Artist - Emma Kelly

London-based illustrator Emma Kelly 'likes to draw things'. Most of her illustrations feature everyday object drawn with her particular style.

www.iliketodrawthings.com

Artist - Tokyo Plastic

Tokyo Plastic have an impressive portfolio regarding flash movies. Most of their advertisements, for companies like Toyota and Coca Cola, are a nice mix between animated characters and playing with sound. The website itself is quite amusing browsing through, too. Be sure to click on as many links as you can as they're well worth checking out.

http://www.tokyoplastic.com/

Artist - Emmanuel Polanco

Paris-based illustrator Emmanuel Polanco has an impressive portfolio of collages. His illustrations also have a nice feel to them, looking like old-school etchings. Some of his major clients include well-known magazines like Times Magazine, Milk Magazine and many others..

http://www.emmanuelpolanco.net/

Work in Progress - People

So I went to my first drawing/painting lesson. We concentrated on faces and hands today, with special attention to shading and expression. I was quite happy with how it came out..

Artist - Richard Whitters

I've been playing Magic: the Gathering for a good 10 years now and I've always been a fan of the artwork. At major events I always meet up with the artists to talk about their designs a bit and how they got to work for Wizards. One of the artists' work that really caught my eye lately was the design for the new starter decks, by Richard Whitters. I really do love concept art...

http://www.elfwood.com/~whitters

Artist - Ben Scruton

An article I found on the YCN website, an interview with illustrator Ben Scruton.

Ben Scruton on illustration

Regular YCN collaborator, Ben Scruton, 25, is an illustrator who lives in Marden, a small village in Kent. Ben studied Illustration and Animation at Kingston University and has gone on to produce vibrant and distinctive work for a range of clients including numerous character-based illustrations and animations for Orange. Here, Ben shares his experiences as a freelance illustrator and provides some useful and positive insights into the industry...

YCN: What was the best thing you learnt at university?

How to animate - even though in the end I decided I didn't have the patience! I have to say it was a difficult but extremely rewarding experience. We had some great and very talented tutors who pushed us quite hard. It was very stressful but it taught me a lot about time management, character design, and endurance; valuable lessons which have contributed to my strengths as an illustrator.

Also, I learnt how to speak about and present my work which was incredibly valuable as it helped me in overcoming any ?stage fright' I might face during client meetings.

YCN: Describe a typical day in the life of illustrator, Ben Scruton.

I get up around 7.30am when my wife Helen leaves for work; make some coffee and check the all important Facebook page, plus my illustration pages on Facebook and MySpace etc. After some breakfast I get to work checking my website, my work email and usually manage to get any correspondance out of the way by 9am. Then I get on with whatever projects I have on my plate. I work through till around 2pm and have some lunch; and then go for a training cycle-ride most days. I find that one of the main benefits of working freelance is the flexibility you can as I can work from late afternoon through to the evening to make up for any time lost during the day.

I get some dinner on the go at around 6pm, in time for Helen getting home. Then if I don?t have much work on I usually use the evenings to work on my personal projects or meet up with friends.

YCN: How did you first get involved with YCN?

I was in my last year at Kingston when Josefine from YCN, who was working with Friends of the Earth at the time, was running a project with the university. I volunteered for the project, there was an interview process and I got the job. It must have gone well because when Josefine moved jobs and joined YCN, she gave me a call to see if I wanted to come on board with YCN.

YCN: What has been the best project you've worked on?

I was commissioned to do the Red Bee character design project for Orange through YCN. It was a long one but the pay was good and I got to design a large range of characters which was really great fun from start to finish. The best bit was seeing all the characters come to life at the end once the animator had worked his magic!

YCN: How often do you tend to receive commissions?

I?ve been quite fortunate in that the commissions I have received have been well paid. I usually get one or two a month which pays the bills. I am currently working on raising my profile and increasing my self-promotion to try and get a more regular stream of work coming in.

Describe your style of illustration.

I don?t know if I can describe it but I can tell you the process. I draw it by hand in pencil and then in pen, scan it and add colour, shadows, texture, etc using Photoshop. It?s important that initially it starts out as a line-drawing as I don?t like to lose the hand-drawn feel that can occur using illustrator sometimes. I also love using textures to to bind the image.

What's the pay like?!

Very good, for the work I have done so far, although I?m glad of a dual income as there can be long periods waiting for new work when there?s no money coming in.

What's the hardest thing about being an illustrator?

For me, discipline is the hardest thing as it's very easy to get distracted when working at home. Also, the admin and financial side; especially sorting out tax returns, national insurance etc was a real struggle.

What's the best advice you have been given as an illustrator? Do you have any advice for illustrators who are just starting out?

Self-promotion is key. Send out mailers regularly to possible clients and agencies. Another good tip I was given was to put together a list of publications that use a similar style of illustration to yours and send in samples of your work regularly. At university, we were always told to go to the Borders bookshop on Oxford Street and trawl their large range of magazines for contact details of art directors, editors, etc.

Advertising - Electrabel

One of my favorite stop-motions, this is a commercial for the main electricity provider in Belgium.

Music Video - Bedshaped

Beautiful song, beautiful claymation.

