Beatrice Alemagna, " la prominade d'un DISTRAIT"

Image taken from "Illustration" magazine. Beatrice Alemagna works as a children's book writer and illustrator in France.

If only I had the money, I would like to fill a great big bookcase full with children's books!

I came across her images in a magazine and I admired them immediately. They are so warm, created with such care. Perhaps they struck me more because before that, I was looking through a book of contemporary illustrations that were more... shall I say, provocative cool?

It's a little hard to tell from the small image above. Her collages are beautifully considered and the shading/painting is so attentive. All this without upsetting the clumsy warmness of the characters.

Delightful.

Stephen Irwin "Black Dog's Progress" animation

I got the flu for the first time. Never again will I say things like "Oh, I think I'm coming down with the flu..." when all I have is a bad cold. So I spent the next week in bed and found this on "Animate TV" on the channel 4 on Demand website (I was watching Ugly Betty...).

above: still taken from "black dog's progress" by Stephen Irwin.

If the animation doesn't work above, here is the link to "animate projects". I recommend watching it on full screen.
http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/films_2008/black_dog?hd=true

First of all, I'm always impressed by flip-book style animations, probably because I don't have the patience to make them myself. This animation is put together from a number of separate flip animation "chapters" that accumulate to tell the whole story.

I think there are many elements of this animation that make it so powerful. The format that I mentioned above, the aggressive drawing style that contrast the characters (they could have been cute), the eerie folk-like music... and do you not think the loops make the whole thing even more pitiful and sad?

There isn't a happy ending for the black dog but there is something uplifting about stumbling across something really good....

Arai Ryoji

Arai Ryoji, campaign for Parco department store . Image taken fro his website, http://www.ryoji-arai.info/index.html
Arai Ryoji works as a children's book creator and illustrator.

When I imagined the artist who created this image, a Japanese man in his forties was not my first guess. It feels so carefree and enthusiastic while still being aesthetically beautiful.


I know it's cliche to say that young children's drawings are inspirational but that's because it is! His drawings here look unafraid and spntaneous like a child's, as though he has no worries. Of course, being an actual "grown up", he's thought about composition and colour. It is such a shame that by the time children can begin to use colour in a more sophisticated way like this, most of them have already began to be too self-concious.

Shinjuko

above top: book cover illustration by Shinjuko, above bottom: illustration taken from her website http://vejcom98.rsjp.net/shinjuko/Japanese multimedia (I think) artist. I also think she is a little bit crazy from reading her writing...

I saw a CD sleeve art that Shinjuko had produced for Gwen Stefani's album "Love. Angel. Music. Baby" in a magazine. I'm not a fan of Gwen Stefani (in fact, I'm too closed-minded and stubborn to listen to pop music) but her painting was very striking. I couldn't find that image to put up here...maybe it was a limited edition thing...but I did find some of her other paintings. I'm not sure why I like them.

They have a childlike quality similar to the paintings of Arai Ryoji above but I think this child is a bit older (starting to copy manga characters maybe) and quite spoilt, definitely not meek. Bit of a brat, really.

But I like them!

The humble riceball

Step1:pull tabStep3:pull apart corners

above: photos of riceballs- finally fond them on http://www.greggman.com/japan/onigiri/onigiri.htm

I suppose these are technically not images that I find interesting but more like images of a thing I find interesting......

I like these plastic wrapped riceballs you can get in japanese convenience stores not because they taste especially good but because I think it is very nice - as in neat. Riceballs have seaweed paper around the rice but they become soggy fairly quickly. These ones have a plastic sheet that separates the seaweed paper and the rice until you pull them apart. Very clever. I like the fact that someone went to the trouble of inventing this to make life just a little bit better.....

so thank you very much!

mina perhonen textile designs

mina perhonen textile designs taken from their website, http://www.mina-perhonen.jp/
above top: "tama"
above bottom: "people"

Mina perhonen is a brand set up by the designer Akira Minagawa.

Their prduction process starts from the creation of the textile designs which goes on to be made into clothes and furniure. I think their textile designs are wonderfully set off by the simple shapes of these products.

I would love to own a peice of clothing made from these textiles! I think it could even make me into a morning person if I knew I was getting dressed in fabric that was an art in itself. A lot of their textiles feature bold patterns but has a playfulness and detail within those shapes which make them so unique.

Gemma Correl

Gemma Correl "unpublished commissions on the theme of positivity :: 2008"

http://illustrationisgood.blogspot.com/

I would never have come across Gemma Correl's work had I not been trying desperately to finish this assignment (my own bloody fault)! I love the way she mixes media- it looks natural, not forced. Whenever I try to push myself out of my own comfort zone and use different media, it just ends up looking aesthetically....uncomfortable.

Robert Sabuda "Alice in Wonderland"

Robert Sabuda "Alice in Wonderland"

I know you have all opened Robert Sabuda's books and have been amazed by the superb pop-ups. It's like no other.

I saw his book for the first time on morning television when his book "Winter's Tale" came out. I went to the book shop that very day to see it for myself (I ended up buying it too). It's not just that the individual pop-up is made so beautifully that it seems impossible that it was ever folded. The whole book feels so...extravagant. You open the first page and think "Wow, this is the best pop-up ever" until you turn the next page and it's even better.

I would love to see Robert Sabuda collaborate with another artist. To make something more abstract perhaps...because I personally don't think his flat images are anything special.

Go to a book shop to see it if you haven't already...you'll probably have to fight for it with some child though....

Sara Fanelli

Sara Fanelli, from her book "Pinocchio"

There is so much I love about Sara Fanelli's work. I'm tempted to use bullet points!

The characters she creates are so appealing. They are wonderfully strange but they have so much character that they seem quite real to me.

The way she puts everything together is stimulating and inspiring. At the same time I feel safe becuase I can pretty much always depend on her images to be beautiful. Nothing bothers my aesthetic sense negatively- it's always a pleasure. Even her handwriting is attractive! (she did those writing on the outside of the individual gallery walls in Tate Modern)

100%ORANGE

100% ORANGE illustration, taken from their website http://www.100orange.net/

100% ORANGE is a illustration team between Kenji Oikawa and Mayuko Takeuchi. Actually, a lot of their illustrations are based on a different style to the one I have picked here-more screen print style (although use photoshop create the effect).

I think 100%ORANGE illustrations appeals to a wide range of people. They are very successful in Japan. It is, to sum up in one word, cute or even better, "kawaii"(that's an over-used Japanese word). I think they are more than that though, and that's impressive for such a versatile illustration team.

oh, and another thing...I wonder how they work as a team?

"Holland Park Posse" by Naja Sten