Rachel Caiano
Tuesday June 24, 2008
White square figure nº 1, a collage original still available in her shop
I am in love with Rachel Caiano’s work. She’s an artist based in Portugal, who illustrates regularly for Gingko magazine and Domingo magazine; her simple lines made even more beautiful with strategic, yet minimal placement of bits of fabric and paper.
White square figure nº 51, Collage and drawing on paper, Private collection
She has a shop too, where she sells her original collage + illustration creations. My favorite has go to be this one.
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Little Jane Street
Thursday June 19, 2008
The Coin Purse and The Suit greeting card from her Signature Collection
I like the textures of these collage-inspired cards by Alarna Zinn, an Australian artist who recently launched a line of cards and tags at Little Jane St.
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Roadside Projects
Monday June 16, 2008
Project 002/ Part 017, Balloon Travel — Sold out
I remember trying to make a 3D illustration box once — something like a shadow box that’s illustration based. Of course, my first foray into the medium ended up far from being perfect. In fact, it was quite the disaster. So when I saw Jayme McGowan’s fantastic three-dimensional box construction with intricate cut outs, my jaws dropped.
Project 002/ Part 007, Huge Hands — still available
The artist and illustrator working in Sacramento, California, is now working on her second series called Dreamscapes, where most of her work have already sold out, except for this.
You can read more on her blog, or keep a close watch via her Flickr stream.
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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.
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Pick of the day: Regeneration
Wednesday April 16, 2008
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted up my picks of the day, I’m ashamed to say. But this Regeneration print by LivingInFreedom makes it easier to slowly start it up once again.
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.
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Interview: Cori Dantini
Thursday April 3, 2008
This week we interview Cori, and for those who are currently making the leap into illustration/art as a full-time career, well, I can only tell you that it’s a great read! :)
Buggy Reader archival print
Name: Cori Dantini
Location: For the moment… Pullman Washington, soon to be moving to Salt Lake City, Utah
Website/Shop: www.corid.etsy.com
Illustration media:
It might be easier to talk of the things I don’t use, but here goes: walnut ink, pen nibs, golden acrylic paints, watercolor, pencil, colored pencil, eraser, Photoshop, scanner, heat gun, wax, sewing machine, Photoshop textures (created and found) scanned into computer and used to build images.
Tell us a little more about yourself.
What can one say about oneself? I suppose I could start with the specifics. I am the wife of a lovely man called Liam, we have a son Henry(also wonderful), who is just about to turn 5 and a sweet border-chowbrador called Lucy.
Currently we are living in Pullman Washington, which is a little town that resides in the wheat fields on the Palouse. This is where Liam and I both grew up, and where my side of the family is still living (which is why we are here). We moved to Pullman a little over a year ago after Liam finished up his PhD in Neuroscience at UCHSC (Denver), but we are planning to make a move to the Salt Lake City area (soonish) for Liam’s new job.
Beyond that my life is crazy. I find that the wish I made years ago… the one that goes, I wish I could do illustration/artwork for a full time living… I wish people wanted me to do work for them, AND they would call me out of the blue. I wish I could make enough money to buy fancy shoes! It has ALL come true. But I say now, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR… because wishes DO come true. So I am busy, and I love it… but find myself now wishing for time to spend with my little guy Henry.
She Was a Bird Lover archival print
How did you get your start in illustration?
My road to a career in illustration has been unusual at best… it feels more like it knocked on my door and I answered, let it in… gave it a cup of tea. Made it a cake… and then it decided it wanted to stay and I let it.
I graduated with a BFA in Fine Art with an emphasis in painting. A painter is what I was going to be when I grew up. It seemed like I had known this since I was 9, and that was my plan. Graduate college, wait tables, and try to show my work… get [into] a gallery… and of course “get famous”.
Anyway, after I graduated from WSU, I moved from Pullman to Seattle. I got various jobs waiting tables and in the end found myself tending bars. This is where I met a liquor rep who in the end hooked me up with a job painting signs. One job turned into two, two to three… and it just kept going. The money was good. It was enough a month that I started to realize that one really could make a living doing something other than… doing something that seemed like work.
Then we moved. Sign connection gone. So I sat in Denver thinking about what I could do to make a living there… and I saw an ad in the newspaper, wanting artists to design clipart. So I went in, and they gave me a test… Draw a piece of fruit. Draw a car. Draw a realistic car. Anyway I did the exercises, and handed them in, and those silly folk hired me! I was so excited. I got a computer (my first), learned how to run Corel Draw and Photoshop. At one point I was designing (and processing) 200 images a week. Slowly that turned into greeting card design for CD ROMs… and that got me thinking that I should look into doing “real” greeting card designs. I bought a book, made up a few samples and sent them off. I think I sent off 10 sets of samples, and it started me down my next road. Those 10 sample sets hooked me up with Great Arrow, Allport, Paramount, Marion Heath… and believe it or not, 6 years after sending them out I was contacted by Madison Park Greetings, and now I have my own little line of cards with them too.
