Ancient Everyday Egypt

These mammoth illustrations for the Museum Of Liverpool are the distinctive work of Ruth Palmer.

Commissioned by Bill Watson at the museum, the brief was to create background illustrations of typical Ancient Egyptian scenes for the museum's new Ancient Egyptian Gallery, the largest of which measures an impressive 4ft wide. The exhibition opened earlier this month.

Santa and his Cows

Reminiscent of childhood Christmases past is this lovely felt piece from Gail Armstrong for Anchor Butter.

A departure from her usual paper-cutting skills, this illustration is featuring in Anchor's seasonal press advertising, and was commissioned by Kathy Howes at CHI and Partners.

Leon and the Place Between

Grahame Baker Smith is the creative mind behind this dreamy image for Angela McAllister's book "'Leon and the Place Between" published by Templar.

Pulling in great reviews from Carousel and the Sunday Times, the title is also in the top ten of the publisher's best-selling list. Encouraged no doubt by this positive feedback, Grahame is now writing and illustrating a graphic novel for the publisher himself.

One Good Deed

Bringing moral inspiration to youngsters everywhere is "Good Deeds All Round" a new book illustrated by Laurence Cleyet-Merle.

Blue Elephant Books in Los Angeles commissioned Laurence for the book which concerns a group of animal friends who all help each other in different situations. The book is being presented at the Frankfurt book fair in October.

The Captain's Log

Greg Becker is behind these superb drawings for a new book called "The Log of The Nautilus".

Commissioned by Jess Stamp at Cowley Robinson, the book details the travels of Captain Nemo in his submarine, The Nautilus: "a fascinating record of a remarkable man, an extraordinary ship and an epic and ultimately tragic voyage." The illustration here shows the route that the Nautilus took.

Another Monkey For Your Back

Bringing the ancient art of whisky-drinking into the modern era is Jonathan Allardyce and these character illustrations for Monkey Shoulder, a triple malt Scotch whisky aimed at a new generation of drinkers.

Commissioned by William Grant & Sons, Jonathan's brief was to help build a new identity for Monkey Shoulder and challenge more traditional perceptions of the whisky drinker. The artworks appear on point-of sale display items and an information folder for bartenders.

Taking Time Out For London

Helping distil the many varied aspects of London life is Kavel Rafferty and these eight graphic illustrations for Time-Out London.

Commissioned by Henry Elphick, Senior Designer at Time-Out, the illustrations appear as chapter headings throughout the Time-Out London guide book, which is being published this month.

Bird

More publishing successes this month come in the shape of Fernando Juarez and this beautiful cover illustration for Rita Murphy's "Bird", published by Random House.

Working alongside Vikki Sheatsley, Fernando's illustration perfectly suits the novel's curious tale of the girl "easily carried off by the wind"…

Spookier All The Time

The shadowy talents of the mysterious TS Spookytooth have been witnessed in a new collection of stories published by Harper Collins.

Commissioned by Nikki Kenwood at Harper Collins, the book is entitled "Fearless Flynn and Other Tales", and concerns the dead spooky adventures of one brave Flynn and his battles with three dead spooky skeletons.

Epic Beer Tales

Britt Spencer is behind these wonderful illustrations for Colonel Sandels beer.

Commissioned by Mika Wist of Finnish ad agency DDB, the four illustrations each depict an event from the Colonel's epic life story in the style of an old political cartoon. Further aging effects were later added by the client to reinforce the humour behind the character.

The Privileged Few

Helping keep out the riff-raff is Echo Chernik and this stunning New Year's Eve Party invite design for the Bellagio Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Entitled "Eve", the illustration leans heavily towards Art Nouveau, and incorporates decorative elements such as the stained glass windows of the Bellagio casino. The invite is presented in a die cut envelope with vellum inlay.

One Good Minute

Exposure doesn't come much greater than it did for Chris Ede who was commissioned to work on the recent Olympic One Minute Handover Ceremony.

Working with design and production agency Skaramoosh London, Chris created all artwork for the original pitch, and also created some of the graphics and illustrations used for the final animation. The animation was played in Beijing, on TV channels around the world, and at the Mall Party Concert in Buckingham Palace, with some 40,000 in attendance.

