Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Illustration » Watercolour Illustration

Suspended Motion: The Illustrations of Leif Parsons

moonape — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:55:15 +0000

I came across some highly cool artwork by New York based Leif Parsons. One of the re-occurring elements of his work is the capture of movement and action within his compositions, which enlivens the work he does. I sent over a few questions about his stuff to learn more.

How did you get into illustration?

I came to New York as a older student to study illustration, but I disliked it so I switched to part time and studied design.

While there I would also audit / sit-in on other classes that seemed interesting. Near the end I took a independent study with Bleckman and Nieman that re-ignited my interest in illustration, and upon graduation I just hustled and hustled!

What is the work process and tools of the work you do?

My illustration process is idea driven -I usually lie in bed and make notes trying to think of an idea that makes me happy.

I then get reference and sketch it up hoping I have cool editors / art directors that don’t want to make it more literal. For illustration I am essentially just drawing with a pencil though in my art practice I am using paint, collage, and assorted other materials.

What are you working on right now?

I just finished doing a op-ed collaboration with my friend Josh Cochran which was a first and fun. I am also working on the monthly editorial illustration I do for LA Magazine.

What is your one self-promotion tip?

Make something nice enough (and interesting enough) that you would want to keep it, then perhaps an art director will want to do the same…

Illustrations for Literature by Sam Weber

moonape — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:30:49 +0000

Sam Weber uses watercolour and acrylic paint finished in Photoshop to produce incredibly refined, ethereal pictures. He has produced work for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Random House and DC/Vertigo Comics.

Here I have featured the work he has done for various pieces of literature.

ANY_CHARACTER_HERE

Thirteen Orphans, Tor Books:

Lord of the Flies, The Folio Society:

Fever Crumb, Scholastic:

House of Mystery, DC/Vertigo Comics:

Prospero Lost, Tor Books:

MoonApe

Watercolour and Acrylic Paintings of Eric Davison

moonape — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:10:47 +0000

LA-based art student Eric Davison isn’t even out of Art school, yet he’s gathered quite a special collection of painted illustrations. The accuracy of the work, as well as the loyal attention to light and shadow to create depth make for some very accomplished paintings.

My portraits are often inspired by the public’s fascination with celebrity and the idea of the cult of personality.

I recently had an opening at Lebasse Projects, a Los Angeles gallery. It was a portrait show based around the costumed panhandlers, celebrity lookalikes, and would-be actors and actresses that hang out in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

When working on editorial assignments, I’ll try to combine two seemingly unrelated objects in order to create a visual device that will either tell a story or convey the central idea of a newspaper or magazine article.

I work heavily from photo reference. Most of the reference I’ll try to shoot myself. With celebrity portraits, I’ll try to modify existing photos by combining them with my own photography in order alter the composition and gestures to avoid infringing on other people’s copyrights.

I take a few other liberties with photography as well, by editing out unnecessary things, adjusting composition, modifying colors, temperature, light and shadow, etc.

I use a #5, a #10 Winsor & Newton Series 7 pointed round kolinsky sable brush, and a #12 squirrel hair mop.

As for paint, I use a combination of Schminke Watercolors and FW acrylic based inks. I like the velvety texture of Rives BFK, which is a versatile printmaking paper; it’s a paper that doesn’t need stretching unless you’re working very large.

Thanks Eric!

MoonApe

Drawings and Things of Tom Hovey

moonape — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:14:27 +0000

There are some really nice things coming from UK illustrator Tom Hovey who has made bright and colourful art for companies that include M&C Saatchi, London Design Week, Don’t Panic and Red Bull.

Story Telling Illustrations of Lizzy Stewart

moonape — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Lizzy Stewart, who lives and works in Edinburgh, and also recently went to art school there, has some great pencil and painting work. They are packed full of intriguing characters and scenes that conceal various stories.

I asked her a few questions on how she got into illustration, what and who inspires her, her tools and work process and what work is taking up her time at the moment.

What made you decide to get into illustration?

‘I started out studying fine art but switched to illustration at the end of my first year after realising that all I really wanted to do was tell stories with my images. All the work that I was looking at and feeling inspired by was illustrative and the work that I was doing for fun (when I wasn’t painting in the studio) was smaller, quieter and drawing based. As soon as I started it seemed as though I’d made a logical decision’.

Which artists to you gain inspiration from?

‘All sorts. Most of my inspiration to draw comes from music and literature but artist/illustrator wise a few of my current favourites are Joe McLaren who does really fun, charming illustrations and is great at filling a small space with wonder. Also Jon Klassen, who’s work is just perfect in every aspect and Micah Lidberg who blows my mind with the intensity of his line and colour, it’s crazygood stuff’.

What do you think is your most treasured tool used for your illustrations?

‘I always use a 0.3 Mechanical pencil to draw with. I can’t function without it. Whenever I go to visit my family in Devon I have to stock up on pencil leads before I go as I can’t find anything that fine at home. I love the versatility of pencil and how simple it is. It’s the first thing you learn to use when drawing and I love that link back to childhood’.

