Striking Character Illustrations By Max Kostenko
Posted: April 8, 2013 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: art, character, design, digital, drawing, illustration, Max Kostenko, painting 2 Comments
Illustration by Max Kostenko
Max Kostenko is an illustrator and character designer from Moscow, Russia and has made a serious splash for one only working in the industry for about 4 years. His prestigious client list includes Visa, Saatchi & Saatchi, Volkswagen, and Mercedes. For an artist who prefers to create his artwork with digital tools, Max’s style is surprisingly painterly – rich with detailed texturing of skin and clothing. Max Kostenko’s illustrations stand-out among the large pool of other character designers with his ability to create original subjects which portray interesting and relate-able personalities, as well as fully-realized environments for his characters.
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Unnatural Mutation – Illustrations by Caitlin Hackett
Posted: March 4, 2013 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: animals, art, Artist, Caitlin Hackett, colored pencil, drawing, illustration, nature, painting, pen, surreal, traditional, Watercolor 2 Comments
Vulpes Masquerade by Caitlin Hackett
Caitlin Hackett is a traditional artist in my home borough of Brooklyn NY with a truly interesting style. Almost all of her illustrations start off with drawing all the lines with a ball-point pen on a large piece of paper. The size of which ranges anywhere between 4in by 6in to a baffling 4 1/2ft by 5ft. After Caitlin lays out each individual line, she goes back in with colored pencil and watercolor to add shading and depth. This technique that she has clearly mastered is a pain-staking process but yields amazing results. The final piece marries crisp, flowing line-work with subtle bleeds of color. Her technique alone is a work of art, but the roots of her inspiration behind the artwork creates a whole other level of interest.
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The Art of Paper Cutting
Posted: January 29, 2013 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: animals, art, Artist, cut, illustration, nature, paper, Polar Bear, Sarah Dennis, sculpture 2 CommentsPaper cutting is certainly not a new medium, but Sarah Dennis’ paper cutting artwork has taken me be surprise. Her work has such beautifully delicate execution. Finished off by presenting each piece mounted in a shadow box, which I feel is perfect for this medium.
“Polar Bear” by Sarah Dennis
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Inspirational Artist Feature – Megan Lara
Posted: January 11, 2013 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: art, Artist, artwork, illustration, joss whedon, megan lara, meganlara, painting 4 Comments
Leah by MeganLara
Megan has a lovely “stained glass” quality to the coloring of her artwork. These illustrations are part of her personal “Art Nouveau” series.
She has an absolute love for all things pop culture. From Doctor Who to Dexter, Megan loves it all. Her beautiful fan inspired artwork can be found in all the far corners of geek-dom: ThinkGeek, Threadless, J!nx, Fangamer, Mighty Fine, and Teefury just to name a few. So its extremely fitting that she’s currently working on creating covers for Dark Horse/Joss Whedon’s new “Willow” comic series from the Buffyverse. Megan, if you are reading this, I can honestly say I’m jealous. I’d love to be creating illustrations for Joss Whedon.
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Help Us Heal From Hurricane Sandy
Posted: November 8, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration, Sketchbook | Tags: art, design, donate, fund, help us heal, hurricane sandy, long beach, new york, photography, Photos, relief, shop, superclearyphoto 2 CommentsMany families were displaced and traumatized by the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy on the east coast. Thankfully my home was not affected by the storm, but some of my close friends and family living on or near to the affected coastal regions like Long Beach, the Rockaways, and Breezy Point have lost all their possessions, their house, and in some severe cases they’ve lost their entire town and are unable to return. The damage was absolutely devastating. As the temperature drops dramatically, some families are still without heat and hot water. It hurts to watch the people I love suffer like this. Help those most in need in the Nassau County, New York area by purchasing any “Help Us Heal” artwork by Nicole Cleary on Society6.
ALL EARNINGS will go to Saint Vincent dePaul’s Society at Saint Joseph’s Church in Hewlett NY. This society dedicates its funding to current disaster relief for families in need.