BEDSHAPED - Keane - Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

Artist- Leigh Clarke

Yesterday evening I got a really random email from one of my foundation tutors from LCC, Leigh Clarke. He was currently having a solo exhibition in Antwerp and wanted a bit on information on a couple of things. I went to see him and saw his current exhibition, which was pretty interesting. It featured large six-sheet prints of photocopied items with political innuendo's. Worth checking out.

www.leighclarkeworks.com

Artist - Si Scott

I was told to check out this website by a friend of mine, and instantly like it. Even though most of his work is digital it has a nice illustrator-y feel to it. Most of his clients are pretty big though and the quality of his work is amazing. A couple of my favourites:

http://www.siscottstudio.com/

Advertising - Perrier

Very nice visuals in the new Perrier commercial.

Artist - Jacques Vermeersch

I like to go into town every day, so I always park my car at the docks and walk to the main square to meet up with friends. Now, on the way back I usually take the same way because it's the fastest.

For some reason today I felt like taking a small detour, and I am happy I did. I walked past a small open atelier when some older man walked out and invited me to go take a look. I was shown around the place and got to understand his name was Jacques Vermeersch, one of Belgium's finest painter's. After a small chat he proposed to let me join his classes he gives twice a week. I said yes. The man is a legend!

The man is very modest and likes to keep him to himself. I will post up the things we do in the workshops if all goes well.

Artist - Dan McPharlin

I came across his website on It's Nice That (a blog you should all be following, really).

I really like his style, the way all his pieces have this similar feel to them. You can download his portfolio from his website, should you be interested in more.

www.danmcpharlin.com

Magazine Review - Varoom Issue 09

This month's issue was quite interesting, exploring quite a bit of the wide spectrum of graphic design (from information design to illustrating typeforms). Some of the highlights:

Mapping the Terrain: Illustrative Lettering
by Steven Bateman

"With Illustrative lettering, however, there are fewer rules. Liberated, the pictorial qualities and expressive potential of letterforms come to the fore; enlivened by the idiosyncrasies of an artist on top form, even poor copy can look, sound and feel great."

Marian Bantjes

'Dennis Bantjes' -Creative Review "Monograph" 2008

"I don't usually respond to the message. I often work against it. Mostly I'm going to work visually, so the style of the lettering is considering form over content. Blasphemy, I know."

GRANDPEOPLE

"For me, inspiration works in two ways. You occasionally see something that makes you secretly wish that you'd made it yourself, making your head spin with ideas, urging you to run home and create something... On a daily basis you have more analytical inspiration - things you know you like and references you know will be relevant to the work you're doing. It's also possible to be inspired by things that don't make your jaw drop."

Michael Perry

'Alphabet Town' - Personal prject 2007

Alex Trochut

'10 Ways to get a job' - Computer Arts Magazine 2007

Sue Coe and the elephants we must never forget
by Wendy Coates-Smith

I really enjoyed reading through this article. Sue Coe is a very passionate illustrator and her drawings are really good. Besides learning a lot about the history of mistreated elephants (did you know Thomas Edison electrocuted elephants to promote direct current?), reading about her approach and ideology was quite interesting. When one gets obsessed with a subject so much the overall quality of the final pieces increases drastically.

'Side Splitting Fooleries: Edison Tests the Electrical Chair on an Elephant' 2007

"I do feel my drawings are contemporary art and it's a strange thing that you can look at that painting and not be sure whether I did it this year or last year, but the drawings could only have been done now."

Reviews

Saul Steinberg Illuminations

I will have to go see this exhibition before it finishes (at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, until the 15th of february). There is a simplistic feel to his work that is simply refreshing.

'Twenty Americans' 1975

All the Art That's Fit to Print (and Some that Wasn't)

A book I will most likely buy. I like prints in general...

Sam Weber, on the violent confrontations between Chad's government and the rebel forces

Overspray: Riding High with the Kings of California Airbrush Art
by Norman Hathaway

I had no idea what airbrushing actually was and reading this article got me very interested. Once I'm back at the studio it is something I will definitely try out (I like long laborious methods that are basically too much trouble).
The big names: Dave, Willardson, Charlie White III, Peter Palombi and Peter Lloyd.

Peter Palombi

Charlie White III

Music Video - Unintended

I recently got tickets to go and see Muse and the O2 in november. Since then I felt like I have to constantly listen to their songs because they just are that good.

Artist - Renato Alarcão

I came across this Brazilian graphic designer with a masters degree in Illustration (from the School of Visual Arts) a while ago and have been following his work since. Most noticeable are his amazing sketchbooks. Quotes from his biography:



"To illustrate is to tell stories through images."



"What I find more exciting about my profession as an illustrator is the daily challenge of facing the empty page, and from there we have to invent worlds and people, and ultimately give visual form to the written word."

http://www.renatoalarcao.com.br/

Welcome - Introduction

Well, I am horrible at speeches... Yet here I am, writing a blog.
I guess I should start with a small introduction. So my name is Nathan Gotlib and I am currently studying a BA in Graphic and Media Design at the London College of Communication (specializing in the Illustration pathway). Over the course of my studies I developed a pretty big interest in the creative world in general and this blog is basically my tribute to it.
Illustration is a part of the graphic design scene that is usually overlooked, overlooked in the general creative scene actually.
Ironically, most art could theoretically be classified as some form of illustration though. Hopefully with this blog I will be able to divert the spotlight to some of the deserving ones...

Have a good time!