Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Pencil Illustration

Anna Higgie, Fashion Illustration and Intricate Hatching

Philip Dennis — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:22:04 +0000

Although sometimes collaged and abstracted with a mix of digital rendering, Anna Higgie’s work is so strong because it is built up on a strong foundation of skilled drawing. She uses extremely fine pencil hatching to create these beautifully realistic and soft images.

Because her mark making is so tightly stitched together, the drawings take on a nice photographic quality from a distance but a more sketchy, free style when enlarged. The pretty, delicate nature of her illustrations works perfectly for fashion, as well as with the minimal palettes she uses. She tells us more.

I am a freelance illustrator. I use a combination of traditional and digital methods to create my images. I create collages on the computer using Photoshop then use these as a basis for a drawing. Then I scan the pencil drawing into the computer and add colours, again using Photoshop.

Sometimes, I use coloured inks or pencils to add colour but I have recently been tending to use Photoshop more for colours, with maybe just a splash or two of ink in the image, for example red lips…

Liam Stevens Building Detailed Dioramas from Skilful Pencil Drawings

Philip Dennis — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:52:19 +0000

Although Liam Stevens‘ skilful drawings are impressive enough, we like his work because he’s taken it a step further, creating miniature sets, which are then softly lit and beautifully photographed.

His drawings themselves are rich in contrasting textures and tones. Often showing vast natural scenes, areas of smaller, more precise detailing are set next to deeper, more expressive dark shades drawn with a heavier hand, giving a nice range or feeling throughout one piece.

In other work such as Vol. 7 of ‘Living Things’ by independent publishers, Little Otsu, Liam deconstructed his drawings and rebuilt them as these amazing dioramas.

They literally bring a new dimension to his work, with lighting bringing mood and atmosphere. We especially like the jaguar skulking in the shadows, while its prey graze in the softer light, unaware. He tells us more about how he works.

I predominantly work with my mechanical 0.7mm Pentel pencil, scalpel, paper and a little digital for slight adjustments etc. I keep a note book handy whenever I possibly can as I find ideas suddenly manifest at any time – It’s always good to make a jotting for future reference and work through them as and when.

I have been working on an animated music video for a while now and that is due to be released soon-ish. So, my illustration work more recently has mainly been little visual experiments and one off pieces to keep my brain refreshed while I am engaged in this heavier, more time-consuming animation project.

At the moment I am trying to learn and sharpen my understanding of the animation process so that in the not too distant future I may be able to more confidently work towards a short I have loosely storyboarded.

The picture below is the view from my desk.

Nostalgic and Softly-drawn Pencil Illustrations by Gabriella Cetrulo

Philip Dennis — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 07:10:17 +0000

Gabriella Cetrulo is a Brooklyn-based artist inspired by nostalgia. Her images capture the glamour, and more elegant beauty that was portrayed by film stars of the past. We like the softness in her pencils, which adds to the still, contemplative mood a lot of her work has. She uses stripped-down colour palettes that work with the natural tones of the pencil, often only injecting the slightest hint of pink or lilac here and there.

“As a freelance illustrator, I like to create images that show the human quirks of characters from the past. I generally like to use mechanical pencil to draw the initial image and then clean it up and edit the colors in Photoshop.”

Delicate and Surreal Pencil Drawings by Brooklyn-Based Langdon Graves

Philip Dennis — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:16:06 +0000

Originally from Virginia, USA, Langdon Graves is now based in Brooklyn, where she creates these beautiful, ethereal drawings, while also working in sculpture. Her drawings have a nice, calm stillness about them, possibly fromt the tone of the brushed-on graphite or her reduced, simple arrangements.

The familiar is mixed together in unusual combinations to make these delicate, surreal compositions. Check out her website to see her sculptural work, too.

“What I do isn’t only about what I end up making— I do a lot of reading & research, and synthesising the information I find to be interesting is a considerable part of my process. The hands-on part takes the form of either drawing or sculpture. For the drawings, I work mostly with graphite and pastel on mylar.

I like .3mm mechanical pencils best for line work and I also use loose graphite applied with brushes to create very smooth textures. Intricacy and exactness are important to me because I’m asking the viewer to accept unreal relationships of real things.”

Vladimir Stankovic’s Warm and Weird Insect Drawings

Philip Dennis — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:19:00 +0000

‘Entomology’ by Serbian illustrator, Vladimir Stankovic contains beautifully fragile drawings of insects with just the right amount of wonderfully weird. At a glance you might miss the odd extra eye or misshapen head. After further inspection, you’ll see that they are strange little, alien creatures.

