Illustration and Inspiration

Short animation Ormie

2011-08-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

Just brilliant!

The Lost Thing 3D animation - Shaun Tan

2011-02-23T05:34:00.001-08:00

Meet Buck

2010-12-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

More pictures and the short at http://salesmanbuck.com/

Interesting view on education

2010-11-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Great artist sketchbooks!!

2010-11-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

ArtistSketchbooks.com!

Ever wanted to discover new sketchbooks and artbooks from your favourite artists? Artistsketchbooks.com has a wide selection and database of artbooks as well as iphone apps, take a visit today!

The featured artists, apps & books on the homepage are determined by how many "Likes" are received.

Click on the image below for more info:

The Lost Thing 3D animation - Shaun Tan

2010-10-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.thelostthing.com/

The Lost Thing Animation by Shaun Tan

2010-10-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.thelostthing.com/

Ansel and the great tree

2010-10-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

Great oilpaintings by Quang Ho for the childrens book 'Ansel and the great tree'.

Watercolor art

2010-09-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Fantastic watercolors. Visit the artists site!

Parigot

2010-09-26T01:38:00.001-07:00

Salesman Pete

2010-09-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

Salesman Pete

Watch How an iPad Was Used to Paint This Stunning Hologram

2010-09-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

This Is Where We Live - beautiful stop motion animation

2010-09-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Moonshine book

2010-08-13T00:19:00.001-07:00

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/251

Jim Flora design

2010-08-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

http://jimflora.blogspot.com

Great Jazz cover designs

2010-08-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

For much more, visit: http://www.birkajazz.com/archive/columbia.htm

N.C. Wyeth

2010-06-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Pretty extensive post on N.C. Wyeth @ http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/

Heart

2010-06-25T11:31:00.001-07:00

Heart from Jamie Caliri on Vimeo.

http://www.jamiecaliri.com

Le silence sous l'écorce

2010-06-25T11:18:00.001-07:00

http://joannalurie.blogspot.com

Lemony Snicket's End Titles

2010-06-25T11:17:00.001-07:00

Lemony Snicket's End Titles from Jamie Caliri on Vimeo.

New Joe Sorren painting

2010-05-27T04:33:00.001-07:00

Joe Sorren:
http://joesorren.com/wordpress

How to train your dragon concept art

2010-05-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Nicolas Marlett is the best!

Blur Studio: A gentlemen's duel - animation

2010-05-05T07:44:00.001-07:00

Elk Hair Caddis - animation

2010-04-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

Elk Hair Caddis from peter smith on Vimeo.

http://elkhaircaddis.com

Concept Art Un monstre à Paris

2010-04-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

No words for it. Just fantastic work...
http://suaupatrice.blogspot.com/

Movie Posters 1960-1979

2010-03-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

Mysterious Mose

2010-03-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

Lectures

2010-03-20T02:35:00.000-07:00

The society of illustrators published the lectures; http://societyillustrators.org/museum/LectureArchives.cms

Harmony

2010-03-12T02:22:00.001-08:00

Harmony: online drawing tool

An inspiring talk

2010-02-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Lacombe

2010-02-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

http://benjaminlacombe.hautetfort.com/les-contes-macabres-e-a-poe/

Simple Stroke

2010-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.simplestroke.com

Some great artists

2010-02-09T06:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.arludik.com/indexeng.htm

Chris Sickels

2010-02-07T01:28:00.000-08:00

Beautiful illustrations by Chris Sickels.
-Site
-Blog

Jeremy Enecio

2010-01-21T04:15:00.000-08:00

www.jenecio.com

David Kassan...

2010-01-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

Tjebbe Beekman

2010-01-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

Exhibition by Tjebbe Beekman going on somewhere in Holland, but I can't remember where...darn...you have to see these up close.

Xavier Collette

2010-01-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Great illustrations. For more of her work, check: http://coliandre.blogspot.com/

Drew Struzan Hellboy DVD

2010-01-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Wouter, this has got to bring back USA memories. The guy released a dvd!

