I really like Paul Blow’s work. He uses a great color palette that reminds me of retro illustrations and propaganda posters. The sold colors overlaid with black linework fuse together amazingly.

Paul Blow’s initial works were all rendered by hand, however he decided to go digital with his work (without compromising his style). His reasoning: changing colorschemes becomes much quicker and efficient digitally.

Paul has earned an MA in Narrative Illustration from the University of Brighton along with a gold award from the Association of Illustrators for editorial illustration.

I learned something basic, but very essential to sketches in my drawing class. Contrast is key in creating visual appeal in pieces… and I found that to be true! Even in photography, we’re more drawn to those photographs with higher contrast as well.

For drawing, there are so many different modes of contrasts that we can play with.
- Thick to Thin
- Different pressures (dark / light)
- Chaotic to calm lines
- Visual emphasis (example: the image above, where there are lost and found lines. The body is disappearing..)
- Usages of different lines

Just adding the opposite element of whatever you are drawing really helps it stand out more. Some sketches with solely one type of line seems flat and less appealing.

If you are into the art toy & vinyl figures world, you will know who Kozik is. Maybe you’ve seen his Labbit illustration or is cigarette smoking a cigarette figure.

Frank Kozik, born in 1962 in Madrid Spain moved to the United States when he was a young boy. When starting off, he was known for his concert poster designs in the mid 80’s. Since he was reviving art in concert posters (which was lost for quite some time), he started forming a reputation as an artist. His reputation then grew bigger as he begun to work on posters for bands such as Nirvana and The Beastie Boys. This is just a gist from his high profile work which ranges from the Rolling Stone to Spin magazine.

I came across a booth at the Toronto Fan Expo 2008 at the Artist’s Alley. Picked up a postcard from a booth and decided to check out the website because Darryl’s colorful postcard caught my eye:

Darryl Graham’s Wolfman

He has also designed custom shoe

Check out his website/blog for more works & information about this Toronto illustrator.

I love checking out the sketchbook’s of artists because you get to see their ideas and creative processes before the final pieces (it’s sometimes more interesting then the final product itself). If you also like having a look at artist’s websites, have a look at Stella Im Hultberg’s site.

Here are a few excerpts from her sketchbook

Travis Millard is another illustrator that contributes to the clothing line: Blood is The New Black. Travis releases quite a few small zines under Fudge Factory Comics International.

Andrea Shear, a painted an artist who is currently based in Los Angeles, CA. She is also known for designing shirts for the clothing line Blood is the New Black

Jeremyville is an artist and designer who has produced quite a few vinyl figures. He has also been the first to publish a book on designer toys called Vinyls Will Kill. Have a look at his site if you want to shop at his online store or have a look at his other pieces.

Takashi Iwasaki, an illustrator who also uses embroidery as a media to convey concepts. All of Takashi’s work that were hand embroidered are quite abstract:

Puberty

View more Embroidery pieces here.

Yoshi Tajima is a Japanese illustrator and graphics designer. Yoshi’s main media includes gouache, watercolour, pencil ink and an Apple computer.

Daydream

Smart1

If you’re interested in checking out more works of this illustrator, visit R A D I O