Can you explain your usual work process?

‘Procrastinate. Read blogs. Listen to music. Go for a walk. Finally face facts that I have to get down to some work. Scour my sketchbook for ideas and notes. Listen to more music. Have some toast. Then eventually start work. As soon as I get going it all comes quite easily, just getting there is hard. I tend to draw things in pencil and then either add touches of watercolour or scan them and mess around on Photoshop till something good happens’.

What are you working on at the moment?

‘I’ve just graduated so I’m getting back into doing work after the hand in/degree show period where not a lot happens creatively. I’ve got a couple of jobs on the go and hopefully some stuff pencilled in for the future. Most of my time recently has been spent sorting out ‘We Are the Friction’ – a book of collaborative short fiction and illustration by 12 international writers and illustrators that I’ve put together alongside my boyfriend Jez under the guise of ‘Sing Statistics‘. It’s been seven months in the making and it launches on the 23rd with an exhibition at Analogue Books in Edinburgh. Its pretty good, if I do say so myself’.

Thanks and good luck, Lizzy!

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Watercolours and more of Betsy Walton

moonape — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Betsy Walton’s bright and meticulously crafted paintings have a mysterious quality that make for a very fun viewing experience. I particularly like her way of contrasting organic forms and shapes with man-made objects, products and geometric shapes.

From Portland, Oregon, Betsy has always enjoyed making things, it being a steady progression. ‘I followed my interests and stayed with it‘.

In creating her paintings, Betsy uses watercolours on printmaking paper, or panels, acrylic gouache and a mechanical pencil. Occasionally she will use coloured pencils or collage paper into her work as well.

‘Being surrounded by a lot of fun materials and a fresh piece of paper‘ is the thing that inspires her creativity most.

Not revealing too much about her present activities, Betsy says she is currently working on a painting for a friend.

Great stuff, Betsy,

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Illustrations of Edward Kwong

alexmathers — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Edward Kwong is an illustrator based in Vancouver, Canada, with a portfolio of work that reminds me of some of the illustrations coming out of the early 20th Century during the illustration’s ‘golden age’. Ed explains his background and his work process for us.

Ed didn’t become interested in illustration until attending college. ‘Originally, I had more of an inclination towards character and concept design for video games or animation, but had a change of heart after being exposed to a great deal of illustration work from current and past decades. The variety of approaches and the encouragement to experiment and find a personal voice in illustration is what really sealed the deal’.

Ed’s work incorporates the use of graphite pencils, watercolours, gouache and acrylic paint, and Photoshop.

‘My process starts off with little doodles off the top of my head. A little bit of sorting out ideas and then a fair amount of research into whatever subject matter I want to illustrate comes next. Time here is really valuable and it’s where you can really get yourself excited and into the nitty gritty details about narrative or what type of mood or message you want to convey’.

‘Numerous thumbs of whatever ideas I have follow to weed out the weaker ideas for composition. Depending on the strength of the thumb, that will usually turn into a tighter compositional rough where specific details are further rendered out. From this point I’ll either transfer the comp (mock-up) onto whichever surface I feel is right (lately, that’s been heavy stock watercolour paper) or draw the composition over on the final surface fresh, with the comp as reference. Most of the grunt work is done traditionally with Photoshop later used to add colour, tweak levels or add graphics’.

Ed is currently working on a short comic for The Anthology Project, a collaborative collection of comics from various artists, and on illustrations for a personal mythology project.

See his blog for updates.

Thanks Ed!

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Rainforest Sanctuaries Series of Tatiana Arocha

alexmathers — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Living in New York City, but originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Tatiana Arocha has produced a spectacular series of illustrations inspired by the Colombian rainforests of her home nation. The series is entitled: ‘Rainforest Sanctuaries’.

The images originate from pressed plants, ink drawings, airbrush textures, photocopies, watercolours and old engravings. These are scanned and put into a collage using Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects for the animation of these pieces. An airbrush is applied on top of some areas to add a layer of subtle gold detail.

‘I love botanical drawings and I’m obsessed with collecting and pressing leaves. From one tree you can find so many shapes and forms. One leaf never looks like another.

What I love from 18th Century botanical drawings is that the illustrators needed to show an entire plant on a single page, so they would deconstruct it in a way that became very geometric and mathematical, losing some of its organic qualities. My work is similar but almost opposite because I like to combine geometric shapes to form something that feels organic‘.

Tatiana’s monochrome illustrations allow representation of the dead patches of rainforest in grey when seen from the air, which result from areas treated with herbicide to wipe out the coca plantations.

The black and white is also an ‘allusion to antique engravings from periods that a modern audience may not be able to relate to, giving the sensation that these rainforest scenes will soon become historical “pretty pictures” that our children won’t be able to believe ever existed‘.