Shadowy King

More of Chris King's graphic prowess has been unleashed in a terrific new book series entitled "Shadows".
Sasha Morton at educational publishers Rising Stars, commissioned Chris for "Shadows" – an eight-part series set in the near future, where an alien invasion has left the Earth devastated and under alien control.

Cityscapes on Show

Now is your chance to see some of Chris Corr's inimitable painting work close-up in a new exhibition in Brighton this month.

Featuring Chris's many various cityscape paintings, the show opens at the end of November and runs through January next year at Castor + Pollux, 165 King's Road Arches, Brighton BN1 1NB, UK.

Paper Power

More of Gail Armstrong's astonishing paper prowess appears in the form of a recruitment campaign for Scottish Enterprise.

Explains Gail: "The main image had to be able to be disassembled so that individual elements could be used on the website. The other interesting element is the text—we considered overlaying it on the image, but I persuaded them to let me actually cut it into the image itself, which works far better. Luckily there were no copy changes!"

Wibble Wobble

This cheery culinary illustration is the creation of Sarah Beetson for The Times newspaper.

Commissioned by Andy Hatch for The Times "Body and Soul" section, the illustration accompanies an article on jelly, and how it makes a low-fat alternative to the usual cakes, creams and trifles!

Classic Rhymes Reworked

Bringing new zing to classic children's rhymes and tales is Bill Greenhead and these comical illustrations for US publishers, Benchmark Education.

Working in a loose brush style in Photoshop, Bill created twelve illustrations for each of these four books aimed at very young readers.

Lettering in Motion

More of Ruth Rowland's skillful lettering prowess receives exposure with this title sequence for the BBC's new Science & Islam series.

Seeing her work in motion was "an exciting first" for Ruth. Working alongside Nicky Thompson at Creative Saints, the three-part TV series will be broadcast this month, with a book to accompany the series.

Award Art for Property Week

These heroic pieces of illustrative art are the result of 18 months work by the Mike Stones and motion video production ARK for Property Week.

Mike's brief was to produce an illustration for each of Property Week's twelve national and international award events, which are featured in press ads and promotional material. Each piece is then developed into a 45-second animation to provide a dramatic opening for each awards event.

Hidden Treasures

This fantastical scene is the brainchild of Kat Cameron who was commissioned for four illustrations for the RAC's new recruitment drive.

Featuring in press ads and online banners, the four scenes will steer the candidates towards a website, with the RAC van appearing as the 'treasure' in each colourful scenario.

Indian-Urban

The accolades are flying in left, right and centre for India-based designer and illustrator Shailesh Khandeparkar.

In a style he dubs "Indian-Urban", Shailesh's work has already brought him acclaim from the prestigious D&AD, while his beautiful poster work for the World Wildlife Fund has led to an installation project for the charity.

Being Human

What exactly does it mean to be human? Well, it's a loaded question alright, and one which Greg Becker tackles beautifully for Nature Magazine.

Commissioned by Nature's Barbara Izdebska, Greg's eight illustrations appear alongside a series of essays that cover those defining human themes of love, language, conflict, religion and migration.

Bold and Graphic

Colin Elgie is behind this bold graphic portrait of ex-English cricket captain Kevin Pietersen for GQ magazine.

Commissioned by Warren Jackson at GQ, the image accompanies an article "Action – 10 Musts for 2009". Says Colin of the image: "It's kind of topical as it's in the style of the Barak Obama graphic that was used everywhere during his election."

Well Done Danny

One very hot property in the illustration and design world right now is Danny Allison who is featured in both Mac User and Computer Arts.

Mac User magazine has run a double page interview on him, naming him in the "hottest creatives" section for 2009, while Computer Arts magazine has named him as one of the forty hottest designers operating today.

Zoe & Morgan & Nadia

Nadia Flower is the talent behind this superb line work for jewellery designers Zoe & Morgan.

The jewellery designers approached Nadia to help provide some sumptuous illustrations to accompany their jewellery designs in a look book for Paris Fashion Week. Says Nadia: "Their work has to be seen to be believed!"

Vincent Is Cool

Not sweating one bit is Vincent Vigla with his busy work for Ludovic Barra at Café.com on Facebook’s immensely popular “Is Cool” iconography.

The design centres around three levels defining the type of user you are: “cool”, “very cool”, or “the coolest”. In this world of cool the Kiwi is the symbol of “Is Cool” and so far 51 Kiwi characters have been designed. Says Vincent: “The redesign of “Is Cool” is still going ahead with many upcoming funny things.”