By The Famous Artist school

2009-12-30T01:04:00.000-08:00

Daniel Caylor made 'the Commercial Art & Illustration course' from 1960 available as download. This course was published by the Famous Artist School, founded in 1948 by Al Dorne and Normal Rockwell. Good material! The downloads can be found here.

Daniel Egneus

2009-12-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

Great illustrations by Daniel Egneus

Alma - short animation

2009-12-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

http://almashortfilm.com/

Carcamo

2009-12-16T00:22:00.000-08:00

Beautiful artwork by Carcamo

Great character design by The Beast is Back

2009-12-08T00:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.thebeastisback.com

Good Vibrations

2009-12-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

Studio AKA - Lost and Found - Artwork

2009-11-21T02:37:00.001-08:00

Stunning artworks by production designer Amandine Pecharman of Studio AKA's animation Lost and Found', based on the book of Oliver Jeffers.

Check out much more of these great illustrations at:
http://lostandfoundartblog.squarespace.com/

For more work of Amandine Pecharman, check out Gobelin's animation 'Cocotte Minute':
http://vimeo.com/1242689

het wordt een hete kerst....

2009-11-11T02:25:00.000-08:00

Grizzly bear

2009-11-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

Grizzly bear, een favoriet bandje van me heeft een video laten maken door Allison Schulnik. Playdoh is de koning van de klei.

Begel

2009-11-07T04:02:00.001-08:00

Tekkonkinkreet - fantastic animation

2009-11-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

The Hyde Tube

2009-11-04T02:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.thehydetube.com

Baptiste Rogron

2009-11-04T00:56:00.001-08:00

Fantastic drawings by Baptiste Rogron, a member of the Lighthouse Keeper-team.
http://rogronbaptiste.blogspot.com

Lighthouse Keeper / La phare - animation

2009-11-04T00:35:00.001-08:00

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER from THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER team on Vimeo.

Amazing short animation and fantastic lighting.

Dmitry Maximov

2009-11-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

Very nice images and concepts by Dmitry Maximov.
For more, visit:
http://www.fubiz.net/2009/02/05/dmitry-maximov/
or
http://tebe-interesno.livejournal.com/

Eva Vázquez

2009-11-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

Very nice work by Eva Vázquez!

Martijn van der Linden

2009-10-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

My good friend Martijn finally has a blog. Check out his amazing work here

Notes from Howard Pyle

2009-10-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

This post was taken from this blog.

The great American illustrator, Howard Pyle, taught about two hundred students in his lifetime. Of those, about eighty became well-known artists and illustrators. His assistant for many of those years was Charles DeFeo, whose job it was to clean Pyle's palette, reset it with fresh color, wash the brushes, and take Pyle's French poodle, Bijou for walks. While DeFeo was in the studio, he recorded some of the advice Howard Pyle gave to his class.

First an artist- then an illustrator.

If you are going to be an artist all hell can't stop you. If not, all Heaven can't help you.

If you receive only fifty cents for a job, put as much of your heart into it as you would in one you are receiving $500 for.

If you are doing a black-and-white, a little color will hide a multitude of sins.

If you are painting a sky full of birds, or a garden of flowers, or any objects- show one or a thousand.

If an object in the foreground of your picture looks too big, make it bigger. If it looks too small, make it smaller.

After the first half-hour of work, your lay-in should kill at a hundred yards.

If you can make a picture with two values only, you have a strong and powerful picture. If you use three values, it is still good, but if you use four or more, throw it away.

In using three values he used to say, "Put your white against white, middles tones (groups) against grays, black against black, then black and white where you want your center of interest. This sounds simple, but is difficult to do."

If you're doing a fight picture or a stormy scene make the background fight as well as the figures in the picture.

A strange color, that is different from the color scheme of your painting, use in one spot only. It will be beautiful, but do not repeat it.

They will never shoot you for what you leave out of a picture.

Your picture is finished if it is one-third as good as your original idea.

