The Doom Girls
Posted by Amy on Thursday March 11, 2010
Not all girls are sugar and spice, and The Doom Girls understand this fact. In fact, they celebrate it. The impish grin, the sneaky laugh – we’ve all been there, haven’t we? ;)
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Claire Murray
Posted by Amy on Wednesday March 10, 2010
I don’t quite know what it is exactly, but I find myself keeling over laughing my head off at works by UK illustrators. (In a good way — I’m laughing because they made me laugh!)
My latest find and indulgence is Claire Murray. The fun really starts when you head on over to her website dedicated to her zines entitled The Joy of Hate — an illustrated zine of pet peeves. (Remember to zoom in on the covers. Hilarious.)
Also, here’s a tip for navigating the website: hover over the left or right hand side of the white paper and a hand will pop up, which will let you go forward or backwards to see more zine entries. It took me some time to figure it out!
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Sponsor giveaway: Benconservato
Posted by Amy on Tuesday March 9, 2010
Everyone should have a monster to call their own. Mine would be one that’s a little rough around the edges, scruffy looking with a gruff voice, but a big heart (and one with a smile goes a long way too.)
If there ever was a lady who could translate my perfect monster onto paper, that would be Emma Kidd of Benconservato. She’s based in Australia, and is an artist, illustrator, printmaker, and photographer who’s always busy dreaming up and drawing monsters!
She’s giving away a set of Monsters Behaving Badly Colouring Book and a 6-pack of Colour Me Happy Gocco Party Invites to ONE lucky reader if you’ll share with us your favorite monsters (real or imaginary!)
Giveaway ends on 16th March 2010 and the winner will be announced via email!
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Rand Renfrow
Posted by Amy on Wednesday March 3, 2010
Quirky illustrations, zines and posters from Rand Renfrow. He hit the nail on the head with It Seems Like It’s Missing Something — an illustrated book of quotes collected from people’s humorous encounters with outsiders to the design and art world; a collaboration with Shaun Fox. I bet the designer who has these sort of clients are tearing their hair out instead of laughing when told the same thing!
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Sponsor giveaway: Bread of Many
Posted by Amy on Tuesday March 2, 2010
This week’s sponsor giveaway comes from Bread of Many, a paperie shop run by Haley Dolan Katko. Tired of the same old boring items she sees everywhere, she took matters into her own hand and created a unique line of paper goods that combined her love of imagination, humor, and fantastic realism by way of hand-lettering and original illustrations.
Just comment by 9th March to be in the running, and you might win a pack of 5 Wussup flat note cards + envelopes from Haley!
UPDATE: Commenting has now closed, thanks so much for participating. The winner of this giveaway is Amanda Howland.
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Society6 Artist interview: Aurelie Grand
Posted by Amy on Tuesday March 2, 2010
Awhile back I posted about collaborating with Society6 to pick out an artist every month (it’s more like a bi-monthly thing though!), and our third pick this time goes to Aurelie Grand. There were tons of applicants, and while it was no easy decision to make, Aurelie stood out because of her sense of style, and the various media that she uses. Here’s definitely one lady to watch!
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Name: Aurelie Grand
Location: Montreal, Canada
Website: www.aureliegrand.com
Shop: socuute.etsy.com
Blog: lilyk.canalblog.com
Illustration media: ink, digital, photography, acrylics, fabrics
Tell us a little more about yourself!
I was born in Toulouse «Pink City», France. I grew up in a small village closer to the Pyrenees. My dad has always been an illustrator (though he was also a full time dentist for a while) and I used to spend hours in his studio either watching him or doodling. As far as I remember drawing’s always been my number one occupation. I honestly never stopped. How nerdy is that?
I currently live in Canada with my boyfriend Max who’s also an artist.
Where do you live? What stands out about living where you are, and what is your daily schedule like?
I spent 3 fun years in Vancouver, Canada and I recently moved to Montreal, Quebec because I wanted to experiment the North American East Coast for a while and we have long-time friends here. Montreal is culturally rich, there’s a lot of artists, parks and bikes (and snow), that’s enough to inspire me.
I like to wake up early and start my day by sketching ideas, new projects etc… Then I have to say I’m not very productive in the afternoon so I’m networking, reading, having a nap, or just hanging around . My favorite shift at the studio is 9pm-2am. I guess I get more focus at night. I also like to take the bus home from the studio with drunk people.
How did you get your start in illustration?
I wrote and illustrate a book when I was 9 or 10. It was an elementary school project, a sort of novel inspired by a school trip. It was about 2 detectives (a dog and a hamster) who were investigating on missing horses in a farm. We sold the books to parents and friends at the school annual show. Ha!
I didn’t go to art school right after high school, even if I really wanted to (I wanted to be a graphic designer actually) mainly because my family did not seem to agree with the idea but I know now that I wasn’t ready anyways. So I went to university to study cell biology and animal behavior for 4 years which was seriously interesting but I soon realized life’s too short and I was wasting my time there.
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Review + mini giveaway: Idea Log
Posted by Amy on Friday February 26, 2010
I love notebooks, sketchbooks and boy am I a list person. I’m always hunting for the next best thing in combining the three, and somehow it always involves a pair of scissors and later on, heartbreak at doing a terrible job at massacring modifying a perfectly good notebook.
The people at Knock Knock must have heard my howls of regrets over the untimely demise of the books and sent me the Idea Log – it’s a handy-sized notebook that has a few sections that will make jotting down your next big idea a cinch. My favorite so far is the Idea Log section where you can write down ideas (alphabetically, I kid you not), and also the Sketch Log section where you can actually draw stuff ideas out — which is normally what I do when words fail me.
If you’re as mad about lists and planning as I am, then you’d want to get your hands on a copy for all your creative outbursts. And here at Pikaland, I’m going to make it easier for you!
I’m giving away ONE copy of the Idea Log to ONE lucky commenter who answers this in the comment section:
Describe Pikaland in three words.
You have one week to submit your answers, and this mini-giveaway ends on the 5th of March.
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday! (also, did you enter Fawa’s giveaway yet?)
UPDATE: Commenting has now closed, thanks so much for participating. The winner of this giveaway is when skies are grey
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Karolin Schnoor
Posted by Amy on Friday February 26, 2010
Absolutely loving the simple and effective illustrations of Karolin Schnoor, an illustrator based in London. She just opened up an Etsy shop, lucky us!
{Sent in by the awesome Jealous Curator, thanks love!}
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Ashkahn
Posted by Amy on Thursday February 25, 2010
Loving the humorous work from Ashkahn (pronounced ash-con). There’s other stuff available from his shop that I’m not showing here for not being not safe for work (NSFW) reasons, though I think it’s hilarious.
I’ll give you three hints: muff, more muffs and booty.
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Poketo Papercut wallets
Posted by Amy on Wednesday February 24, 2010
I’m a huge fan of Poketo, but I think their latest collection of papercut series wallets may just be my favorite yet.
Featuring the works of Jayme McGowan, Thereza Rowe, Jared Andrew Schorr and Joe Rogers of Colourbox, these wallets would be awesome when put together! If I had these lovelies they would most likely be framed – they won’t be seeing the inside of my pockets that’s for sure.
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