Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Arts » Announcements

Dan Matutina Creates Edgy Google Planets World for Google Plus Course

Alex Mathers — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:28:03 +0000

I’ve been putting together a comprehensive guide for creatives and other freelancing heroes on how to use Google+ for winning projects and clients. Feedback has been really good, and the course becomes available on February 7th 2012.

I asked Philippines-based illustrator Dan Matutina to create the artwork for the course and to add some further depth to it. The brief was in creating a futuristic space-world that encapsulated the features of Google’s new social network Google+ as a professional tool.

This meant representing ‘Google+ Circles’ with planets and ‘Google+ Profiles’ with spaceships and zany control panels. The results, as you can see, were nothing short of fantastic, and I’m pleased to show them to you in the run up to the launch of the online course, which is available here.

Cover Image:

‘Part 1: Getting Ready!’ Cover Image:

Part 2: ‘Setting Up Your Google+ Hub’ Cover Image:

Part 3: ‘Taking Action!’ Cover Image:

The instantly downloadable e-course is available to buy here.

New Collection of Illustration in Print for Inspiration

Philip Dennis — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:58:05 +0000

DAAB Media have just brought out a series of books full of hundreds of pieces of illustration and design. If you’re looking for some new eye candy to keep you going through the winter months, you’ll certainly find enough here.

“FRESH combines a collection of international contemporary illustration used in a wide range of styles and techniques. Presented as a series of three volumes: Object, Public and Print. From personal work to commercial illustrations, from fashion to street art, from two-dimensional to sculptural approaches.

The FRESH series features more than 1,400 works of illustrative art. The selection of works reproduced in FRESH was considered by a jury of professional illustrators including Johannes König, Michael Luz, Mone Maurer, Raban Ruddigkeit and André Rösler. FRESH is edited by designers of Slanted magazine and weblog from the German Studio MAGMA Brand Design.”

“FRESH 1 – OBJECT explores illustration situated within a sculptural or spatial environment as well as celebrating various techniques of applied illustration for three-dimensional objects and products, from fashion to industrial design.”

“FRESH 2 – PUBLIC studies ideas behind the notion of street-art, graffiti and illustration in relation to architecture, in-store graphics and public space. Questioning the boundaries of staged illustration, the concept of permanence and spatial awareness.”

“FRESH 3 – PRINT provides a cutting edge presentation of illustration using its immediate material. Revealing personally ornamented relations to fashion illustration and commercially produced work for books, magazines, flyers and brochures. “

2012 Illustrated Calendar by Human Empire

Philip Dennis — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:03:57 +0000

It may be hard to come to terms with but, yes, it’s only a couple of months ’til the end of the year— where did 2011 go?! Whether you’re a super-organised kind of person who likes to have their new calendars in early or just someone who loves beautiful illustration on their walls, you may want to check out this 2012 calendar. It’s been put together by Human Empire, a Hamburg-based illustration and design studio.

As you can tell by the title, ‘Nature Calendar 2012′ runs with the theme of ‘nature’, with 12 artists from around the world interpreting the month, which they were given. The illustrations range from the more literal takes on the times of the year, to the more abstract and decorative, but are all beautifully designed. I particularly like the mixture of the bright and creamy colours in ‘February’.

The featured artists are: Bjoern Rune Lie (No), Vincent Mathy (Be), Mike Perry (US), Anton Weflö (Swe), Markus Oakley (UK), Human Empire (De), Adrian Johnson (UK), Merijn Hos (NL), Sergio Membrillas (Es), Karin Rönmark (Swe), Nan Na Hvass/Sofie Hannibal (Dk) and Adam Highton/Yule Bringer (UK).

Win a Copy of the Great Big Book of Fashion Illustration

Alex Mathers — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:12:51 +0000

*Winner Announced*

Pleased to announce that the winner of the Great Book of Fashion Illustration is Claire Kearns. Well done! The book will be heading your way shortly!

Thank you to everyone who contributed and took part in the competition!

–

We’re lucky to have partnered with Anova Books to give away a free physical copy of the brand new ‘Great Big Book of Fashion Illustration’, published on September the 16th, 2011.

Written by Martin Dawber, an internationally acclaimed author on contemporary fashion, style and image, the book provides a range of fantastic illustration images from around the world. From the publisher:

As the scope for today’s fashion illustrators is ever widening, the artists and illustrators featured here relish the opportunity to embrace a multitude of techniques and values that challenge the accepted ‘rules’ of traditional fashion expression.

Digital masterpieces as well as traditional drawing and painting are included along with styles and sketches using techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, photograph and watercolour. Further details are below.

Shiho Matsubara. Personal Work, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator.