My favorite of DeFeo's reminiscences of Pyle's class, however, is the comment Pyle would make after giving a painting demonstration: "I'm afraid you didn't get much out of it outside of entertainment for you could see me work, but you could not see me think." Whenever I have witnessed a demonstration by a master painter, I am always left with the frustration of seeing what they did, without knowing WHY they chose to do what they did. For better or worse, I know my style will always have a signature element that is me; I am not seeking to be a copy of another artist (no matter how brilliant they are). If I could only "see how they think," though, perhaps I could approach that master's skill.

Holland Animation Film Festival 2009

2009-10-24T02:22:00.000-07:00

Holland Animation Film Festival 2009
4-8 November 2009
Utrecht, The Netherlands

http://haff.awn.com/

Clayton Junior

2009-10-24T02:10:00.000-07:00

New Studio AKA member
http://www.claytonjunior.com/

Studio AKA blog:
http://studioaka.squarespace.com/

Collection

2009-10-20T01:50:00.000-07:00

I collect images that inspire me on deviantart. It's cool to see that over time a very wide collection has grown. See http://artoonator.deviantart.com/favourites/

Autumn scenes

2009-10-19T03:01:00.000-07:00

Beautiful photographs of recent Autumn scenes around the northern hemisphere. From The Big Picture, Boston.com :

Mark Gmehling

2009-10-19T00:46:00.000-07:00

http://markgmehling.weebly.com

http://ilikecharacters.com/

Eric Canette

2009-10-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite comic artists. Great inking. http://kahnehteh.blogspot.com/

Todd Schorr

2009-10-17T04:39:00.000-07:00

Alfred Joseph Casson

2009-10-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

Beautifully stylized paintings by Alfred Joseph Casson. Check out those clouds in the last image..... Truly a treat!!

Making of Portrait of Nathan - Jason Seiler

2009-10-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Great photoshop-portrait by Jason Seiler explained in 10 steps.
Visit this site to see all steps:
http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/photoshop/nathan/nathan.html

Enrique Fernandez

2009-10-12T02:34:00.000-07:00

http://enriquefernandez0.blogspot.com

Grain edit site

2009-10-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

Great graphical designs at:
http://grainedit.com/

Totoro Forest Project

2009-10-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

A fund raising exhibition/auction to support the national trust Totoro Forest Foundation that Oscar winning film maker Hayao Miyazaki has been helping over the years, featuring original art created by internationally acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comic books, and illustration.

http://www.totoroforestproject.org/

Sargent notes

2009-10-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

John Singer Sargent notes on painting -click to download pdf-

Coby Whitmore

2009-10-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

John Gannam's watercolor memories

2009-09-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

Peter de Seve Tutorial

2009-09-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

The full tutorial can be found here and here

Outdoor inspiration

2009-09-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

This season always inspires me. The color combinations are great. So I take my camera every time I go out. Here are some pics I took last week.

Bernie Fuchs is dead

2009-09-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

Bernie Fuchs, master of light, is dead. Long live Bernie.

Simon's Cat 'Fly Guy'

2009-09-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

This is too funny!

Israel Sanchez

2009-09-13T01:11:00.001-07:00

http://www.israelsanchez.com/

Miroslav Sasek

2009-08-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.miroslavsasek.com/

Dean Cornwell Notes

2009-08-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Taken from art and influence blog

(all images Dean Cornwell)

By Armand Cabrera

A student of Harvey Dunn, Dean Cornwell was one of the top illustrators in the Untied States in the 1920's and 1930's. At the height of his career he gave up illustration to become a mural painter, studying in England with Frank Brangwyn. Dean Cornwell espoused many of the philosophies of his two teachers Dunn and Brangwyn and these notes reflect that philosophy.

Don’t imitate the artists you admire. Be inspired by the ideals they put into their work- use their sincerity as an ideal but develop your own individuality.

In good sound painting the important qualities are color, design and surface quality, while in illustration; form particularly, character and spirit are the prime requirements. An illustration must be a picture and not a diagram of the text.

There are no rules for good composition. The subject matter and the spirit or idea should dictate and govern the composition of any particular picture.

Anguish and worry mixed with paint is never good towards a happy end.

A picture had much better be interesting than accurate. It is what you have to say and how you say it that interests anyone.