As he tells us below, the soft, warm feel to Vladimirs drawings is achieved through a love of more traditional materials like pencil and watercolours, although the computer is still used.

My name is Vladimir, I’m a graphic designer and illustrator born in the town of Nis, Serbia, currently working on my master’s thesis in Finland.

No matter if I’m working on a personal project or for a client, I always try to combine different techniques and approaches. I love the idea of contrasting type and vectors with the handmade and hand drawn elements and illustrations. The use of Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. is a necessity for every designer, but colored pencils, watercolors and markers are the materials I’ve been using ever since I can remember, and it’s always fun experimenting and finding new ways of applying them and seeing the results.

Philipp Zurmöhle’s Structured Sketching Style and Digital Drawings

Philip Dennis — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:46:44 +0000

We’re enjoying the energetic and structured pencil work from Philipp Zurmöhle. Based in Nuremberg, Germany, Philipp works as graphic designer for apparel at Adidas Performance, while also working on his own illustration and design projects. His work is a real mixture, balancing a more digital style with his pencil drawings. He tells us more.

My artworks have recently moved away from abstract graffiti-inspired drawings to more figurative ones. Those often show monkeys or other animals in a tribal or cult-like situation. They tend to have a vigorous expression, that contrasts with their almost soulless eyes. I mostly use pencil, ink and aquarelle on big sheets of paper.

For my commercial illustrative work, I use a combination of hand drawn elements and vector forms. I don’t like the very digital outlook of images, so I try to make all them look a bit more tangible.

Will Long’s Atmospheric Illustrations from Pencil to Digital

Philip Dennis — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:45:59 +0000

There are some really beautiful textures being woven together in Will Long’s illustrations. Using a mixture of pencil work, scanned-in surfaces and Photoshop elements, he creates these moody, often chilling scenes. We’re enjoying the cinematic quality and sense of stillness in them. He tells us more about his process.

“My work usually originates as pencil sketches with varying degrees of detail. Everything after the sketches is done on Photoshop. Some sketches I work from and others I scan in and work on top of.

By this stage I normally have a loose frame to build up and I lay out shapes with the polygonal lasso. I use a Wacom tablet and custom brushes to make textures or refine the shapes. I’ve also got a bunch of scanned textures, which I sometimes bring in, and on recent projects I’ve blended the white and light greys away, cut bits out and rearranged them.

At the end, I like to merge everything and blend it with a texture, or drop very low transparency colour layers over the top. The picture seems to sit better as a ‘whole’ afterwards— I think that’s just to satisfy myself and make it easier to leave it alone.”

Sketchbook Sneak: Topher MacDonald

Philip Dennis — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:52:05 +0000

Here’s a look at some of Topher MacDonald’s wonderful sketch books. We love the use of lines and one-directional shading.

“Topher MacDonald is an illustrator and avid sketchbook keeper who just moved his studio from Milwaukee, WI to New York City. He uses pencil, ink, Photoshop and Illustrator to create his illustrations, portraits, zines and comics.”

Nick Sheehy/Show Chicken’s Beautifully Surreal Universe

Philip Dennis — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:16:17 +0000

Haunting owl-like creatures brandishing strange instruments, in battle with creepy serpents, fill Nick Sheehy/Show Chicken’s depictions of his mythological world. Perhaps it’s his characters’ hollow eyes that create the unsettling atmosphere, but the lovely pastel colours and delicate pencil work create something altogether beautiful. We’d love to see him work on a children’s book!

“I like to draw weird pictures of things I’ve not seen before, combining clumsy with precision. I start all work with a mechanical pencil on either Bristol Board, Moleskine or heavyweight drawing paper.

I like to work into a drawing with crosshatching or standard shading, using a combination of leads and then colour at the end with thin glazes of acrylic paint, colour pencils or watercolours. If the work is for a commercial project then I usually colour in photoshop.”

Illustrations Inspired by Myth from Juan Chavarria Jr.

Philip Dennis — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:32:35 +0000

We love the simplicity in the way Juan Chavarria Jr. treats his pencil illustration in Photoshop. The restricted palette highlights the drawings beautifully. He describes below how he finds inspiration and creates his work.

“I read a lot of mythology, or tragic stories online. If I read something I could translate into an illustration, I instantly brainstorm in my Moleskin with a Staedtler pencil, or sometimes a Sharpie pen. When I find that I’ve accomplished the story told in its simplest way, I transfer that onto large sketch paper. When the drawing is finished, I scan and color it in Photoshop.”