Stacey Louise Joy
Thursday July 17, 2008
Percy Loves Ice Cream
Mr. Sausage Meets a Hungry Dog
There’s something very raw about Stacey Louise Joy’s illustrations — which she does with pencils and colored pencil in between. I find them endearing because of the plot of her stories — which she also illustrates. It mostly involves a penguin, a cat, a dog, and a sausage (although not necessarily in that order).
Comments [2]
Naoshi
Wednesday July 2, 2008
The ceiling boy’s love; The bad habit of a guy who lives in Post — both limited edition prints
Naoshi is an artist from Japan, who uses colored sand to “paint” her pictures. She sells prints and postcards of her work in her shop, and has done a lot of exhibitions around the world.
The method, called Sunae, is a fine art of sand painting, which, according to the little tutorial on her portfolio is basically drawing a picture, cutting some bits out and carefully blowing sand on it (she makes it sound so easy!)
And if you’d like to know more, you can read a little interview with the artist here.
Comments [3]
Leafty
Tuesday June 24, 2008
Clockwise from top left: Cloud People; Earthworm Love; Felicity Speckled Robin; and Sunbloomer miniature art toys
Have you seen the adorable miniature art toys made from reinforced paperclay by D.Platypus and Cocoakoala (yes, those are their monikers!) at Leafty?
You can see more at their Flickr and also read their blog for more cutesy goodness.
Comments [1]
LONO Japan
Thursday June 19, 2008
While I was in Japan, I was constantly searching for beautiful things to photograph, and sometimes, I do stumble into small, pretty and quaint little shops helmed by the creator themselves. Although my Japanese is poor (VERY, VERY poor), I do manage to make enough sense to tell them how much I love their work.
This little shop here is called LONO, and is created by Kazuyo. She makes each little doll by hand and paints them in her little studio in the Duce Mix building on Sanjo Street. She does wedding dolls too, and she paints on almost anything that can be painted on!
Ateliers in Japan are usually small in size, so I was very inspired by how she used her space — it is her studio (although I didn’t manage to take a shot at it, she has a small table with a iMac on it, and a lot of acrylic paint bottles with brushes), and also a small little mini shop-front.
A small table with her painted goodies — dolls, shakers and other toys
A close-up of her painted toys — she pays great attention to detail
A wall of softies!
I’m going to be sifting through my photo pile in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned! (The pile is BIG, and sometimes I forget what I have in there!)
Comments [3]
Victoria Usova
Friday May 30, 2008
Foxy Fox original painting
Victoria Usova is an artist/illustrator born in Ukraine, but now resides in New York City. I am coveting her Foxy original — check out the eyelashes on them!
You can also browse through her flickr pages where she has loads of her whimsical work up.
Comments [3]
Sarah Jane
Friday May 30, 2008
My Little Lamb print
When I see illustrations of children, it reminds me of my old story books — the kind that I used to read when I was tucked into bed. I also wondered why my hair was brown instead of the golden haired kids that’s running about in them!
Sarah Jane, an artist from Utah has been doing a fine job bringing me back to memory lane with her simple drawings of girly girls and dancing elephants. Her shop stocks plenty of adorable prints in various sizes, along with stationery too.
June’s White Dandelions print — a special print for the month of June; and Sarah’s lovely gift wrapping option
She also maintains a blog where she writes about life with her husband and her two beautiful children.
Comments [2]
Lauren Minco
Saturday April 26, 2008
The Happy Couple 8×10 print
Lauren Minco is a RISD graduate who will be joining the Illustration faculty at Monserrat College of Art Fall of 2008. She has done a fair bit of illustrating for several clients, and just recently opened her Etsy shop selling her prints and ACEOs (ACEO or Art Card Edition Original is like an art trading card).
ACEOs: Song for You; Sisters
I’ve never heard about ACEOs before I saw a couple of them on Etsy, so I think it’s quite cool — they measure 2.5“x3.5” and are perfect for collecting in binders, using in scrapbooks, framing, or slipping them in notecards to make it special. It’s sort of like having a collection of mini-art.
You can read her blog or hop on over to her shop to see more of her work.
Linda Solovic
Wednesday April 16, 2008
Maxine the Bird print
Linda Solovic sent me an email about her work and I am wowed — they’re 3-dimensional illustrations that’s given life with collages, with her materials that’s mostly made up of prints/patterns/textures, sometimes placed on found paper. I can’t collage anything to save my life, so you can understand how strongly I feel about this form of art – it’s beautiful.
Blooming Buddies — Wildflowers print; Tulip print
She has an office where she works on collages, gift and stationary development and pattern designs; while teaching illustration at the Washington University College of Art, at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts in St. Louis.
Julia the Bird print; a sample of her work that’s available for licensing
She just recently opened her Etsy shop where she sells prints of her collages. For a peek into her portfolio, head on here to see more of her work that includes embroideries, and works available for licensing.
Comments [2]
Jenny M
Monday April 14, 2008
Sleeping Cat: A matchbox original
This is rather clueless of me, but Jenny (of Flickr’s greenfemale fame) recently started a shop called Be Happy Now on Etsy selling her art. I’ve been a fan for some time now, but most of her illustrations were only available for viewing, so I’m happy that she now has a shop of her own.
Tiny Books
3 characters drawn on toilet paper rolls!
She’s one of my favorite artists on flickr who draws her whimsical illustrations on almost everything! She is also currently studying, and posts up illustrations based on the topic of old classics – her transformation of text and narration into illustration is very inspiring, mainly because I love storybook illustrations.
A page from her Moleskine sketchbook for the Moleskine Exchange Project
She hails from Israel, and there’s wonderful clips of her Moleskine sketches on YouTube as well. My favorite one so far is her tiny books filled with her illustrations, encased in a felt casing of their own.
Comments [7]
Corduroy + Groundwork
Saturday April 5, 2008
All I need — limited edition print
Let’s Grow Old Together
The Imaginary Photo; Ferns
Danna Ray runs Groundwork, an Etsy shop that sells prints — her work portrays a subtle message that focuses on nature.
Thin Air
The Greatest Day Ever
Toro print; Outlaw organic onesies
Her sister Jen Ray runs Corduroy, a shop that stock her prints and also screenprinted t-shirts and onesies. Her work is more playful and quirky of the two, with a focus on animals, although nature plays a big part in her inspirations as well.
Talent definitely runs in the family, as their mother also runs an Etsy shop that sells snuggly woodland creatures!
Comments [2]