Thank you for your support.
Credits:
Photos by SuperClearyPhoto
“Help Us Heal” graphic by Nicole Cleary
Playful Polygon Illustrations by JR Schmidt
Posted: November 6, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: 3D, art, cinema 4D, illustration, JR Schmidt, landscape, polygon 10 Comments3D design is certainly not a new medium anymore, but I love the new art style JR Schmidt concocted from it. These are just a few of his inspiring pieces from the 50 he created for the launch of Neonmob. Conceptually, I would almost put these in the same category as paper-sculpture. They certainly have that feel, but without the risk of slicing your hand open. Each piece is brilliantly lit to capture the subtle details in the angles each polygon. These large scale, conceptual scenes would really be perfect for a new video game design.
Cove – Polygon Illustration by JR Shmidt
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Dynamic Illustrations by Ture Ekroos
Posted: October 23, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: art, artwork, book cover, drawing, illustration, landscape, surreal, Surrealism, Ture Ekroos 13 CommentsBeyond his amazing technical painting ability, Ture Ekroos has a knack for creating well composed illustrations which establish a large scene. As a freelance illustrator living in Finland who commonly works on book covers, I can definitely see how that medium has influenced his work. Every piece is perfect for setting a story, involving dynamically positioned characters, and placing them in an interesting background with a clear climax coming to a head in the visual. Each work immediately draws the viewer in to the situation the characters are facing and are wonderful examples of great book cover design. Which I expect jump right off the shelf and into the hands of potential readers.
Check them out for yourself and let me know what you think…
Depths by Ture Ekroos
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Love this Sugarpova branding work by Red Antler
Posted: October 1, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: art, branding, design, maria sharapova, packaging, red antler, style, sugarpova, website Leave a commentRed Antler’s combined use of playful, bright patterns as well as a female icon that exudes a positive, energetic, and confident personality makes this branding memorable. The overall look gives the brand identity a stylish, quirky yet chick feel to a candy brand.
SUGARPOVA branding by Red Antler
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Inspirational Artist Feature – Nanami Cowdroy
Posted: August 22, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration | Tags: art, black and white, drawing, fish, illustration, ink, monotone, Nanami Cowdroy, origami, painting, pen 5 CommentsNanami Cowdroy has an interestingly complex, pen and ink style to her art. She uses seemingly fragile objects to create a strong presence and composition in each piece. Utilizing the look of fluid line-work, she gives the feeling of each object flowing into the next. The overall style of her work is heavily japanese influenced, and gives the appearance of different phases of water. In “Ink Pond” the water style is splashing out of a paint can device used at the bottom of the work. In “Geisha Yume” the water style is cascading down the woman’s body like a waterfall. In “Cable Cranes” the water style is slowing moving the origami like a calm river.
Ink Pond by Nanami Cowdroy
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Abstract Painting “Together”
Posted: August 9, 2012 Filed under: Inspiration, Movies and TV shows, Sketchbook | Tags: abstract, art, digital, illustration, painting, photoshop, together, west side story 4 Comments
“Together” – Abstract digital painting by Nicole Barker
“Together” is an abstract painting I finished a few years ago based on the plot arch of West Side Story (the movie version). I found the story very inspiring. As soon I finished watching it for the first time, and the credits rolled, I began this painting. The left side represents the male main character Tony, and the right side represents the main female character Maria. The stark contrast in color between green and purple represents the opposing family cultures of American and Puerto Rican. The story arch starts from the left going up which mainly focuses on Tony, then later in the story you are introduced to Maria. They are together for a time, represented where the two halves are blended in the plateau painting. (Spoiler if you haven’t seen West Side Story) Ultimately, the story reaches its climax and ends with Maria by herself. Broken and sad, but thankful to have loved, represented by the dress dropping back down and slowly fading away. Obviously this story is based on Romeo and Juliet, but I really liked the new direction the writers took with the plot arch in West Side Story, and found the art style, dance choreography, writing, acting, and overall theme very inspiring.
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Nicole M. Cleary 