Monday, June 21, 2010
Paul Daviz brilliantly animates opinion
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Zoe More O'Ferrall's Scrapbook
Friday, June 18, 2010
Say Hello to Sauerkids
A big, warm welcome to our latest illustration addition; Sauerkids!
Sauerkids are Mark Moget and Taco Sipma, an artist duo based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Besides their current day jobs as graphic designers, they started the label Sauerkids on the side as an outlet for their art and illustration work. Their character based art and illustrations have been shown in several international art exhibitions, illustration projects, magazines & books.
Sauerkids are Mark Moget and Taco Sipma, an artist duo based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Besides their current day jobs as graphic designers, they started the label Sauerkids on the side as an outlet for their art and illustration work. Their character based art and illustrations have been shown in several international art exhibitions, illustration projects, magazines & books.
Sauerkids are not only known for their humorous and colorful illustrations and fine art, but they also feel equally comfortable with designing vinyl toys, visual brands, shoes, t-shirts, sculptures, paintings and typefaces.
CLIENTS Include:
- Adobe
- EA Games
- Rotterdam Uit Magazine
- BIS Publishers
- City Museum The Hague
- Dzone magazine
- Jamungo
- Die Gestalten Verlag
See Sauerkids' portfolio here
Gerald Scarfe; Political Cartoonist Telegraph article
The 74-year-old cartoonist discusses his early work, his childhood hero and pushing boundaries in China.
By Jessica Salter Published: 17 Jun 2010
Gerald Scarfe at home in west London Photo: Jane Wilson
Gerald Scarfe, CBE, 74, is a political cartoonist who started drawing for Punch and Private Eye and is now best known for his work in the New Yorker, Time and the Sunday Times, which he has worked for since 1967. Scarfe has also branched out into animation (Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Disney’s Hercules) and set design, including an English National Ballet production of The Nutcracker. To mark the World Cup, Scarfe has designed a limited-edition football-themed HD box for Sky (sky.com/designerboxes). He lives with his wife, the actress Jane Asher, and their youngest son, Rory, in west London.
Early start As I get older I seem to be sleeping less and less, but since my studio is just a flight of stairs away from my bedroom I can come up here at 4am if I want to, which I frequently do. I have a cup of tea, skim through the newspapers and make my wife tea when she wakes up.
Scared child I feel I lost the first 15 years of my life because I was bedridden and often taken to hospital with severe asthma. I was a very scared child, aware of the fine line between life and death; my parents always thought I was going to peg out. I’ve got this horrific memory of being in hospital and this man opening the window and gasping for air – he just fell on the floor and died. My drawings were always about my fears, and they still are. It used to be all about witches and werewolves; now it’s about arrogant politicians.
Political future When I left home I lived on the top floor of a house in Hampstead, and Ralph Miliband, a well-known Marxist theorist, and his wife, Marion, lived downstairs. His sons, David and Ed, were probably conceived while I was up in the attic.
Early influence The cartoonist Ronald Searle was someone I looked up to hugely when I was younger. I found out where he lived in Bayswater and I used to cycle down from Hampstead planning in my mind what I would say to him, which was to ask how to become a cartoonist. But when I got there I could never make my finger physically touch the doorbell, such was my awe of this man. So I would turn my bike around and cycle home.
Best present Five years ago my wife arranged a birthday lunch for me in Provence. To my enormous surprise Ronald Searle and his wife were sitting at the table: it was the first time I’d met him. There was a little package from him on my place setting, and in it was this doorbell (pictured) with the note, 'Please ring – any time.’
Early cartoons I got a job at Punch by sending in cartoons. For each one they paid me seven guineas, an incredible sum, but the cartoons themselves were pretty corny. It wasn’t until Private Eye started in the 1960s that I felt I had a purpose and I could say something about the world around me.
Pushing boundaries I’ve always felt that as an artist I must draw everything about life, and sex is a huge part of life. I can usually get away with quite a lot in a book – more than a newspaper – but in a book that was printed in China they wouldn’t print my drawings of men with large willies. When I asked them why, they just said, 'Too big.’ So I said, 'Well that’s what we’re all like in Britain.’
Tools of the trade I put enormous pressure on the nibs of my pens (pictured), and they can snap. The Higgins black ink that I use is very expensive, about £5.25 for a tiny bottle, so I have to turn it all into spun gold.
Animation I first worked with Pink Floyd in 1973, creating graphics and animation for their Wish You Were Here tour videos. I then spent five years working on The Wall: first it was the album and the set for the live shows, then we did a film in 1982. I’ve got a lot of memorabilia (pictured previous page) because the whole thing was designed in this house – I’ve lived here for 40 years.
