The Space Marine System

For more than a hundred centuries an illustrator has sat immobile in his golden office chair. He is the master of Flash-based character generation systems by the will of the gods and creator of some awesome Astartes artwork by the might of his inexhaustible pens.

Read more here...

Maneki Cheshire

That lucky cat sure has an odd smile. Curiouser and curiouser...

Capable

I Learned to Climb Rope with My Toes
Acrylic on Canvas - 24 inches high by 18 inches wide

My Illustration Friday entry... yes, that's me. yes... those are my toes.

Hooray For Pancake Day!

© Holly DeWolf

My Little Corner Of The World- Holly DeWolf

New Action figure box art

Still have some tweeking, but here's the initial rough draft...

my blog

The Departure Game App Made Possible By Kickstarter

Hey everybody! I've been encouraged to turn some of my characters into games for awhile now. I'm looking to make that happen with The Departure and would like to invite you all to participate in the kickstarter game campaign.

It's a super cool way to raise funding for projects like this. I've included a bunch of fun rewards for all the donation levels. Please check it out and share it with everyone you know! Thanks so much! Kickstarter Game : The Departure

How to make a difference

A page from something new I'm working on at www.baggelboy.com

Chewy and Lumpy

A figure sculpt I molded and casted of Chewbacca's son "Lumpy" from the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Tim's blog

Nerosunero in the Annual of Associazione Illustratori

Nerosunero in the Annual of Associazione Illustratori, a photo by nerosunero on Flickr.

Eight of my works have been selected and will be included in the
2012 ANNUAL of the ASSOCIAZIONE ILLUSTRATORI
(the annual of the Italian illustration)
associazioneillustratori/annual 2012
The Annual published by Fausto Lupetti Editore
will be launched at the Bologna Book Fair in March 2012
nerosunero

Sing Sing

Sing Sing: A One Act Opera, cover


The SPACE Small Publishers Expo in Columbus Ohio has nominated my mini-comic Sing Sing for the 2011 SPACE Prize in Minicomics / Short Story. Page samples are on my blog: zillustration.blogspot.com

If you have pull with the voting body... Throw some love my way. Click the image to see the cover at twice the size... mmmm... bigger...

new illustrations by nidhi chanani

some new illustrations! more here and here

Blue Landscapes now on sale at Paperwork Gallery

Blue Landscapes now on sale at Paperwork Gallery, a photo by nerosunero on Flickr.

On San Valentine's day Paperwork/Ugallery
has released a new limited edition of one of my most recent digital prints: Blue landscapes / Escape

The new limited edition print can be bought exclusively on line at
Paperwork: Mario Sughi
Paperwork / Ugallery (14 II 2012, San Francisco & New Yorks, USA)


A nice blog relating to the new release of this new print can be read at
ugallery.com/blog/post/Paperwork-Newsletter-Its-Not-About...

In 2011 Paperwork/Ugallery released two editions of my prints:
Blue Shadows at Paperwork
New art gallery at Paperwork

Blue Landscapes / Escape, Limit ed print by nerosunero

Flying Saucer

Today my second publication with Vanin Publishers came out. I made some illustrations for a story about a robokid Rodi and it's friend Mick. Mick gets to meet Rodi's uncle and they get a better look in his flying saucer. This story was written by Rian Visser and published in 'Het blad van Vos & Haas'. Want to see more? Then go have a look on my http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickclaes/

Work in progress - Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse

Any feedback you can give me on this would be welcome. I need a fresh perspective from you talented people then I can get started on the final version. Thanks in advance!

Want to be spotlighted here on SFG? 

If so, email me at hollycreates@gmail.com

Cupid:Modern Warfare

Happy Valentines to all your loved ones. Cupid needed a upgrade from his normal bow and arrow. Lately I've been really influenced by those old pulp posters.

Skating Girl

sylf.be

A lot of new stuff from my website. An article from Drink and Draw Montreal, semi-finalist for the FIMA poster contest and much more to come... like a portrait of Hendrix. Come visit my website !

hellfire and damnation

An illustration from www.bagelboy.com

Nicki Minaj for Grammy Week

The Grammy Awards are this Sunday and to celebrate,  I've created a series of illustrations dedicated to the nominees.  Today's illustration is Nicki Minaj.  Feel free to view the others here.  Thanks for looking!

Nicki Minaj by Nicole Alesi - www.stuffbynicole.blogspot.com

In the SFG Spotlight-Wade Mickley!

© Wade Mickley

Tell us a little about yourself and your work. 

I'm currently working as a full-time graphic designer at NASA, a part-time freelance illustrator and showing my work in galleries as a fine artist.

As an illustrator, my clients tend to be from the outdoor, adventure market or targeting a children’s audience. My illustration work is created digitally but I try to interject a lot of texture and layers to my work by scanning distressed materials, splats of paint, rust, etc. I love the outdoors, stand-up paddle boarding, comics, collecting old children's books, all things weathered and distressed, going to museums and a nice, hot, cup of tea.

What drew you to illustration as a career choice?  