It is difficult to convince the average student that pictures are not produced with paint. Neither are they made from the wrist.

When you travel, sketch the things that characterize a place, not the things it has in common with other places.

Get the smell of a place and try to paint smells rather than visuals

Don’t paint a picture of a man, paint a man.

A good composition must be a good abstraction

Discipline yourself; the things we do without discipline generally get us into trouble.

Develop a style so far removed from the photographic standpoint the camera can’t supplant you.

In all my references to painting I bar the ultra-modern

I do not believe the government should support any artist because he found picture making more pleasant than pants-pressing!

My second set of Dean Cornwell quotes from Art Student League lectures given in the thirties.

For background material, go to the source, not clippings of another illustrators work. Build you own files with your own sketches

Do what the camera can’t do- the camera can’t add the spiritual; it can’t go beyond the mentality of its models. Test your work ask yourself “Can the camera do what I have done?” If you can make a real picture you won’t have to worry about the camera.

One thing is definite-ART IS IMPORTANT! Man drew pictures before he could read or write and he still looks at pictures. Let us then agree they should be good.

In speaking of art, Frank Brangwyn says the best art is that which serves the best purpose.

From all we can read of the old masters they did not set out to produce art but to do well a given job

No one can ever hope to attain success as an illustrator when this aim is not their sole purpose in life.

Any picture made by a rule is most likely to result in looking like rules and hence will always lack distinction and personality.

The first thing a student seems to think important is that of acquiring a style. It is truth we are striving for and style is a bit of the man himself that stands between the observer and the idea and is always a distraction.

Every thought in the artists mind is always manifest in the result. If you are thinking of how the paint is put on your canvas the result will be this is your message.

To understand art apart from facts one must go to the work of acknowledged masters, while fact may be gained from nature. We must realize that art is interpretation not imitation.

It is the quality of selection in everything at all times that makes for the artist. Whatever you do, do it as well as you can, whenever in doubt, don’t do it.

Art is a language complete and distinct from literature. Anything that can be said in words is not a subject for a painting.

A picture so limited to any one line in the story is not worthy of space.

I have known illustrators to lack imagination to the extent that they allow or depend on the model to give them an interpretation. Very rarely have I ever found a model that can get into a pose in spirit or drawing the way I would like it on canvas. You should know enough about drawing so that your action or posture is definitely established on your canvas before ever calling the model.

I have always started without drawing in the charcoal first but with lots of medium and very large brushes working entirely in tone and mass. In laying in your picture this way after a few hours at a distance of twenty or thirty feet your canvas should look complete and finished. Until this is so it is not a lay-in and until you have a good lay-in no thought should be given to the use of models.

Drawing is an indispensable aid to the illustrator. By this I do not mean academic drawing, this is of practically no value.

A successful picture is a thing conceived as a whole and cannot be attained by the sum of its parts. The sum of the parts is never as great as the whole.

It is impossible for any man to paint and not leave traces of his personality. In the work of big men, despite this, the idea is never obscured by technique or manner of presentation.

One thing I do not believe that any museum curator or board of directors has the right with taxpayer’s money to take it upon him or themselves to select what they think the Public must accept as the best contemporary art.

I do not believe in art criticism or art critics- I do not wish to throw anybody out of a job but they should confine their columns to factual reviews, pointing out what comprises “so and so’s exhibition, the medium used, and where they’re hung, if someone reading the paper decides they would like to see some western pictures, they can see them by attending the show, form their own opinions and buy if they like.

The Romans and Greeks felt it incumbent on themselves to preserve historical events in representation; not only their military victories but the simple facts of their everyday life. From their sculpture, mosaics and frescoes we have today a complete lucid picture of their life 2000 odd years ago. Art should be so truly of this character that if New York were to be buried in cinders tomorrow, those digging their way in 2000 years hence would know all about us.

The Parthenon Frieze is over 300 feet long, depicts a day of the Panathenaca Festival, and represents the men women and children, old and young- in procession to the Acropolis; it is also a very definite decorative part of the architecture of the building.