While all this greeting card stuff was moving forward I was putting portfolio’s online at guru, monster, portfolio.com… anywhere I could find really. This is how I got hooked up with a fabulous art director (Gale Venosdel) in Denver. He wanted to work with someone local, and he found me… and THAT is when my life as an illustrator took off. He was looking for someone to do work for a company called McStain (a green homebuilder in Denver), and that alone has kept me very very busy over the years … it has been really wonderful. Over the years they have let my style grow and change, and it is just getting more and more fun all the time.
Eventually Gale left Denver and went to work elsewhere, but he took me with him. Through him, I have completed a project for Dole, and a few ads/posters for Starbucks (when THAT first Starbucks phone call came, I was nearly in tears). He has had a wonderful influence on my career, and without him… who knows where I’d be.
I should add that through ALL of this, I was still creating paintings…and selling them as prints in Denver. I suppose that this is why when I found Etsy I was so into the idea of it. I could hardly wait to get started! Originally I set up a shop with my modern style painting. They are VERY different from what is on there now, and I didn’t sell a thing. Basically I started a shop and had no idea I had to do anything, and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. So I pulled everything off and sat back and watched and watched and looked (and looked). And one day I saw a piece by CHEVALIER… a girl drawn on a piece of paper from an old book. This is where the light bulb went on in my head. I had been collecting books/paper for years and years (15 or so)… the collection just kept getting bigger, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Until I saw that piece, And then I knew… ooooooooooh it was so exciting.
Originally I created about 12 pieces and while I was making them I found out that there was a call for artists, for a little art show out in a town called Palouse. So I took them out there and put them in. when we went out to see everything that next weekend, what I discovered was every piece had sold… then I hurried home, made more and listed them on Etsy. And now I find I never know what might happen due to Etsy… interviews (like this), being featured on blogs, galleries approaching me for paintings. It is all SO exciting.
Little Monster; Miss Britta and Her Goose Go To Market archival prints
What’s your favourite tool?
It’s a toss up between my walnut ink and these Japanese pen nibs (can’t read the label) or my MICRON .005 pen’s. And how can one forget Photoshop?
Are you a full-time artist?
Yes.
What or who inspires you?
I love sentences… that sounds weird, but I love (in particular) fragments of sentences. They get me thinking about “moments” I suppose.
I love Calef Brown
I love Amanda Blake
I love Camilla Engman
I love Gina Triplett
I love music… I love the way air can smell sometimes, all clean and fresh… full of possibilities. Wide open.
What keeps you motivated?
I want to get better. Everyday, I want to get better at what I do.
The Conspiracy archival print
What advice would you like to give people who would like to sell their works online?
Use Etsy… Etsy is an amazing tool. Use it.
Where do you see yourself within the next few years?
If it’s in the cards, I’d like to have another baby. And once those first couple of (hard) years are over, I’d like to get a rep and do MORE. More. More. More. OH- and books. I would love to illustrate children’s books.
What message do you want to send out to people about your work?
Each piece is a thin slice of me. Oh, and they look better in real life. REALLY.
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Pick of the day: petit herisson
Monday March 31, 2008
Love this collage entitled Petit Herisson by Nuria73, an original painting with mixed media – gouache, paper and wood on a 8×8“or 20×20 cm thick wood.
Takashi Iwasaki
Thursday February 28, 2008
Harikmodome, thread and canvas
Denshinhappa, thread and canvas
Takashi Iwasaki moved to Canada from Japan five years ago, and also runs Semai Gallery in Winnipeg. I don’t remember where I heard of him before, but I was reminded again of his works in Design Sponge’s post.
Failure, mixed media on paper
From left: Dancingtothedoorway, colored pencil, graphite; Matissehaus, colored pencil, graphite
His pieces are playful and whimsical, expressing positive feelings with the consideration on the formal qualities of shape, color, composition and space. I particularly feel his embroideries, collages and abbie drawings — a generalized nickname for Iwasaki’s abstract drawings and a play on the word ab -stract — are fantastically inspiring.
Takashi’s sketchbook from Book By It’s Cover
And there’s his sketchbook that Julia has featured on Books By It’s Cover’s Sketchbook Series.
What a treat! :)
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Yael Fran
Tuesday February 5, 2008
Yael Frankel’s shop is full of lovely miniature collages and illustration art – some of them wearable as pins on your cardigan!
Her blog is a treasure trove of miniature art, filled with doodles and illustration as well.
From top:
Sisters Don’t Know the City print (USD20); Teach Me pin (USD26); Both of us at home original collage (USD25); and her set of three postcards (USD10) .
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