Drawing and doodling has always been second nature to me  Growing up I spent countless hours tracing comic book covers with wax paper, eventually graduating to dip pens and markers. When I heard that people had careers as illustrators that intrigued me. I loved the idea of illustrating and interpreting articles through visuals giving me an opportunity to express my views through art.

Perhaps my love for drawing stems from being shy as a child because I felt it was another way I could express myself. I always knew I'd be drawing or doing something creative for a living. There were no other options in my mind.

My goal is to become a full-time illustrator. For now, my experiences as a design, illustrator and fine artist all compliment each other and help me grow as an artist.

© Wade Mickley

What creative ways do you use to come up with ideas and concepts? 

There are many and varied. Sometimes the best ideas come in the shower or while driving my car. For an editorial illustration, I start by concentrating on the words, look up references, brainstorm and sketch lots of ideas. 

Letting the information settle for a bit by paddling, walking in the woods, going to the bookstore or an art museum then giving my mind a chance to connect some of my thoughts.

What do you do to keep your work fresh?

Besides putting my work in airtight Tupperware containers in the freezer, I consume media. I read books, comics, magazines, stupid blogs, and browse through bookstores. I also watch the news, doodle in my sketchbook, paint, take art courses, and network with other artists. All of this contributes to my personal, visual fabric. 

I find inspiration in museums and the visual arts. When I research artists, I discover connections between what is going on now and what has already come before. It's cool when you learn that your favorite artist is strongly influenced by someone from 100 years ago. I recently started collecting some of Gustaf Tenggren’s illustrated children’s books that will quite possibly influence my own work.

© Wade Mickley

Do you adapt what you do for certain markets or trends or does it just progress naturally as you go along? 

Although I’m aware of trends, I don’t think I consciously adapt to them. I just try to be clever with my work and let my style evolve organically regardless of the market.

Do you get to create much personal work and promotions? 

Yes...but never as much as I'd like too.

Is there any successes that stand out that has helped you progress as an illustrator? 

One of my clients has given me quite a bit of creative freedom over the past ten years, which has helped me to progress as an illustrator. Working with peers, taking a Tutormill online editorial illustration class pushed me by requiring I illustrate outside my normal comfort zone.

The positive affirmation I received from juried shows, awards and peers has given me more confidence to keep moving forward.

© Wade Mickley

 What is your favourite part about being in illustration? The process? Ideas/concepts? The final artwork? 

All of the above, they are all reasons why I am attracted to being an illustrator.

It’s always exciting to get a fresh, new publication and crack it open and see your work in print.

Describe your dream project or client. 

Writing and illustrating my own children’s book or graphic novel would be a dream project for me. I'm also interested in creating my own animation and have a few ideas I'd love to bring to life in a short-animated film.

© Wade Mickley

The Owl Forest

So below is my newest piece, I'm going through this owl phase where all I want to do is draw owls. It does have that Owls of Ga'hoole feel to it, but I was actually inspired by the Frozen Planet (again)! What can I say, I love that series! Also, it might be that I'm suffering from a severe cold at the moment, where I'm just sneezing my head off every two seconds. So owls and a cold on my mind equals this:

My Illustrations on Pocket Mirrors

Hi All

Just wanted to let you know I have opened up an Etsy store called Keri Dawn Studios. I will be selling pocket mirrors, prints, pins, magnets, etc with my illustrations, drawings and designs on them. Take a look and let me know what you think. Here are a few samples of the mirrors:

Here is the link to my store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/keridawnstudios



Thanks for looking!!

Keri

nerosunero @ frizzifrizzi

nerosunero @ frizzifrizzi, a photo by nerosunero on Flickr.

nerosunero @ frizzifrizzi

7 opere e 7 domande, alle 7 di mattina, ad illustratori che si svegliano presto o non sono ancora andati a dormire.

7 works and 7 questions at 7 oclock in the morning to those illustrators that either get up early in the morning or have not gone to bed yet!

by Ethel

FrizziFrizzi (Bologna, It, 2 II 2012)

NEROSUNERO DOODLE FOR ENQUIRE MAGAZINE

NEROSUNERO DOODLE FOR ENQUIRE MAGAZINE, a photo by nerosunero on Flickr.

Enquire Magazine with the Doodle I created for the month of February 2012
www.nerosunero.org

"ENQUIRE is just another magazine about design, fashion, music, art, photography, trends and much more"
www.enquire.it (Italy, Februay 2012)

'Apart' Illustration

With this illustration, I wanted to create the feeling of coming apart inside. The piece began with heavily pixelating a photo, taking it apart digitally and then reconstructing. It's one of those illustrations that started with only a very basic concept, and grew into it's own being without me knowing where it would go. Hope you enjoy! See it at http://www.melissabergen.net/

Frog in boots

Done for fun - doodling with my daughter.

In the Wednesday SFG Spotlight- Mike Cressy!

© Mike Cressy

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your work.


I've worked as a full time artist from the age of 23. I create fine art paintings in the lowbrow/pop/surreal genre,  illustrate children's picture books, design logos, draw concept designs for computer games and other creative ventures, character design, doodle, create digital abstracts, write stories, work on my graphic novel (with more to come), compose pop tunes, play my guitar and try to sing, even though my range has diminished over the years. LOL...

