Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Sketchbooks

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.”

Armando Veve’s Detailed Technical Pen Sketchbooks

Philip Dennis — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:21:28 +0000

Whether in his sketch books, on single sheets of paper, or as completed pieces, Armando Veve‘s drawings are embellished with overflowing details and fine renderings. I love the effect created by the sheer volume of marks and minute elements he adds. I can understand how arduous and time-consuming an undertaking they must be, which he goes into here.

A shot of his studio area is at the end of this post.

I run free in an imagined world where I am the architect, cartographer, creator and destroyer. Like building a sand castle, delicate lines and dots collect to form curious spaces that weave and dissolve.

A large part of my process involves collaging and digitally manipulating found imagery, both historical and contemporary, for reference. These images come from pictures gathered from Library Collections to images found online. As I better understand the direction a drawing will take, I will usually spend more time collecting imagery. Even if I don’t end up using all the images found, I archive them as they may be relevant for future drawings.

All of my drawings are done using a single-sized technical pen filled with calculated mixtures of inks. My process I have established is very slow and laborious, yet fully rewarding when a drawing is completed.

Sketchbook Sneak: Bryce Wymer’s Rich Sketchbooks

Philip Dennis — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:17:54 +0000

It’s always good to have a look at artists’ sketchbooks whenever the chance comes up, it’s interesting to see how different people use them in their own personal way.

I love Bryce Wymer‘s sketchbooks for their mixture of free, exploratory pages, and the more complete drawings, which sometimes find their way into completed pieces of work. Have a look at his website, where you can see how some these drawings have been used.

Christine Berrie Realistic Sketching

Philip Dennis — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:21:57 +0000

You may have seen Christine Berrie‘s illustrations for the Guardian Soulmate’s online dating agency, in which case you would have already come across her talent for precision with a coloured pencil. Now based in Glasgow, she completed her MA at the RCA in 2002, making a name for herself with her beautifully rendered photorealistic style since then.

While taken aback by the quality of her drawing and what she manages to repeatedly squeeze from a pencil, it was nice to have a look at the sketchbook pages and personal work that she’d included on her site. With so many different ways of working among artists, I always find it fascinating to see how others jot down, plan out and play around.

Tim McDonagh Fine Ink Sketchbooks

Philip Dennis — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:17:30 +0000

The detailing in Tim McDonagh‘s ink illustrations is fine and precise. An incredible amount is poured into every corner of the page to create vast scenes with lots to keep the eyes happy. However, Tim brings out even more when he colours them digitally. He particularly uses colour to bring out certain elements and allow them to come forward within the images they’re in.

With work that has such a polished quality to it, I was really happy to see that he’d included some scans from his sketch books. Although the finished images are beautiful, it’s also nice to see the individual marks of the pens, the rough working out, and ‘notes to self’ in these pages.

Eric Nyquist’s Sketchbooks in Detail

Philip Dennis — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:00:36 +0000

Eric Nyquist‘s design and illustration work often consists of highly detailed, focused drawings. He has created his intricate work for a range of big clients such as Heineken and Disney.

In his commissioned work, you can see that he can produce carefully thought-out, considered designs. In contrast to that, I thought that it would be interesting to have a look at his sketchbook pages, where he allows his pen to run free across the page.

While being beautiful illustrations by themselves, it’s intriguing to see his work in a different context and have an insight into how he processes his ideas.

Mattias Adolfsson’s Moleskine Sketchbooks

Katherine Holt — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:56:58 +0000

Mattias Adolfsson’s fascinating moleskine sketchbooks are bursting with highly detailed scenes lovingly drawn in ink and often complimented with touches of delicate colour. It’s not just the volume of work he produces that’s remarkable, it is also the imagination present in each piece.

With inspiration ranging from the architectural to the animal, each page is rendered with amazing skill and clarity. Below is just a tiny selection of Mattias’ enormous back-catalogue.

Matreshka Illustrations of Irina Troitskaya

Alex Mathers — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:48:36 +0000

As I am away in Japan for three weeks beginning March 18th, I have handed over a few posts to my guest poster and friend, graphic designer and proprietor of Aqua-Velvet, Amy Henderson.

Greetings, Ape on the Moon fans! I am very honored to be with you and help out my talented and hard-working friend Alex whilst he is away on a much deserved holiday. I will be back next week… same time, same place.

Today I present the super clever work of Irina Troitskaya, an illustrator and educator based in Moscow, Russia. Irina’s portfolio is quite dense with an exciting mix of personal projects and client work. Her illustrations have been commissioned by Elle, Hewlett-Packard and BMW amongst many others.

I am particularly fond of her contemporary reinterpretation of Russian matreshka dolls which you can get a taste of below along with a sneak peek at her terrific sketchbook. Enjoy! –Amy

“Irina Troitskaya grew up in Izhevsk, an industrial city deep into Russia. She has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Her delicate, surreal and poetic works record those fragile moments of life which hard to capture, because they vanish from our sight in a blink. She tells us stories of intimate relationships between a bear and a bird or a fish and a lion whose coexistence seems impossible, but yet true.”

See more on Irina’s website + flickr

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Graphite Drawings of Marissa Textor

Alex Mathers — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:13:47 +0000

California-based artist Marissa Textor has some exceptional pencil drawings of natural objects. They are of such sharp detail that they could pass as monochrome photographs. I’m happy with this find.

Drawings of Matt Mims

Alex Mathers — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:03:33 +0000

Look no further than the sketchbooks of Matt Mims if you are looking for edgy drawings created through a mixture of strong and softer lines. Matt’s work demonstrates an accomplished, jarring style resulting from what is clearly a lot of practice.

Matt uses ‘mechanical pencils, regular old graphite pencils, Micron ink pens and Sharpie pens. I usually draw in the random sketchbooks and Moleskines laying about the house’.

Evidently a very proud father, he fits drawing and painting time whenever he ‘can find the time between changing diapers and cleaning up after my son.‘

Matt is currently working on getting his website and online store up and running. He has original artwork for sale and will eventually be supplying prints of select works.

Thanks Matt!

MoonApe