it (http://www.enquire.it/) as “talent scouter” for graphic and illustration.

The inspiration comes to me from what I have to achieve, not what I want to achieve (or at least I try to do so). Observing the work of others is important, to increase our sensitivity and our skills, to catch the modern trends, some new solution, etc. But you need to do it to understand what you can do, NOT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO. As you can see I love search on the website (and I really love Art History, read art books and comics, going to the exhibitions, etc.), but sometimes I have to stop to watch them, because too many inputs can also “burn” your ideas, as happens with plants if you give them too much fertilizer.

I will try to explain how I created “The goat”. I wanted to create an illustration for my brand new Behance portfolio, with the purpose of showing my skills with photoshop. Especially I decided to show my skills with textures and layers masks.
I thought about what to achieve. After a while I decided to show an unusual subject. The idea of a goat is born from a random combination of ideas. At first I wanted to do something fun with this goat, but then I remembered an old (and very sad) poem by Umberto Saba I studied at primary school. This poem made me think of other poems and I also thought to represent another poem. But it was one of the early work that I posted on Behance, and so I needed a poem with English translation. By coincidence this poem, among the many that I had chosen, was the only which I found an accurate translation. It was decided: it would be “The goat”. I dropped immediately the idea to represent the “dialogue” between poet and goat. Poetry served only to give me an idea of the “setting” and “impression”.
I decided to show feeling of loneliness using “poor textures” and really simple shapes. After some experiments I knew I had to imitate a paper collage. To show my skills, but also to show the sadness of the subject. Poetry (at least in the Italian version) communicates a feeling of “moisture” due to rain. Unfortunately I had to decide to delete it. In my first sketches the sky was darkest and much cloudy. But after some experimentation I decided to create a sky at sunset, after the rain. The result is better than I hoped. Someone thought it was a real paper collage.

If my passion for dangerous women, alcohol and gambling will not kill me, perhaps I can become one of those snob creatives who live in Milan. One of those who puts words in English in every sentence, even when not needed, and sniff cocaine for breakfast.
Just kidding! I really don’t know what I will do in the future. Many things will change, regardless of my will, and It is difficult to forecast. I will try to do my best.
Thanks to you Pablo for this interview! It was very useful for me too. Answer your questions forced me to reflect on my creative processes, and on how creativity works.
So… I’m not able to give advice to anyone. I can only say: you never stop learning! Good luck to all your creative readers!

Visit his sites:
http://www.behance.net/DomenicoMarazia
http://illustrascarpe.blogspot.com
And now the illustrations:

Source Box:
Images:
http://www.behance.net/DomenicoMarazia

http://illustrascarpe.blogspot.com

JAW Cooper, about sketching a wicked world

Pablo Lara — Tue, 25 May 2010 08:37:16 +0000

This week we are featuring an illustrator from USA, Jaw Cooper.

I contacted her early this morning and she was very kind to introduce herself with a small bio, you are going to see at the end of the article.

What can I say about JAW?

She is undoubtly talented. There is something very close to anime in her artwork and a mix with the detailed nature drawings we used to see in dictionaries. I can read some influence from the Art Decó style. As well as a resemblence to Egon Schele sketches for the girls and some influences of the animals in the paintings of the Renaissance, like you see for example with the hares or rabbits.

Something really important to her is the sketching.

“I love to sketch more than anything and I use my blog as a way to showcase what I believe is the most fun and important part of my process.”

“I decide which sketches to finish based on the project (or gallery show) and how long I estimate I’ll have to get it done. I do not enjoy painting as much as I enjoy sketching so I will not typically take a sketch to completion unless there is an immediate purpose for it. Beyond that, the sketch has to have a spontaneous fluidity or life to it or I simply toss it.”

She developes strange multi-eyed creatures with long hair or deformed girls (Please, go and get some more at her blog).

And let introduce Jaw Cooper by herself:

JAW (Jessica A.W.) Cooper was born in England and grew up in Africa, Sweden, Ireland, various other locations throughout Europe, and California. She has always cultivated a deep curiosity for the natural world and is inspired by forms found in nature, curio cabinets, fashion photography, and nipples in general. Cooper lives and works as an illustrator and gallery artist in Los Angeles, California. Her newest series “Tarnished” will be on display at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood starting June 4th of this year. JAW Cooper’s work may be viewed online at:

http://jawcooper.blogspot.com

http://www.jawcooper.com

Source box:

Images:

http://jawcooper.blogspot.com

Text:

http://jawcooper.blogspot.com

http://www.orangealert.net/cooper

The naive and surreal art of the brazilian illustrator Anna Anjos

Pablo Lara — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:29:57 +0000

This week, we have Brazil as a guest: the talented Anna Anjos.
Anna Anjos was born in march 1985, in São Paulo, capital.