Heroic Eustace

This heroic illustration is a competition entry to The New Yorker magazine by the gifted Matthew Laznicka.

The competition assignment is to create a cover featuring your own version of Eustace Tilley; the magazine's mascot. Says Matthew: "I love the old retro nostalgic illustration of the 40s and 50s so I did a sci-fi spoof. The New Yorker has run this contest for the last two years. Even if you don't win I think it's a wonderful opportunity for illustrators to challenge their conceptual skills."

Rock 'n' Roll Illustrator

New to the agency this month, but no stranger to the world of illustration is the mighty Vince Ray.

With his irresistible brand of "low brow" Americana graphic poster art, Vince conjures up a retro-world gone weird and wonderful, where horny Elvis devils with hollow-body Gretsch guitars lust after devil pin-ups girls. Vince brings with him a glowing portfolio that includes work for Hard Rock Café, Nintendo, Gretsch Guitars and Pepsi.

Happy Birthday Charlie

Marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in enigmatic style is Jonathan Allardyce and this masterly piece for Nature Magazine.

Says Jonathan: "Darwin is arguably the most influential scientist of modern times (in ways that he himself would never have imagined). No single researcher since has matched his collective impact on science, politics, religion and philosophy."

Gray Jolliffe's Scrapbook

Best known as creator of "Wicked Willie" Gray Jolliffe tells how he got into cartooning via architecture & advertising. Gray Jolliffe's Scrapbook

PlayStation Platinum Collection

This stunning blast of 3D art is the work of Ignite, who were asked to help out on Sony's latest PlayStation game collection advertising campaign.

A nice loose brief allowed Ignite's creative instincts to take full effect. Working initially with a hand-sketched layout that incorporated the key elements of the game titles featured, the Ignite team then built a hi-res 3D model directly over the layout.

Digital Education

This exciting snapshot of future education is the handiwork of Derek Bacon who lent his distinctive photo-montage skills to The Guardian last month.

The Guardian's special supplement that week focused on the future role of technology in education—and Derek's conjured-up scene of a virtual chemistry lesson in full flow featured on the front.

Wheels Gone Wild

All hell breaks loose in Tim Bradford's newest illustration for Ford!

Adrian Butnariu at Ogilvy in Dusseldorf commissioned Tim for Ford's recent 'Wheels Gone Wild' advertising awards event. Tim's job was to create a sinister looking world in which car wheels have taken on a life of their own, freed themselves from their cars, and are wreaking havoc on everyone everywhere!

He’s a Celebrity, Get Him in There

Replete with all kinds of exclusive gossip is Matthew Robson, who completed design work on the official site for ITV’s popular, “I’m a celebrity, Get me out of here!”

Working with digital Agency Numiko, Matthew illustrated the characters, animations and backgrounds for three online games. He says: “This was a fantastic job, we not only had to come up with a style that reflected the show’s diverse demographic, but the guests themselves had to approve the caricatures."

Hello to Alyana Cazalet

New to the agency this month with a wonderfully confident and expressive style is Alyana Cazalet.

Alyana’s work is largely based on her own people encounters and scenarios, working them into visual narratives using anything from felt pens to watercolour. Originally from Russia and now living in London, Alyana has a portfolio that already includes work for Smith+Manz, BBC Children’s magazine, and Hermes International .

Dead on The Launch Pad

This lively parody of political Ground Hog Day for Euromoney magazine comes from the nifty hand of Britt Spencer.

Commissioned by Rahul Singh, the concept was to show Treasury Secretary Geithner proudly pulling off the US stimulus plan, completely unaware that the plan is doomed to fail from the start, as other world leaders watch on anxiously, left with no other option but simply to hope for the best.

Hands of Hope

The subject of depression is handled in a powerful way with this compelling new piece for The Big Issue by Danny Allison.

The front cover and double page spread image was produced under tight deadline. Says Danny: “I decided to make a sun style image made out of kids' hand prints shining through a dark background colour. The article was needing artwork to illustrate young people helping elders out of depression.”

Away with the Fairies

Definitely sprinkled with fairy dust is Emma Rios and her recent fairy-related work for Harpers Bazaar, illustrating six pages, each image depicting a different fairy tale.

