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.