Disney In 1994 the directors of Hercules called me out of the blue asking if I’d like to be the production designer for the film. I designed the characters, but it was hard dealing with the animators. A lot of them were not capable of copying my style; they just did the same old Disney thing.
Still life I didn’t want Pegasus to be the usual Disney dobbin; I wanted him to be an elegant Greek horse. I modelled him on this horse’s head (pictured), which is a replica of one of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum. It’s made from resin and the museum was selling it in its shop – it was quite expensive, but I pointed out that it was cracked and did a deal; I got it for about £200.
Political knives I was on The Andrew Marr Show in 2005 when David Cameron and David Davis were running for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Marr asked me to draw a cartoon of them for the end of the show. I drew them all buddy-buddy as they were on the programme, with their arms around one another – but I drew a version of them from behind, too, in which they held knives, ready to stab each other in the back. Cameron asked for the drawing afterwards and he wrote me this letter (pictured), thanking me for it.
Working late In my youth I used to be able to work right through the night, but I can’t do that now – I stop at about 8.30pm, when I have a glass of wine and my dinner. It’s usually a long day, about 14 hours, but I take little naps. And anyway I’m never happier than when I am in my studio.
Lush Designs: 'Open Studios' Event at Cockpit
Lush Designs' very own Maria Livings will be at the Open Studios event at Cockpit this weekend:
Friday 18th June 6 - 9pm and Saturday 19th - Sun 20th June 11am - 6pm.
Have a look at Maria's fabulous products in her shop: www.lushlampshades.co.uk
And here's a link to her blogspot: lush-designs.blogspot.com
Friday 18th June 6 - 9pm and Saturday 19th - Sun 20th June 11am - 6pm.
Have a look at Maria's fabulous products in her shop: www.lushlampshades.co.uk
And here's a link to her blogspot: lush-designs.blogspot.com
See the Maria's portfolio here
WILD PIG MUG
White bone china Wild Pig mug with rich pure gold lustre detail. Size: 8.5cm high by 8.5cm dia.
The latest addition to out Wild Pig range. Mugs are £15.00 each or £52.00 for a set of four.
Click here to view and buy.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Interview with Harry Lyon-Smith in Artybuzz about the Illustration Industry, on it's challenges and changes
1. Could you introduce yourself please, what do you do and what does your organisation do?
My name is Harry Lyon-Smith, a director of illustration limited. We are an illustration agency representing some of the World's top illustrators. We have offices in London, New York, Paris, Hamburg, Shanghai representing both local artists locally and internationally. We also represent an increasing number of animators. We were founded in 1929 and I have only been with the agency since 1985
2. At Artybuzz, we have a wide range of illustrators that include students, what advice would you give to an illustration student looking to break into the industry?
There are some basics, such as getting as much feedback from potential commissioners as possible. As an agency it is rare that we represent artists who have just left college, what we like to see is how they have got on for a couple of years knocking on doors and honing a portfolio that they have had feedback from real-life commissioners. You have to work very hard at this, developing new work and adapting it all the time so that it is relevant to potential marketplaces.
Keep realistic and honest with yourself. We represent illustrators who we class as being in the top 1% of talent, and the reality of their success is more or less; 1/3 do really well, 1/3 do fine, and 1/3 we struggle to find enough work for. It may well be that we are the wrong agency, the style and subject of the work is just not what is resonating with commissioners. We are always trying to re-tune the presentation of artist's work to get the formula right, but sometimes it does not work and we have to shake hands and wish each other bon voyage...so to speak.
3. How important do you feel it is for illustrators to have a strong web presence is in this modern age?
Essential, and it needs to include a website, blog, Facebook, MySpace, Linked in, Twitter etc. and as much inter-linking as possible. They all need to be kept up to date as commissioners very quickly get what we call image blindness. Furthermore join as many portfolio websites such as Artbuzz, Behance, Stockillustrations.com and Flickr etc, which are free and as many of the fee charging ones (AOIPortfolios, TheIspot, Altpick, Folioplanet etc) as you can afford. There are loads out there and the more out there you are the more potential commissioners will see you. As an agency we try and do this as much as possible on behalf of our artists and dedicate a lot of man hours to keeping things moving and fresh on these sites.
4. How do you feel the impact of new technology and programs like Adobe Illustrator has affected the illustration industry?
On the one hand they have enabled a great deal of efficiency coupled with a fantastic new range of styles, techniques and effects, which in great creative and professional hands have broadened the spectrum of what illustrators do by some measure. On the other hand they can disguise some shortfalls in draughtsmanship. This disguise is short lived in our experience.
There is a slight negative in that clients who work in the same programme know that changes can often be easily made, resulting in some briefs are not being as thorough or worked out as before, so that there are lots of changes to the final work.
