“Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.”

The sketchbook tour is a community project by the art house co-op where anyone from around the world can submit their purchased sketchbook for display in half a dozen exhibitions across the US, before being entered into the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Anyone can participate, and aside from using the provided sketchbook there are no restrictions on content or style allowing for total creative freedom.

Get sketching!

I’m expecting to head to the US some time next year, I’m sure I could spend the entire trip trawling through these. Read more about it over at the art house co-op.

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The little extras are often what make a business stand apart from the competition, the sketches on clients envelopes by artist Jainai Jeffries certainly achieve that. I wish my mail arrived looking like this.

I like to decorate the envelope when I mail work to clients (both sketch and standard). It’s always random whateverthehellIwant sketches:

- I don’t charge extra.
- I do not accept request on what I sketch.

What do you think?

Great hey? You can view more of Jainai’s work at her portfolio site.

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Design software is capable of so much these days, and with that comes an huge array of tools to master. Looking through my student portfolio from years ago I found the above illustration.

I think it’s fair to say that the pen tool is the signature feature of illustrator and while it’s a great tool, it can be a bit unwieldy until you get the hang of it.

Using a photo of musician Kirk Hammett as reference, and drawn using only the pen tool ( and gradient for the glasses obviously… ) in illustrator, it was the first real illustration I ever did. I remember starting out and dreading how long it was going to take for the level of detail I wanted.

As the picture came together it turned into an enjoyable project, and using the tool became second nature. Although I was glad be to be finished, I was happy with the end result, especially for my first illustration.

Just don’t ask me how long the hair took… Higher res version available here.

How about you?

Stumbled across any old work lately? How does it stand up to your current work?

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BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Words like incredible and amazing get thrown around a lot. Taking months to finish and thousands of litres of paint, this animated graffiti by Italian artist Blu truly is incredible.

The film comically illustrates the beginning of our existence, our evolution and our probable end, it’s a must watch.

What do you think?

Incredible.

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It’s been a good 20 something years since I had had my face painted as a kid, I think the tiger was my creature of choice if memory serves. With this collection of amazing body art from WWF and AT&T advertising, as well as the uShaka body art and graffiti expo you might just be able to convince me to do it again.

What do you think?

I particularly like the WWF ads.

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Having driven from Sydney to Melbourne not too long ago, I saw my fair share of fields and farms throughout rural Australia ( about 900 kilometres worth ). If only they had illustrations in them like these Japanese rice fields, to keep me entertained along the way.

What do you think?

Sure beats crop circles…

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Of all the various styles / genres of design, Art Deco is probably my favourite. The shapes used and particularly the muted colours.

When I was a kid the most spoken phrase in my house was probably Why don’t you turn off that damn video game and go… do just about anything else. Music, art, culture, none of it was to be found in video games apparently.

This artwork from 2k Games BioShock 2 says otherwise.

The game even includes an LP of the 1930′s music featured in game. Classy.

Don’t fret, there’s a CD included “just in case” you don’t have a record player.

Now about that LP…

I wonder if I can dig up the record player I threw out 15 years ago?

Thanks to Gamespot for the LP photo.

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Glenn Jones is an illustrator and graphic designer from Auckland, New Zealand with a hugely diverse portfolio of clever, retro and wacky illustrations.

Available as prints, shirts, calendars and more, his illustrators are worth a look. Here is a dozen of so of his designs.

I’d love too see how this stunt riding penny farthing manages to land…

Clever.

I think I’m going to have to treat myself to a few shirts.

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I’m not usually a fan of the whole swirly-vector style of illustration that gets used over and over for everything, but this series by Si Scott deserves a mention.

Their stylized forms are so elaborate and yet still realistic.

What do you think?

I love ‘em. More of Si’s work can be found at his studios site.

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Graphic design is all about ideas, but for every great idea there is just as often something waiting in wings to squash it. Enter the new marketing director…

Created for the independent film group, Show Off!, each illustration depicts an idea personified ( give or take… ) in the form of a popular or infamous figure and their mortal enemy.

Originally in Portuguese, I’ve done my best to translate the captions but I speak precisely zero of it. Feel free to jump in if I’ve gotten something wrong.

Presenting an idea to the accountants.

The clients lawyers.

Budget. Isn’t it always…

Input from your creative director.

International brand guidelines ( I’m pretty sure… ).

Focus group testing.

Changes to the design brief.

Deadline for the advertising campaign to begin.

Insert translation here ( I have no idea what this says… ).

A creative client.

Client wants to save the idea for later. Poor Yoko Ono, she gets blamed for everything.

Great Illustrations, poor translations…

I was going to make a witty joke using the Portuguese word for terrible when explaining my translations. It turns out the Portuguese word for terrible, is “terrible”. So much for that joke.

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