Originally from Poland, UK-based illustrator Magda Antoniuk makes extremely well-crafted drawings, using a mixture of pencil and digital tools. Her ability to mold real depth into these drawings through close attention to shading, is very impressive.

© Magda Antoniuk, 2010

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John Lee is a freelance illustrator based in Memphis, Tennessee who caught my eye recently with his striking yet delicate artwork with really excellent choices in colour. He’s also a writer, so I look forward to a self-illustrated book of his!

© John Lee, 2010

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You might remember Oregon-based Peruvian designer and illustrator, Santiago Uceda’s poster art as featured in a previous Ape on the Moon post here. What he’s great at is the hand-drawn, rough style of his artwork.

Santiago is back to share his step by step work process behind one of his recent posters, featuring the Portland hipster Bigfoot. Enjoy!

Materials: Pencil; Sumi ink and brush; Block printing ink; Roller; Plexiglass; X-acto knife.

1. Ideas

The challenge was to create a poster for a Society6 Portland poster series based on fun facts centering around Portland in Oregon.

One thing that is often associated with the Northwest is the mythical creature Bigfoot. Bigfoot is not necessarily associated with Portland, but I figured this is a place he would call home if he were given the chance.

2. Sketch

I always start with a light pencil or blue pencil sketch and then ink that. I don’t do to many preliminary sketches. There’s usually a very rough sketch just to get the idea and placement across and after that is final.

I sketch & ink the different elements separately and then assemble and color them in Photoshop.

I wasn’t quite happy with the first Bigfoot, so I drew another one on a separate piece of paper and then collaged them together.

3. Color and Texture

I create my textures with mono-prints or with ink. For the river texture I made some wavy textures with mono-prints. I rolled some ink onto the Plexiglas and made some wavy strokes with a brush.

I then transferred the ink to a piece of sketchbook paper.

Colors don’t really matter at this point, I usually change colors in Photoshop.

For the clouds I cut out some cloud shapes, rolled ink on the Plexi, put clouds face down on ink, place another piece of paper on top of cloud, cut out and then scribble on top of that sheet. The scribbles are transferred onto the cloud cut outs.

The bridge and hand lettering were done with Sumi ink and brush..

Once it’s all been scanned and composed in Photoshop, I start playing with color by applying color to individual layers with layer effects.

The multi-colored rain was a bit much so I toned it down and ended up with a more subdued palette.

And there you have it!

ⓒ Santiago Uceda, 2010

Excellent, thank you Santiago!

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I’m very intrigued by Californian artist Brooks Salzwedel’s unique style and approach to these delicate works, that combine nature and rigid human-made structures. It’s nice to see work that brings in different non-digital materials to what we’re used to.

Using a combination of Staedler Graphite pencils ranging from 6H to 9B, tape and ‘Awful toxic resin‘, Brooks creates images that look like relics of nature and other objects frozen in time.

I also love the gloomy and almost real effect that’s created by having elements between semi-transparent layers. They are also reminiscent of some of the pictures of flattened leaves you’d get in school science books.

‘When working on a piece I ask myself what images I want as the focus or in the foreground then literally draw the images on the layer that coincides with the layer in depth. The layers are semi transparent materials floating between layers of resin.’

ⓒ Brooks Salzweder, 2010

‘Right now I’m working on new pieces with the use of gel mediums. I’m trying to break away from the resin and see what other materials I can explore and how I can add more graphic and painted elements.’

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