Victoria Kim. ‘Lovers 2′, Pastel

Kerstin Wacker. ‘Flower Dress’, Watercolour, Ink, Pen, Adobe Photoshop.

To be able to win, you’ll need to do one of the following:

Tweet this line, exactly as it is, on Twitter:

Win a copy of the Great Big Book of Fashion Illustration, on Ape on the Moon > http://su.pr/2IfQj6 < RT for a chance! (via @moonape)

…Or write a comment in the comments area below this post!

The winner will be announced here on Tuesday 4th October, 2011 and contacted individually. You have up until the afternoon GMT, on the 6th to tweet or comment.

Bob Kessel. ‘Roger Federer’, Adobe Illustrator

More details from the publisher:

Fashion illustration is an almost lost art, with our digital age providing endless alternative sources for creating and crafting new art forms amid limitless boundaries. Full of fresh, cool and creative artwork – every kind of fashion is covered here, from women’s couture to tweenies, from lingerie to lipstick, swimwear to separates.

New for this edition, a range of fashion sketchbook work for insight into the creative and technical process is also featured. With over 1000 illustrations, this is the must-have sourcebook to have on the shelf of all those involved in fashion and graphic design as fashion illustration continues its onslaught on today’s media.

Good luck!

Popshot Magazine Print Shop

Philip Dennis — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:36:43 +0000

‘Popshot‘ is a magazine that is printed twice a year in the UK, and brings together beautiful poetry and wonderful illustration. Each issue gathers together a collection of poetry on a uniting theme, before pairing the poets with illustrators, who in turn interpret the work in their own way.

After having a successful run so far, they’ve decided to move from their pages onto our walls, and have opened up ‘Print Shop‘ as a means to display and sell work by some of the contributing artists. Jacob Denno tells us more.

My name is Jacob Denno and I’m the Editor of Popshot magazine— a bi-annual, Britain-based arts publication that champions contemporary poetry and illustration. Using our wealth of knowledge in the field of contemporary illustration we have recently launched ‘The Print Shop’— an opportunity to bring beautiful and affordable illustration prints to the walls of visual art/illustration lovers around the world.

After five issues of the magazine and having worked with over 100 illustrators, we decided to take six of the finest illustrations from the past two years and turn them into beautiful, collectable art prints. Each illustration is giclee printed, produced in limited edition runs of 150 and measures at a whopping 550mm x 675mm. You can find out more by visiting Print Shop.

Vend Send Mend Art Sale for Japan

Philip Dennis — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:15:39 +0000

After the March earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan this year, there has been an encouraging amount of support from the artistic communities all around the globe. Recognising that the need for aid is ongoing, artists Craig Bowers and Jee-Shaun Wang took on the task of organising a large exhibition, Vend Send Mend, to raise money for ‘Doctors Without Boarders’ working in Japan.

Now, the resulting collection of artwork is on sale, so make sure to check out their site and show your support, while also picking up great pieces of art! Here are some examples from the project and a little more information from Craig and Jee-Shaun.

On March 11, 2011, Japan’s northeastern shore experienced a massive earthquake, followed by a tsunami and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima power plant. In the wake of 2011 Tohoku earthquake, ‘Vend Send Mend’ was created as a means to aid the disaster relief of the battered coast.

We decided we wanted to create an illustration-based fundraiser with a Japan-related theme. In this way, we tried for two birds with one stone by introducing illustration into the Baltimore gallery scene as well as creating the opportunity to raise funds.

After juggling a couple of different ideas, the theme manifested itself in the form of ‘vending machines’ because of the fact that Japan has truly pushed the innovative design of those machines by selling everything from soft drinks to live lobsters to underpants. Also, it seemed like a fun idea that many people could relate to. The name ‘Vend Send Mend’ presented itself as both unused and catchy so it was adopted quickly as we moved on to develop the show.

The first step we took involved contacting a great deal of illustrators to contribute/donate original works of art for the fundraiser. Fortunately, we received a wealth of responses ranging from professionals to recent graduates and students from multiple continents.

As Summer 2011 began to settle, we booked the opening night show for July 1st, at ‘Sub-Basement Artist Studios’ here in Baltimore, Maryland. The show went very well and now the artwork from the show is for sale online at www.vendsendmend.com!

It’s been great realising how much talent is out there that we previously hadn’t known and we also acknowledge the extra mile that all the contributing illustrators and artists made by creating and delivering original works of art specifically for Vend Send Mend. We cannot express our gratitude enough for the generosity of all the VSM contributors.

Despite the disaster in Japan being out of the headlines the repercussions are long lasting and people are still in dire need of assistance. We’re aiming to raise $6,000 for ‘Doctors Without Borders’, an active and productive organization that dispatches medical help worldwide.