5. Following on from the question above, has this impact been a positive one or a negative thing?
Mixed, it depends on the artists, the client and the brief. There has always been this triangular set of forces with commissions and I suppose some technologies compound a problem, whilst others alleviated them.
6. Do you feel there has been a rise in the popularity of illustration over the past few years, and if so, why is this?
Illustration enables greater individuality and "signature" when clients are looking to stand out from the crowd. Photography is a great medium and brilliant for many applications, however it is a narrower stylistic solution and whilst individual in many ways it does not nearly have the extraordinary flexibility, diversity and the impact that well used illustration has. In a World that bombards everyone with thousands and thousands of messages a day, individuality and standout is essential. This is understood by the creative industries and more illustration is being commissioned.
7. In these tough economic times, what advice would you give to illustrators looking to survive?
The answers to question three applies a great deal. This combined with brilliant draughtsmanship, delivering beyond expectation, cracking the brief brilliantly, mixed in with a lot of genuine charming and professionalism. This has always been the way of success in any field. I should also say a good agent can take all these fine attributes and leveraged them into some very well paid and exciting opportunities.
8. What in your opinion is the most exciting thing going on in the illustrative world at the moment?
The world is opening up and flattening, China is going to be as big a market as anything we have seen before in a decade or 2, places like Brazil and Russia are developing the same way. Not only are they producing many extraordinarily talented artists, their media industries are looking further afield to source talent.
Illustrators are now able to animate relatively easily and with a booming mobile, Internet/TV platforms the need and desire for visual content, both static and motion, has never been greater and will grow exponentially.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
PorTables by Kavel Rafferty on the 17th June, Cheshire Street
PorTables Launch Night
New range of mats and coasters for vinyl lovers!
Ella Doran and Kavel Rafferty have joined forces for a very special, vintage vinyl inspired project. Using original portable record players the design duo have created this irresistible tableware collection. Drawing influence from the textures, colours and simple style of these classic mid-20th century portable record players, Ella and Kavel sourced formica of the period to create a modern-retro feel for the collection. Good enough to make anybody's table - music fan or not - sing!
Join us and other vinyl junkies spinning their most-loved 45's for the exclusive launch night on Thursday 17th June from 6pm until 9pm.
RSVP - email ruth@elladoran.co.uk
Rosie Sanders Private View
Hugely enjoyed Rosie's stunning show at Jonathan Cooper's Gallery in Park Walk last evening.
She gets better and better, and lovelier and lovelier.
Here are a couple of clips of her at home and in her studio, showing how she does what she does.
Rosie's portfolio with us
She gets better and better, and lovelier and lovelier.
Here are a couple of clips of her at home and in her studio, showing how she does what she does.
Rosie's portfolio with us
Petula Stone's Scrapbook
Monday, June 7, 2010
Say Hello to Alex Fuentes
We warmly welcome Alex Fuentes to Illustration!
For the most part, Alex is a self-taught artist, born, bred and residing in the Los Angeles area. By day, he works in apparel as an illustrator and designer. By night, Alex takes on personal and contracted projects reflecting his utmost passions, in a variety of media and for a variety of awesome clientele.
Alex's lifelong interest in the metaphysical and the surreal, nostalgic memories and his children are a heavy influence upon his art. He has a taste for both the abstract and the mundane in his life and art.
CLIENTS INCLUDE
Alex's lifelong interest in the metaphysical and the surreal, nostalgic memories and his children are a heavy influence upon his art. He has a taste for both the abstract and the mundane in his life and art.
CLIENTS INCLUDE
Nike, Band Merch, Popular Mechanics, Hot Topic, Random House, Target, Y & R, Adidas/Chiat Day
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Madamesange: McLaggan Mugs
John Holder's Scrapbook
Diplomat Wrap
This month sees the very talented Chris Ede reaching out across the globe with this incredible cover wrap design for Diplomat magazine.
This exciting image which perfectly illustrates the Climate Change issue, will be landing on the desks of every Embassy in the world with high praise indeed from the Art Director who declared it "the best illustration she had ever commissioned".
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Ruth Rowlands Maps
Ruth Rowland's beautiful calligraphy pieces are renowned all over the world, and she's recently started concentrating on illustrating more maps, which she is really enjoying!
Have a look at the colourful selection of maps below from Ruth!
Ruth Rowland's portfolio
Have a look at the colourful selection of maps below from Ruth!
Ruth Rowland's portfolio
Steinar Lund's Gothic Portfolio
Check out Steinar Lund's Gothic portfolio; packed with photo realistic vampires, demons and horror.
Steinar Lund's portfolio
Steinar Lund's Gothic portfolio
Steinar Lund's portfolio
Steinar Lund's Gothic portfolio
This Week's StockIllustrations Newsletter
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Lee Montgomery's Scrapbook
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