 
I have no formal education as an artist. I took about 3-6 months of the Famous Artist School correspondence course when I was about 10 and then took a class at Otis Parson's in L.A. just to learn how a favorite illustrator used his airbrush.

2. 
   

2. What drew you to illustration as a career choice?


I wanted to become a Charles Schultz when I was a kid. I created a ton of comic strips and comic books when I was a kid. I also wanted to draw like Jack Kirby who did a lot of the Marvel comic super heros. I was also fond of the illustrations I saw in magazines as a kid.

I started out as an animator and worked for a bunch of commercial studios in Los Angeles. I would cold call them and say that I wanted to work for them. I was brazen and thought that was how you did it. As it turns out, I was right. At the time I was doing posters and playbills for theaters in L.A. through the LATA, which I think is no longer around. I got tired of animation and was looking at illustration as a way to make money and be happy at what I was doing. 

3.  What creative ways do you use to come up with ideas and concepts?

I get inspiration from all over the place. The key is to have an open mind and let things flow in. You have to filter it to get the right combination of things that fit your sensibility. I’ll listen to something on the radio that may stick in my head visually and then I see something on TV, in a movie, on line, in a magazine or book and then it evolves. Soon I’ve got my own twisted version of that thing I heard on the radio and I’ll do a very loose version in my sketchbook. Sometimes that will make it’s way into a painting or something in Photoshop or Illustrator. When I get an assignment, one of the first things I do is look through the assignment and pick out the most visual elements. Then I need some quick inspiration. I’ll pick up one of my coffee table art books or look on line at all kinds of art until I see a few things here and there that kind of fit what I’m thinking about for an image and then go to my drawing board and sketch out various ideas that came up while taking in all that inspiration. All this can take from 15 minutes to an hour and I’ll have two or three strong sketches from that. Music also helps with inspiration. I have the good fortune to have some quirky tastes in music. A lot of the musicians I listen to have funny and sometimes bizarre lyrics that are quite visual. I’ll do sketches based on some of the music I’m listening to but you wouldn’t put them together if you heard the music and saw what I did from listening to it.

© Mike Cressy

4. Do you get to create much personal work and promotions?

When I have a free moment I work on either a sketch, painting, digital art or some promotion that I think might help to get the word out. I've been sending out promotional postcards for years. They don't have the same effect anymore but I still send them out from time to time. I have a mailing list that I use through one of the subscription services. For the children's picture books I was contacted by the publisher who wanted me to illustrate a story. For my art books I thought about all the art I had in my studio and what I should do with them. Having books of my art helps to sell prints of my art. All the art in the books are available as prints on several art sites on the internet. My art books are print on demand so I don't have to store boxes of them in my garage, and they are available at any book seller on the internet.

5. Is there any successes that stand out that has helped you progress as an illustrator?

I’ve learned so much more from stretching myself then just staying in a box that someone can point to and say “That’s Mike Cressy”. I try to stretch whenever I can. Sometimes it doesn’t feel comfortable but that’s what stretching is all about. Getting out of one’s comfort zone allows your mind to do what it does best,.. figure out how to survive in this new landscape. The one thing you can’t count on in this life is luck. It comes when it comes and it’s not always equal. Sometimes it’s just a small amount of luck to keep you going. Other times it feels like you struck the lucky gold mine. Keeping your feet moving and your mind working will keep you alive longer and help you to foster new relationships and in the process keep your creative mind working. I have several art friends from the old days and they don’t work on the computer and don’t have many outlets for their creativity. They got angry with things changing and let themselves fall into a trap that they can’t seem to get themselves out of. I don’t ever want to be in that trap. I equate it with continuing to exercise every day as you get older. If you don’t continue to do that, then your body starts to break down in some bad ways. Keep yourself on your toes even when it’s difficult to do so and you will thank yourself later. Fall in love with what you do.

6. What is your favourite part about being in illustration? The process? Ideas/concepts? The final artwork?

I use whatever I can that feels comfortable to create what I need to create. I love to draw with a pencil and sometimes pens. I take all my drawings into the computer and create images for clients in Illustrator and Photoshop. I love those two programs for creating art. Flash is good too. I love painting with acrylics on canvas and gessoed masonite for my lowbrow/surreal/pop paintings. I've played the guitar since I was 10 years old but now I can plug it into my computer and record the music I create. All these things are tools for using to get the ideas out of my head and into the world. Hopefully others will like them and hopefully I can influence others.

7. Describe your dream project or client.

There really is no such thing. You always want to be able to continue and create something that you will enjoy and  hopefully others will appreciate it as well. I’ve had all different types of clients over the years. I’ve also had full time positions at game companies.  That being said, I suppose I’d like to continue on the road I’m on and be able to continue to make money as an artist for the rest of my life. After this current graphic novel is finished, I’d like to start the next one. I’ve got a lot of adult stories. I won’t be working on licensed characters or super hero graphic novels… not my thing.

© Mike Cressy