Tatiana thinks of these illustrations as portraits and not landscapes, because they are not meant to be accurate, just a representation of her memories.

‘I want to draw attention to the fact that tropical rainforests are being depleted faster than anyone realizes; it’s projected that in 40 years the Colombian rainforests will be completely gone.

When my family was deciding where to go camping, my dad and his friend would close their eyes and point to a place on a map of Colombia and that’s where we would drive to, so we got to have a lot of adventures in places that were very remote. A few families would go on these long driving trips and we’d circle the cars and camp wherever we wanted to stop. Now it’s impossible to go on adventures like this in Colombia, and a lot of these places that had beautiful landscapes are being completely destroyed.

Now, since I live in New York, the only ways I can commune with nature are to go to the botanical gardens or going to the fake tropical rainforest at the Museum of Natural History. I miss having access to those places, and every time I go back home there’s less nature to see and feel connected to, and each time there will be less and less. It was something I took for granted all my life and I can’t do that anymore’.

Tatiana plans to continue developing the third part of ‘Rainforest Sanctuaries’, starting with a piece called ‘Biofuels’, which is being sold at CIA shop. She is also currently working on another illustration project called ‘Agata and Boto’, which will appear on her website.

Thank you Tatiana!

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Fairy Tale Illustrations of Cory Godbey

alexmathers — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Illustrator and author Cory Godbey has just completed a new series of illustrations for a show based on a selection of folk tales. Based in South Carolina, Cory has shared his time to answer some questions, including an explanation into his work process, as well as the tools and equipment he used in creating these pieces.

1) How did you get into the kind of illustration you do now?

I started in high school working for a small textbook publisher doing illustration and continued with that job on into college. I gained extremely valuable experience there as well of a working knowledge of Photoshop, how to deal with clients (the authors) and meeting deadlines. I started off doing traditional watercolors my first couple years there but slowly starting learning the software after a while. Photoshop became a tremendous tool for me.

Speed was the name of the game and the turnaround time of pieces painted in Photoshop versus traditional watercolor couldn’t compare. For what the final illustration needed to be, straight Photoshop coloring worked great. My method had evolved a bit to incorporate more traditional methods with the digital side of illustration.

While I was in high school and met up with Justin Gerard and Brannon McAllister, the two guys who would go on to found Portland Studios. We hung out, talked about art, talked about the kind of stories we liked. From there, 5 or 6 years later, here we are. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really great clients and do some fun work.

2) Can you run over your work process, including the tools and equipment used for this work?

I’ve found one kind of paper in particular that I really enjoy drawing on. I get it from Graphic Chemical and Ink Co. It takes the pencil very well and feels good to draw on. Typically, my process involves thumbnails, color comps., all that sort of stuff. From there I do my final drawing. I scan it, so I’ve got the drawing. Then I watercolor it. The watercolor is for texture and value. I love what opaque gouache does in the watercolor.From there I scan the watercolor and to some degree, depending on how badly I destroyed the watercolor in my quest for texture, I pencil back on top of the watercolor. I love the good line work and texture that this process affords me. After that I go into Photoshop and continue working digitally, depending on the stage reached with the watercolor.

3) What is the market like at the moment for children’s illustration do you think?

It’s slow like most other markets, I believe. Since my work doesn’t focus solely on children’s’ books I haven’t noticed too much of a downturn in work. But as far as picture books go, I’ve got one in the works for a client and several for myself that I’ve been steadily working on.

4) What are you currently working on and what’s in the pipeline?

Before working on “Grimm and Other Folk Tales”, I worked for two months on my story for Flight 6. You can see my contribution, “Walters” in July. Right before that I worked feverishly for several weeks of late nights on Ticket, my first book completely of my own doing. Looking ahead, I’ve got several personal projects I’m toying with, the biggest one will be later in the year. Justin and I have been slowly putting together plans to do a show based on Greek mythology.

Good luck Cory!

MoonApe; follow me!

Outer Worldly Artwork of Saddo

alexmathers — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Trained at the University of Art and Design in Cluj Napoca, Romania, and currently living in Berlin, Saddo (real name Raul Oprea) has an immense collection of art to his name. He specializes in surreal, bright and intricate characters and scenes, using a range of mediums including watercolour, acrylic paint, pencils and marker pens. As for materials, Saddo prefers plain paper, but has been known to work with wood, canvas and street surfaces.

Saddo doesn’t have a precise way of working, instead working with a general idea in his head, which he puts to paper before building up the composition in a way he describes as ‘improvisation’. Most of the ideas behind his work come straight from the recesses of his mind, with some help from his illustrator girlfriend, Heliana.

Saddo is currently working on a submission for digital media and modern art collective DepthCORE, which he has recently joined. He is also working towards more canvas and wood-based paintings, as well as some screenprints in collaboration with Supalife Kiosk, Berlin, as well as looking for some gallery space to showcase his work and ‘trash the walls‘.

Please Digg, Moon Ape.