Last week I had a pleasant surprise in the mail. Rather than bills and take-out menus a couple of print samples from Oxford University Press arrived. I contributed some illustrations too a couple of books published earlier this year from their Tree Tops series. It’s nice to see the illustrations in context.

Here are the samples in my portfolio section:
How the World Began 1 of 2
How the World Began 2 of 2
Wolf Fables

This is a water colour rendering for a client from earlier this Spring. I don’t find myself doing too much work in “real” mediums like water colour or oils anymore. Timelines and budgets have dictated other solutions. I must say though, I’ve been doing water colours for over 15 years now and I still love the smell released from Arches paper when water or wet pigment is applied. Notice how I call it a “smell”, it isn’t a nice fragrance… I think you’d need to be a watercolorist to appreciate it. At any rate, this is the ONLY paper worth using. 100% acid free and archival. This lovely paper has been been made in the Arches Mill in Lorraine France since 1492, more history can be found here on their website.

A detail showing the wonderful glowing character of transparent mediums on Arches paper.

On news stands now, the Photo and Illustration Annual of Applied Arts magazine. Illolab has won in the architectural illustration category.

Lots of other great Canadian and international work in here too.

Cheers,
S

This is one of a couple of recent sketches from the same series as the Fox character. It features his valet, the Tiger, taking tea with a dubious Snow Leopard character in a Tibetan café in Kathmandu. The foreground has some peripheral characters, a couple of Indian mongoose (mongeese?) and a Red Panda lama from Bhutan.

Here’s a close-up.

For those that are interested in these kinds of things, the Snow Leopard is from Ladakh, in the north Western Indian province Kashmir. The hat he is wearing is typical for that region and is worn by both men and women.

ciao.

While coming back from a short trip Santa Monica yesterday, I couldn’t help but reflect on how wonderful the Vancouver YVR airport is. It’s a striking contrast to the utilitarian corridors and smelly carpets of LAX. The lightness and transparency of the building is a relief after the byzantine sprawl of LAX and the confines of the airplane cabin. Arriving in the international terminal at YVR holds an additional treat, one that I completely forgot about — The “Pacific Passages” exhibit/installation featuring vignettes of West Coast scenery and first nations culture and art.

I was fortunate to be able to contribute  several years ago when I was commissioned by AldrichPears to complete some water colour illustrations to highlight the copy on the graphic panels.

Here are some samples in my portfolio from that series.

Here are a few samples from a series of pictograms used in a client’s brand strategy presentation from late last year. Very different from my usual narrative style, they are graphically pretty simple and aimed at instant communication, much like editorial. Similar to designing logos, these kinds of  illos’s are often amongst the most challenging as they need to express ideas with a simple directness devoid of unnecessary ornament. Stylistic details, elements, colour are generally the building blocks that illustrators rely on to communicate. Strip those away and it’s like trying to build a house without nails. It can still be done and will have longevity, but it requires searching the depths of visual metaphor.