The fairy theme continues next month with Emma’s collaboration with The House of Fairy Tales working on a 4-day event at the Tate Modern turning the space outside the building into a fairy tale adventure. Ideas are still in the making but should be similar to the paper cutout set design recently on view at the 02.

wi-fi by Masha Karpushina

This hot piece of drawing comes from the talented hand of Masha Karpushina and is her entry for a Moscow Museum of Modern Art competition this month.

The competition is run for illustrators and is based on the title of “wi-fi” and ways that demonstrate how the internet is shaping the way illustrators work.

In With The Decemberists

Entering a poster competition for one of your favourite bands, and having them choose you as winner must be quite a buzz.

So it is for Kathryn Rathke whose poster for the Decemberists is everywhere right now at the Southwest Music festival in Austin Texas. The design incorporates a portrait of Ladybird Johnson (former president Lyndon Johnson's wife) who originates from the Austin area, Lyndon's face meanwhile appears on the child.

Aruba Lettering

Another exciting example of Ruth Rowland’s ever-varied lettering work is revealed in this ad series for Lowe New York's new Aruba campaign.

Creative Director, Raj Kamble wanted the copy on each ad to really express the personality of the subject, for Ruth this meant: “getting inside their heads, and nothing does this better than hand lettering which can be fine-tuned to suit an individual piece, giving each design a unique voice”.

Ice Cream, You Scream

Echo Chernik has just finished this huge packaging job for Langnese Safari Afrika ice cream which has just been re-launched in Germany.

The Safari brand is one in four in the collection all created by Echo: “I was in charge of the background illustration for the ice cream, with the typography and flavour elements placed on top in house. It was a wonderful job working with fantastic art directors over at Langnese.”

Tatler Makeover

Giving the fashion world an illustrative makeover this month is Jacqueline Bissett and these exquisite pieces for Tatler magazine.

Jacqueline has been commissioned for several jobs at Tatler recently, the latest of which was for an article on plastic surgery.“The brief was a layout mocked up with my images as they had a good idea of what they wanted", explains Jacqueline. “This involved a head and shoulders and a side view of a cropped figure to show off the breasts!”

Flaming Titles

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is the new Matt Lucas comedy show featuring fabulous title sequences by Keith Robinson.

Working alongside design and production agency Skaramoosh, Keith worked on the initial pitch, going on to design, direct and animate the final sequence. Using actuality footage, the sequence aims to introduce the main characters and reflect the personality of the show: “A groundbreaking action-comedy that is equal parts workplace comedy and sword and sorcery fun.”

michaelmaxxis.com

This terrific web page illustration is by Grahame Baker Smith who was approached by Canadian music video maker Michael Maxxis for this dark and delightful design.

As fate would have it, the two already had a strong connection. Explains Grahame: “I asked what band he was working with and he said a UK band that I probably won't have heard of called The Heavy. I nearly fell off my chair—the lead singer used to live next door to me! It was incredible to me to talk to Michael, thousands of miles away, and find this common and quite strange link between us.”

Insect Postal Art

Roger Kent is behind these supreme paintings of endangered species for the United Nations Postal Administration.

This year’s theme is threatened insects from around the world, including species from Asia, The Americas and Europe. Says Roger: “The clients were brilliant to work for and not only very encouraging, but gave me a long deadline which allowed me plenty of time to research and get plenty of reference material. The example here shows a large European beetle with an even larger latin name!”

Flying High

More brilliant paper skills this month with Gail Armstrong’s piece for in-flight magazine AA Traveller.

The brief was to illustrate holiday destinations where the dollar was still strong. With some Photoshop work to manipulate patterns and markings relating to dollars, Gail created papers from which to make the sculpture. It was then photographed by Jonny Thompson.

Aquent Calendar 2010

This dynamic scene is Dennis Juan Ma’s contribution to the Aquent Calendar 2010.

Working in mixed media, Dennis also takes inspiration from traditional Chinese paintings—the kind people would put on their wall to gain prosperity during the new year period.

Alien Gunk!

Vincent Vigla has just completed work on a fun set of children’s books for Harper Collins: ‘The Gunk Aliens’ series.

The four books, written by Jonny Moon, are illustrated in black and white with covers in colour, and feature around forty illustrations each. Says Vincent: “It was of course a very fun job to take, and two other books should be realised in the near future.”