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Alex Chechik only recently graduated from art school and he’s already doing work this sophisticated. Gorgeous!
He currently works in Toronto as a freelance illustrator and designer for animation and says his influences include Nicolas Marlet, Tadahiro Uesugi, and vintage children’s books.
As well, Alex tells me, “Music is a huge influence for me. It’s greatly inspiring, and helps you put more emotion into a piece. I love putting on a video of a great live performance and painting along to it – that’s where the jazz illustrations come from.
Jazz is incredibly influential, but I do enjoy a fair amount of rock, electronic stuff and definitely some good hip-hop as well.”
For proof, Alex laid down some phat beats on his terrific demo reel that really sets the tone!
Alex says, “Since July of this year I’ve been trying to get into the freelance thing, while slowly applying for work. Making contacts and marketing yourself is definitely the biggest challenge in the freelance route; it’s a skill I still have to learn much about. But I enjoy the studio environment and collaborative work, so I’d love to get a full-time gig in visual development or design for animation. That’s a goal and I’m just beginning to seek out that type of work more aggressively.”
To which I have to say, “Hello animation industry? Why haven’t you snapped this guy up?!”
Alberto Mielgo is a Spanish illustrator living in London. He is a masterful painter who has an astonishing ability to create a kind of reductive literal realism that appears almost photographic. Here’s a small section…
… of a much larger illustration Mielgo created for an advertising client. On his blog he explains how he did six comprehensive roughs before this version of the image was settled on… and then, after execution, the project died!
Mielgo hints at his work on many major film and video game productions… but unfortunately, because of corporate secrecy, he is often unable to share much of that work with us. He had to take down an example of his contribution to Beatles Rockband, but was allowed to show a sketch from a Dorian Grey film project.
Alberto has also done some comics projects. This is a page from a story he drew for Image’s Popgun #3.
Illustration, concept art, comics… *whew!* … and somehow Mielgo finds the time to do fine art gallery painting as well!
MUTO blew my mind. This sends amazing sparkly-fantastic rainbows to my brain. OMFGROTFLCOPTER. I’m so happy to see more work by Blu, and to see it as a collaboration. The style of shooting is incredible because it emphasizes the work that went into it. Amazing.
Viz has released a translation of The Art of Ponyo – the art book for the animated feature film which hit North American theatres this month. As with all the Studio Ghibli art books, the highlights are the watercolours by Hayao Miyazaki himself.
Hello, it’s Patricia, and I’ve decided to come out from under my rock and actually make a post!
Confession: I hate cell phones. Don’t own one, and I plan on going to my grave never having purchased one. But – I do think it’s cool that one can create fabulous images with this contraption. Lately I’ve really been enjoying the iPhone art of a very talented Canadian artist, Matthew Watkins, who makes his home in Italy. I find his fantastical drawings intriguing and enchanting. The image above is a collage of some of my faves. I especially enjoy the drawings where he also adds a little story to go along with his image. Bellissimo!
Ok, back under my rock.
2 Comments on I Heart iPhone Art, last added: 8/1/2009
These are absolutely gorgeous and the work on his flickr site is great. I use Brushes and have recently tried using Layers but the skill required to get such lovely work out of them is beyond me. I do totally love the handiness of it though.
Lovely images here.
ma-ding said, on 8/1/2009 10:11:00 AM
Coool, I hope the Zune HD will have this app. cuz’I will never get an iPhone. And I hate cell phones too; never had one untill this year. It was given to me as a present; my peers said its “important” to have. Although I must admit it has been usefull
I was in Brooklyn this past weekend and visited the studio of Grady McFerrin - a great designer and illustrator behind this awesome Driveway Moments diorama for an NPR calendar. Here’s a peacock diorama too.
Here’s a quick snap I made of the original diorama with my iPhone:
Grady also does tons of rockin’ stationery for Chronicle Books, like this beautiful Photo Album:
Grady is so cool. I got to see some of his dioramas at his studio and they are great. It’s not easy to do work that feels totally unique in a profession ripe with imitators - Grady pulls it off.
aaron said, on 6/13/2009 1:30:00 PM
“The Driveway Moment” reminds me of Max Ernst’s “Two Children Menaced by a Nightingale”, but with a hint of narrative. That’s a good thing.
Check out Moray McLaren’s “We Got Time” video, with animation drawn and created by director David Wilson:
Using the 19th century technology of the praxinoscope, Wilson was able to create wonderful bits of animation with no assisting from the computer (well, no animation from the computer). The description from the YouTube page:
Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting or wiping between the bits of footage.