In 2006, graduated as a designer at Belas Artes de São Paulo. Her interest towards cinema developed yet at her academic period. Became researcher of Scientific Initiation Project in Cinematography Language and Video Design in 2005, which has allowed the development of a more critical look towards audio-visual media.

She worked as colorist and designer at Fabrica de Quadrinhos and Hiperquimica,working for multiple advertisement agencies in Brazil.

In 2008 took part on the development of the graphic Project to the Advertisement Latin-American Festival, the El Ojo de Iberoamerica.

Nowadays, working as a freelancer plastic artist and illustrator, working for editorial and advertisement markets, Anna Anjos already reveals the lines of a mature artist with an original style making prevail her artistic audacity, inventive and irreverent. Mixing stylish shapes, she extracts elements from childhood to incorporate them into her creation reality, uncommon and surreal making us enter into an original space where colors play with shapes without letting behind the entail with the real world in which is inspired on her deeply herself.

About the tools, she uses Photoshop to the colorization, always digital and she also uses the Illustrator.

It is really amazing discover how she is able to create through her roots which a process she calls the mythology:

“In the current phase of her career her look returns for the creation of her own mythology, with the birth of the called “Afrotropical Entities”, developed for the artist, with reference in Brazilian culture (northeastern) and African, giving origin to personages who escape of the digital dimension and materialize themselves under the form of masks and other forms of art.”

According to her Twitter, recently she was interviewed by MTV

Remember:

1.- Visit her site:

http://www.annaanjos.com/

2.- Follow her on Twitter (she is really nice person)

http://twitter.com/annaanjos

Enjoy her artwork:

Bonus track:

Images:

http://www.annaanjos.com/

Text:

http://www.annaanjos.com/

http://www.awebdesignblog.com/an-interview-with-graphic-designer-anna-anjos/

The Talented Mister Gross

Pablo Lara — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:00:05 +0000

Everybody think Alex Gross (1968) is an amazing and talented illustrator. And he is. There are a lot of influences in his art. From Renaissance to Japanese advertising.

Alex graduated in 1990 from Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California.

“His earliest artistic influences were comic books and movies especially the strong visuals from science fiction television and films like Star Trek and later Star Wars.”

About his influences he recognizes :

“…the great Japanese artist and designer Shinohara Katsuyuki. He is one of my favorite artists ever.”

And other artists like:

“…Aron Wiesenfeld, Jeff Soto, James Jean and Ben Marra are a few of my favorite young guns…”

In the year 2000, he received a fellowship from the Japan Foundation. And that changed his artistic life. He describes the experience of Japan:

“…The Blade Runner vision of the future was smacking me over the head, and I was not prepared for it.”

This trip showed him the stethical approach to the art of Japanese culture and he took mostly from advertising and vintage pictures, all the imagery that it will be present in his art the next years.

His inspiration comes from many sources, even Russian and British Art (read the article about inspiration I wrote):

“I absolutely love old photos and vintage pictures. The Victorian Era is the time when I would have liked to live.”

His work have been published by Taschen in 2004 under the title Japanese Beauties. In 2007, Chronicle books published The Art of Alex Gross, a monograph featuring Alex’s painting, drawing and printmaking from 1999 through 2007.

He had been classified as a Pop Surrealist or Surreal Pop artist.

He mixes the images in a dream like reality.

“…this whole idea of freely mixing imagery that doesnt normally go together was really exciting to me.”

The creative process of Alex Gross begins with an image as a main inspiration, then he sketches in the computer. And the final artwork is hand made on traditional painting.

“Often, the genesis of a painting for me will be finding an image like that one, which really inspires me to take it and do something with it. I have borrowed imagery from gothic artists like Rogier Van der Weyden a

ll the way to modern artists like Shinohara, Yokoo Tadanoori and George Tooker, to name a few. These days i tend to use mostly images that I find in old photographs.”

“All of my gallery work is either Oil paint or mixed media, which include oils, acrylics and some collage. I do use the computer quite a lot in the sketch phase. But in the finished product it is not really being used.”

And finally he has an advice for illustrators and it is a principle for everybody in the creative field:

“I dont really have advice for illustrators other than to say develop your own personal voice as best you can, and people will be drawn to it if it is real, it is you, and it is creative.”

And now, check some of his work.