Withdraw WPA support and most, if left to living on their sale of work, would go back to the trade they followed when someone made the cry of “come on boys, here’s a chance to get a living at the government’s expense”.

Someone painted a President Garfield House with much scroll saw work and a mansard roof-500 followed Someone also painted the 6th avenue El Station at 14th Street, and 500 of these followed, to say nothing of the scenes inside adjacent pants factories.

A group living in the clean air of the Wild West started painting farm life with carefully drawn furrows and geometrically laid out rows of corn shocks and very, very round trees bordering these fields, in the meticulous manner of the 14th century Dutch and Italians. Along with the Midwest Farm School, the 14th Street School specialized in subway elevated stations, pants factories, in a not too meticulous technical manner, due partly perhaps to the fact that crowds of people are harder to paint then round trees and shocks of corn. This excited everyone so the sand and lime industry did a rushing business, every cellar wall serving as a laboratory for fresco experiments. Classes were formed coast to coast.
The Mexican influence was like onions or garlic- it permeated everything. Pictures of pants factories and subway stations began to be filled with people that looked like Mexicans. The art formula now was for and of the people- everyone portrayed must be tired, down trodden, always bending under the burden-taking whip lashes on the back. Someone commented everyone is bending over to pick up a bundle. In other words one of Rivera’s best known frescoes showed sad tired undraped peons all bending down to gather huge bundles of sugar cane while mounted guards rested high powered rifles across their laps. The New York School did 500 pictures of tired underfed workers bending over huge bundles of pants in a sweat shop

Someone thankfully decreed a few years back that we Americans stop going to Brittany to paint the red sails in the Sunlight of the sardine boats. Stop painting devitalized allegorical nudes flying through clouds, scattering roses as the typical subject for all mural painting. In other words, to paint THE AMERICAN SCENE… take our subjects from about us-Grand! Fine! Glorious!

woody

2009-08-25T04:25:00.001-07:00

jazzzzzz

2009-08-25T04:16:00.000-07:00

Mara Piccione

2009-08-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

I found a great young illustrator / graphic designer Mara Piccione from Groningen, The Netherlands. I like these very strong and sensitive graphical images.

http://www.piccione.nl/

Scott Belcastro

2009-08-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Just discovered very nice works of Scott Balcastro...

http://scottbelcastro.blogspot.com/

Alice in Wonderland

2009-08-18T05:16:00.001-07:00

Beautiful!

2009-08-15T03:07:00.000-07:00

http://seawayblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/colourful-underwater-world-of.html

La Maison En Petits Cubes

2009-08-15T02:45:00.000-07:00

http://kiteretsu.robot.co.jp/kunio/index.html

Video: La Maison En Petits Cubes Benzer: la, maison, en, petits

Anchored

2009-08-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

Childrens books by animation artists

2009-08-10T04:03:00.000-07:00

I found this one on cartoon brew; link

And a new trailer for 'where the wild things are'.

Great Glutton Island

2009-08-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

White Box

2009-08-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

Juan Francisco Casas

2009-08-04T08:36:00.000-07:00

Juan Francisco Casas uses only ballpoint pens to create his photorealistic portraits.

Jacob Collins

2009-08-04T00:51:00.000-07:00

Website

inspiratie

2009-07-31T03:30:00.000-07:00

Twee mooie lesboeken met het levenswerk van Walt Stanchfield ontvangen met de post.

En natuurlijk een bron van inspiratie, gebracht door de ooievaar :-)

Tim Bower

2009-07-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

The amazing gouache illustrations of Tim Bower!

Knight fever

2009-07-29T02:20:00.000-07:00

Little Rikke

2009-07-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

Prachtige achtergronden van Sylvain Marc voor de openings en eind sequentie van Little Rikke.

Jeff Hein

2009-07-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

website

Thomas van der Heiden

2009-07-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

Mooi werk van Thomas van der Heiden. Net niet de standaard cliché fantasy art.

Sean Cheetham

2009-07-27T00:34:00.001-07:00

Sean Cheetham's blog

Bankbiljetten

2009-07-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

Beetje onoverzichtelijke, maar zeer grote database met bankbiljetten van over de hele wereld.