I’ve been trying to pick a good time to feature Aurélie Neyret (a.k.a Clo/Clochette) again after the first time I posted her work. There’s such a flurry of it on her blog that it’s been hard to pick a good moment, but now is as good a time as any.

There is so much that other illustrators can learn from Ms. Neyret. The immediate thing that strikes you is her very sophisticated but pure use of colour. Clearly she must be paying a lot of attention to the details of clothes and hair too, as her work is always very solid in these aspects. The real charm is in the grand gestures and the subtle micro-expressions of her characters; there’s a breath and a brain inside each of these people, and you feel like you know their personalities at a glance.

I am very much looking forward to Cerise, the graphic novel which she has been working on. I expect the time it’s taken is a good sign that it will be an especially rich piece of work. I’m glad to hear that she will also be contributing to the second edition of The Anthology Project.

There are lots of silly spontaneous scribbles and sketches too:

Her tutorial video is still available: $30 at Massive Black.

Dr. Sketchy’s began in Brooklyn 5 years ago, thanks to the inventive mind of illustrator Molly Crabapple. Today, there are over 100 branches around the world (NB – at the time of writing, the site’s Branch Search doesn’t come up with all the venues that exist, so the link to the Branch List in the last sentence is more reliable).

It’s a combination of life drawing and burlesque. Levels of nudity will depend on the laws and customs of the locality of your branch. As the FAQ explains this is a fun event, so a lot of care is taken to maintain a happy atmosphere. I’ll be at the next event in Brighton, UK on Sept 5th at Latest Music Bar, Manchester Street. Tickets are £8 adv./£10 on the door, which means it’s not only better than traditional life drawing but cheaper too! I can keep in touch with future events in Brighton via the Dr. Sketchy Brighton Facebook group, and if you search Facebook for Dr. Sketchy you’ll probably find a page for your local organisation.

Small Town Noir is a blog about criminal offenders in New Castle, Pennsylvania in the period 1930-1959. The pictures come from a discarded box of police mugshots, which have been combined with the archives of the local newspaper to create a little history about each person featured.

Illustrators and concept artists can get caught up in creating the same kinds of faces over and over again, especially so if the artists have studied theoretical proportion too closely. It’s easy to forget that these guidelines are there to help you to create an average face. While it’s true that the basics of facial proportion are correct for the majority of people’s skulls, the muscles, fat and skin can make a significant difference to each individual’s appearance. This blog could be a very useful resource for anybody who is trying to create believable fictional people, and being able to read a little about each person’s life might assist with character creation too.

The majority of Laurie Lipton‘s artwork is carefully created with many fine lines of charcoal and graphite. You can see zoomed-in detail shots on the website, which reveal the intricacy of the technique and also narrative elements which aren’t obvious from a distance. A closer look will also reveal a lot of blunt dark humour (such as the connection between the tea mug printed with Guernica and the images of war on the television screen in the first image).

Very clever use of middle grey versus middle red to create disintegrating halftone effects in this piece by Machine56.

A nice collection of posts about Dave McKean this week at Monsieur Bandit:

Interview 1, in which Mr. McKean talks about returning to drawing after a hiatus, and recent projects including a new film and…

a book with Heston Blumenthal.

A short film

Finally, a second interview.

Take a look around the rest of the Monsieur Bandit blog too.

Maddeningly tiny wood and graphite sculpture.

First, Dalton made a pencil nib alphabet:

…and then went on to create even more ambitious pieces.

See the whole gallery at The Telegraph

Watch and learn over the shoulders of great artists at Sketch Theatre

Mary Jane Ansell creates arrestingly beautiful paintings in Brighton, England. If you like what you see here, you’ll enjoy the huge collection of her work on her website. Her next solo show will be at the Fairfax Gallery, Chelsea from the 30th of September.

Click for Ms. Ansell’s Twitter.

Just when you think you’ve seen every possible way a graffiti artist could write their name on a wall…

Seen at My Modern Met.

Yet again, My Love For You Is Like A Stampede Of Horses has drawn my attention to something beautiful. Today, the blog is featuring work in progress from Lindsey Carr‘s studio, and I strongly recommend that you subscribe to the My Love For You RSS feed.

You can buy Lindsey Carr’s prints at Society6.

You missed a better title, Patrick Boivin!

Studio Ghibli, the makers of esteemed animated features such as “My Neighbour Totoro” and “Spirited Away”, are set to release their first video games in collaboration with Level 5. “Ni no Kuni: The Another World” debuts on DS for Christmas with the most elaborate PS3 version arriving next year.

The trademark Ghibli art style seems to be translated perfectly in the PS3 version. While it is too early to say if players will be able to steal a truck full of heroin or shoot a prostitute in the face, the game appears to employ a turn-based mechanic similar to the Final Fantasy series.