Illustration Friday - Worn

Worn... this is something like a worn bird, whose wings are too old and wound, and whose body is too tired to fly.. the world is only a memory behind

Thesauruses

"What does a Thesaurus look like?" Idea from my friend Angela, during a casual conversation in front of some tea and feijoa juice. Possible development into a collection of figures.
Check out Angela's entry!

Down the Staircase

Just thought I'd post another illustration I made for my last assignment in Narrative Illustration.
Creating the setting and making up some characters was a lot of fun... and when it came to the cat, I thought I'd make it look like a special puppy-kitty. The staircase itself is meant to be a bit creepy and threatening, so that you feel some empathy toward that skinny kid.

Another life coach

Second version of the caricature for a life coach.
It's a fun project and I'll get to do more in the next weeks.

I haven't seen many caricatures of life coaches on the internet.... This is what I've come up with.
The risk of doing a caricature is that the person who is portrayed might not be as open-minded and ironic as you are :-P and some symbols might not be so easy to decipher
The child on top of the bar represents "life" (life coaching..), but it might be something that nobody understands except me... For this reason I just edited the whole thing and made a new caricature, using pen and ink (for nice comic style effects) and replacing the child with a teenager (because this life coach is a spiritual teacher for teenagers).
Will post soon :)

FIsh and Chips illustration

Pen and ink, digital colouring

Portrait of a chav

One of a series of illustrations I made for my part-time course in Narrative Illustration. Chavs are amazing creatures who grow in Great Britain, definition on the Urban Dictionary to check out

My Big business card works!

When asked for my business card today, I didn't have one. Instead, I took out of my folder an A3 pamphlet, with portfolio and resume alltogether in one.




Ok, I have to admit: it's not my original idea, but something I came across on Jacob Share's website http://jobmob.co.il/
and decided to adopt for my interviews. The result? Your employer can't help staring at such a big and colourful super brochure, and won't let you take it away from his/her hands!

Latest poster designs

The Marketing Obsession



The Manhattan Film Festival

Bumble bee

Here is the bee I used on my website for the contact me section. Unfortunately the website is offline, due to problems with the hosting. But there is always a silver lining...I can concentrate on blogging! :)

I am an illustrator, which in the art world, is very much equivalent to

I thught I'd make a nice banner for this forum, so I've been playing around with Illustrator and some nice fonts... to give it a grunge style, with a touch of old-style with pen doodles acually made with vectors.

The idea comes from the issue that illustrators sometimes don't have a clear position in the job market, or in the art world, or in the world in general: sometimes people don't even know what they do, others just place illustrators somewhere along the range which goes from graphic designers to fine artists.
One of the best things I found about this whole issue is a self-explanatory illustration by Brad Holland:




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One of the most hilarious definitions: "I am an illustrator, which in the art world, is very much equivalent to whore”, by Molly Crabapple
She does crazy victorian-style illustrations and here is a video where she talks a bit about herself: http://vodpod.com/watch/1086656-i-am-an-illustrator-which-in-the-art-world-is-very-much-

Function, Flow and Glow

This is a recent illustration I made while listening to an audiobook by David Deida, an american researcher and spiritual teacher: he talks about the possible positive outcomes of therapy, yoga and spiritual practice. For more information, check out his website http://www.deida.info/




My pencil drawing follows the flow and content of the speech and represents the way therapy can lead from dysfunction to function: squares and fragments of shapes. If you take a step further, Yoga allows the achievement of flow: spirals, round and soft shapes. Spiritual practice eventually leads to glow: powerful rays and

Capturing the essence of a fairytale tree

A few days ago I went for a walk with one of my flatmates to buy some groceries. We were sharing ideas and I was surprised by the sight of the autumn trees: they looked like people, desperately using their trunks to express their longing for something.
Beautiful powerful, skinny or robust branches.

I made this illustration a couple of months ago for a project called The Juniper Tree: it's a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, rather spooky. Check out the Gutenberg Project free files at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2591
This is a detail of the illustration: I used pen, and a combination of digital or ink colouring. What I tried to express is the intense presence of the juniper tree: it almost becomes more human than the little speechless and powerless man besides.
As Mervin Peake says in his writings, "Don't be afraid to express what you see, the impression you had when you were inspired": the viewer probably doesn't want to see something realistic otherwise he'd be happier with a real tree in front of him. Illustrations can do something magic, like words can do in a fairytale.

Read more >> Options >>

bomb at the masquerade ball

Some strong just strike our imagination for their creativity and inspired content. In the music industries and among emerging bands there is demand for cd covers and event poster design and so on... I never considered doing illustrations for an entire album and each song, before listening to the album of an Italian songwriter called Fabrizio De Andre'.

The lyrics is about a mysterious character who is unable to put up with the mediocrity and hypocrisy of society. Ironic lines follow one another offering the most original paradoxes ever: christian holy figures tired of their wretchedness and tempted by the possibility of a Nobel Prize; a tough competition between the Statue of liberty and a mythical Statue of Pity...

By the end of this queer and cryptic song, the guy has dropped a bomb at the masquerade ball. I made this illustration without preliminary sketches, thus the naive touch and some random imperfections. I used a superfine black pen on A4 paper, while listening to the song for about four (maybe more?) times in a row with my ipod shuffle.

Misshapen and cute

Coming soon.... The Art of Tim Burton

How often do you see misshapen ojects, or people? They don't look good.
But yet some illustrators like turning these weird, ghastly characters into appealing and unique treasures for our eyes. Behind them is some kind of alternative magic ratio between horror and cuteness, that is probably the reason why Tim Burton's creatures are so lovable and heartbreaking.

Such a “weird ratio” (instead of the classic golden ratio) has given Burton's aesthetic a distinctive touch and has no doubt helped win him thousands of fans, though many dissenting loud voices claim for a change of direction from this horror vibe.

For those who love Tim Burton, like me, there is a book with about 1000 of his illustrations. On April 30, 2009, Burton announced via his website mailing list that he’s releasing a book of his own personal artwork:

Coming Soon... "The Art of Tim Burton"
Hardcover and Limited Edition books - Over 400 pages & 1000 illustrations!
For more information please register at TimBurton.com
More details in the future!