Curious? I was. Here’s a fascinating making-of video, explaining how Wilson created the video:
2 Comments on Moray McLaren’s We Got Time Video, last added: 6/15/2009
I haven’t seen such a cool, creative video in a long time. Fun to see some old-school animation revived. Good work, and thanks for the post!
monolithcreative said, on 6/8/2009 3:45:00 PM
it’s really cool to see a video of the artist explaining the work. we just don’t get enough of that nowadays. in some ways it ruins the illusion and magic but is a valuable resource for other artists and animators.
Crafty illustrator Meg Hunt has just made a bunch of these stunning little limited edition dinosaur pocket notebooks. Only 125 sets before this print run goes extinct… I asked her if she wanted to give some of the notebooks away on the blog and she said YES…
So, the first 5 commenters on this post will win a free set of Meg Hunt dino-pocket-jotters.
Lucky you.
If you miss out on the contest, you can buy a set (along with a lot of other awesome stuff) over on Meg Hunt’s Etsy page.
Another photo of the books after the jump…
10 Comments on First 5 comments on this post get a free set of Meg Hunt pocket notebooks, last added: 5/5/2009
Jeezus it was hell just logging in to the darned thing. Please replace all those faux swears with the real things in ALL CAPS.
baunilha said, on 5/5/2009 9:20:00 AM
:(
eschechtman said, on 5/5/2009 9:20:00 AM
Drat, missed it. Maybe first 7 posts??
ryancecil said, on 5/5/2009 9:20:00 AM
Damn caps! Well now in registered
ryancecil said, on 5/5/2009 9:21:00 AM
Ps hi dustin it’s funny “running into you” from the other side of the world
eschechtman said, on 5/5/2009 9:21:00 AM
Er… 8 posts?
jgwong said, on 5/5/2009 9:22:00 AM
Arrgh, too late. :(
simon said, on 5/5/2009 9:23:00 AM
oh … guess i’m too late.
liambrazier said, on 5/5/2009 9:27:00 AM
Well, it took about 10 minutes for your wordpress to send me my registration password annoyingly as I was here when there were NO comments. More fool me clearly.
Notebooks look sweet!
dharbin said, on 5/5/2009 10:05:00 AM
I guess the lesson is to post comments more often on Drawn, removing the need to create a login when there are speedy contests? I HATE THIS LESSON! Also, Hi Ryan!
Surprisingly, these are the first switchplate covers to be featured on Drawn, and this is the first time Mayforth’s work has been noted. You’re likely to recognize his work from pretty much everywhere.
1 Comments on Switchplate covers by Hal Mayforth, last added: 5/5/2009
Yes, it was. I’ve had this book for some time now. I love it.
El Negro Magnifico said, on 4/21/2009 2:43:00 AM
Yup, it’s a classic. I looked at the anniversary edition, and it’s amazing.
adanielsriveros said, on 4/21/2009 11:01:00 AM
Oh man, I checked out this book so many times when I was in high school that the book went from shiny and new to falling apart, so the librarian gave it to me. That was a good day. That was a decade ago, and I still have that book.
joedecie said, on 4/21/2009 12:12:00 PM
Back when I was writing, Subway Art, along with Spraycan Art and Style Wars were pretty much the only exposure to graffiti we had. We saw Dondi and Skeme and took our inspiration from there. Before the internet I think writing styles were more local; but we all started with Subway Art.
Lizzy said, on 4/22/2009 5:35:00 PM
I love to draw subway art! Man I need to get that book!
Kid Koala has dedicated three Mondays in March (kicking off tonight) to quiet music he has found in his travels, so people can get creative. Show up for five hours of quiet-time records with your sketchbook, knitting, notebook, or any other creative project. Says Kid Koala:
I was working on the Space Cadet book and realized at 8 hours a page I would have to log another 800 hours of alone time before this book would see the light of day. It would be great if there was a place I could go be social and anti-social at the same time. Somewhere I could look up from my desk and see something other than the wall.
As the site says, “Quiet people are invited. Bring something to work on. No dancing.” What a great idea. I hope it’s a huge success and we begin to see more events like this: creative anti-social socials.
Bernie is an illustrator; Lee a photographer. Together, they provide a vibrant and charming ongoing visual history of present-day life Vancouver on their blog: http://splinterinyoureye.blogspot.com/
Being a resident of Vancouver myself, I can attest to their ability to capture the personality of local ingredients beautifully. Meaning, elements of the city that people who live here see every day; not the stuff you see in the travel brochures.
0 Comments on Drawing Vancouver: Bernie Lyon & Lee Bacchus as of 3/2/2009 8:34:00 PM
The folks at the Moleskine notebook company are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the classic font, Helvetica, with a special edition (500 copies) Helvetica Moleskine.
I think there are some left. I hope there are. I just ordered one in a fit of financial irresponsibility.
Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt after thinking about approaches to their own work as artist and musician. Each card presents a question, dilemma, or new way of attacking the work you are doing as an artist. By drawing a card, you are given the chance to rethink your process.
The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a number of working situations when the panic of the situation - particularly in studios - tended to make me quickly forget that there were others ways of working and that there were tangential ways of attacking problems that were in many senses more interesting than the direct head-on approach. If you’re in a panic, you tend to take the head-on approach because it seems to be the one that’s going to yield the best results Of course, that often isn’t the case - it’s just the most obvious and - apparently - reliable method. The function of the Oblique Strategies was, initially, to serve as a series of prompts which said, “Don’t forget that you could adopt *this* attitude,” or “Don’t forget you could adopt *that* attitude.”
You can purchase the deck from Brian Eno’s site, but if you are as avid a Twitter user as I am, I recommend following Oblique Chirps. One of the cards’ text is randomly tweeted on the hour, which gives you many unexpected (and often much-needed) opportunities to re-evaluate your own creative process.
Update:
kfwinona mentions in the comments that Brian Eno himself is now Twittering and most of his updates are Oblique Strategies. Awesome!
Byran Eno now also twitters and some of his posts (I hate the word “tweets”) are Oblique Strategies: http://twitter.com/Brian_Eno
Kim said, on 1/9/2009 1:17:00 PM
For the Mac users out there, there’s also a Dashboard Widget of the cards - just click it to flip it over and get a random strategy. I downloaded it ages ago, but I assume it’s still available on the standard Mac widget site.
yann said, on 1/10/2009 7:35:00 AM
I also made a web version a long time ago… Might be useful to some:
Canadian magazine The Walrus has posted a two-part interview with cartoonist, author and creativity maven Lynda Barry (Part One | Part Two).
The conversation covers Lynda’s new book, What It Is, which is part journal comic and part workbook for blocked creative types. The article and book are recommended reading.
Johnny’s going crazy with the Lynda B posts! Good for you! I posted on the last one but I’ll post again because I did it late and maybe nobody saw: at marlysmagazine dot com there are now lots of videos of Lynda Barry talking about this book and the creative process she teaches in her writing course. Go Johnny Go!
Our friend Frank Chimero never rests it would seem. Together with Ben Barry, these two designer-illustrators have turned the notion of a FAQ into a stand-alone website called Questionable Characters where they will tackle the numerous questions they receive from students, and other creative types.
The other week I had the immense pleasure of seeing Lynda Barry speak in Toronto. She was in town promoting her book What It Is, part autobiographical comic, part how-to guide for blocked creatives.
The It in the title of the book is the idea of an image–a memory, a place, a feeling–and it is what forms the basis of Barry’s methods for storytelling. Rather than racking one’s brain for the perfect story idea, she shows her readers how to let the stories, the images, reveal themselves through word association exercises, and quick, easy writing assignments.
It’s a book that teaches adults how to play and daydream again, and it’s full of Barry’s humour and matter-of-factness. More than I recommend the book, though, I recommend seeing Lynda in person. I’ve never met anyone bursting with so much creative energy and joyful inspiration.
Her workshop tour, Writing the Unthinkable (Myspace link), finds itself in Chicago next — Jan 3rd and 4th — and it could be just what you need if you think you don’t have any stories in you to tell.
Daniel over at marlysmagazine dot com just posted a bunch of videos of Lynda B doing her “unthinkable” thing and reading from WHAT IT IS, so if you want an idea of what Johnny is enthusing about, take a look.
Design Sponge is kicking off a new video web-series - Design by the Book. Kind of a Project Runway but with a bunch of Williamsburg designers. And instead of the Parsons School of Fashion, it’s set in (drum roll) the NY Public Library.
The first episode is up and it’s got interviews with a bunch of interesting people. Notably:
Poster Boy remixes ads in the NY subway, often with hilarious results. Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan says:
Art: is it what he does? Culture jamming: a term too annoying to use any more, though everyone knows what it means. Sell out: is he bound to, eventually? Questions: he asks them.
These videos from the new PS3 game, LittleBigPlanet, are hilarious.
The game which was released last week in North America allows users to create their own levels. So naturally there’s a slew of awesome retro games being re-imagined in the LBP universe.
LittleBigPlanet: Galaga
(To play this level, search for user RRR30000)
The Tetris video had me laughing out loud as you watch the Sackboy jet around the screen trying to fit the blocks together.
LittleBigPlanet: Tetris
More videos after the jump….
LittleBigPlanet: Gradius
LittleBigPlanet: Donkey Kong
I haven’t played the game yet, but just watching these videos is entertainment enough for me.
It’s May 4th for a few more minutes where I am, so here are 
Can someone grab my jaw from the floor…?
I keep seeing Alex’s work pop up on various sites, yet it never ceases to amaze me.