And remember to visit his site: http://www.alexgross.com/

Source Box:

Text:

http://www.vivianite.net/alex-gross-4.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Gross

http://www.graphotism.com/Interviews

http://popdrawer.blogspot.com/search/label/Alex%20Gross

Images:

http://www.alexgross.com

A Brief History of Illustration (Final)

Pablo Lara — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:45 +0000

This is the final part of the serie A Brief History of Illustration. I know you are thinking “Define brief…”. Everything has an end. Even “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is over and we are ending this neverending history here.

This period runs between 1990 until our days.

In the 90′s we saw the rising of Internet. And there is nothing else to say. Everything was changed from the roots. The 90′s are the “Web 1.0″ time, with its awkward websites and a lot of – cough-disgusting-cough- glitter. In this web, we have an actor with no lines to say: the Consumer. The Consumer isn’t able to modify the web. The Consumer barely can say something in the Mailing Lists (Oh my God, it is so 90′s that it hurts). From the year 2000 it appears a new actor in the Internet, the Prosumer. The prosumer is able to create everything he wants: sound, image, motion and text and mixs them all together. It is the Golden Age for young illustrators. There is no need of large amounts of money, because all you need is a blog or a website (with a little money for the dot com’s address), to show off your artwork. This is the “Web 2.0″ time.

Now we are in the Ubiquitous Internet or the Semantic Web.

Ubiquitous is not a magic spell in latin, of course.

Ubiquitous |yo? bikw?t?s|: present, appearing, or found everywhere.

This period saw the Gulf War, The Kosovo Affair and The Irak War. Too many wars in twenty years.

The 90′s were the scenario for the Postmodern Art. The Postmodern style came from sources in the 50′s. Some philosophers seriously believe there isn’t such thing as Postmodernism.

There are some industries of Illustration which have survived through the decades, for example, Disney and DC Comics. They are now merged. Their influence have caused a very well known movies inspired in the comics: Hulk, X-Men, Sin City, Hell Boy, 300, and at last but no least, Green Lantern.

I would like to review some of the newest illustrators. In fact, they are my favorites and they are my contacts at Behance (http://www.behance.net/), a really nice place to find inspiration and good artists. Oh, what a coincidenceÂ¡ I am there too.

And how Morrisey used to say: Good night and thank you.

Those are my favorites ones:

Dmitry Ligay

Ruben Scarelli

David Sossella

Powl Goudsmit

Zutto

Iain Macarthur

Dilka Bear

Alex Andreyev

Constanze Moll

Zach Flaman

Source Box:

Visit the portfolios of those amazing illustrators:

Dmitry Ligay
http://www.behance.net/d-planshet

Ruben Scarelli
http://www.behance.net/RubensScarelli

David Sossella
http://www.behance.net/david_sossella

Powl Goudsmit
http://www.behance.net/PowlGoudsmit

Zutto
http://www.behance.net/orange_zutto

Iain macarthur
http://www.behance.net/iainmac

Dilka bear
http://www.behance.net/dilka_bear

Alex Andreyev
http://www.behance.net/alexandreev

Constanze moll
http://www.behance.net/federspiel

Zach Flaman
http://www.behance.net/zflaman

A Brief History of Illustration (Part IV)

Pablo Lara — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:06:58 +0000

We are almost finishing this Brief History of Illustration.

In this part we are gonna run through 30 years of history beginning with the Psychodelia of the 70′s to finish with the tech 90′s and the first steps of Internet. This is the end of the world as we knew it.

The main facts of this period are:

1.- Punk style.

2.- Science-Fiction.

3.- The development of a growing market for magazines fosters the opportunities for new and young illustrators. Some of them are working for the Movies Industry creating amazing posters.

4.- In the print history we have: Laser Printer (1969), Dot Matrix Printer (1970), Inkjet Printer (1976), Fine Art Digital Photo Printers(1991) and 3D Printing (1993).

4.- The growing industry of the Advertising.

5.- Artistic influences of the period: Performance Art, Photorealism, Post-Modernism, Techno-Impressionism

In this chapter we are going to see the famous movie poster creator Chris Foss, the psychodelic Gerald Scarfe, the irreverent Ian Pollock, the beautiful simplicity which charmed Woody Allen in the illustrator Jean Michel Folon, the popup books of Jan Piekowski, the tenderness of Maurice Sendak and, finally, the iconic Phillip Castle with the famous red tongue of Rolling Stones and the violence of the movie Clockwork Orange.

Enjoy it!

The next week, the final part.

Chris Foss

Gerald Scarfe

Ian Pollock

Jean Michel Folon

Jan Piekowski

Maurice Sendak

Phillip Castle