Illustration
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Design Illustration
Woodblock-Printed Matchboxes Light up with Canine Personalities
As a follow-up to last year’s wildly successful woodblock-printed matchboxes featuring the questionable decisions of tipsy cats, Ravi Zupa has just released a set of canine designs. Comprised of ten designs, the set includes a Boston Terrier with a high opinion of himself, a loyal hound, and an endearingly self-deprecating pug.
“These are the people in our lives with complicated dispositions and attitudes who never fail to bring
us joy, even when they’re jerks,” Zupa explained in an artist statement. “This new set of matchboxes is an effort to give the overly expressive, stubborn, supportive, unpredictable, confused and self important beings in our lives the recognition they deserve.”
Zupa used oil-based intaglio ink to create the three-color prints, and each one includes a pint-sized certificate of authenticity. The matchboxes can be ordered in the artist’s online shop, along with pre-orders for larger prints of the same designs. You can see more of Zupa’s vintage-inspired and humorous works, ranging from prints to paintings and sculptures, on Instagram.
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Animation Illustration
Eyes Roll and Tongues Unfurl in Quirky Hand-Animated Illustrations by Ed Merlin Murray
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Using simple materials like paper and ink washes, artist Ed Merlin Murray creates lively illustrations that animate with the pull of a tab. The expressiveness of the human face is Murray’s frequent subject, with blinking eyes and slithering tongues coming to life in bright colors. In addition to these hand-activated animations, the Scotland-based artist pursues a wide variety of illustration and animation projects. This spring, Murray crowdfunded a “book of drawings based on the eternal mystery of human consciousness, via a set of arcane sciences, esotericism, and the mystical” on Kickstarter, and also offers designs on Society6. You can see more of Murray’s moving images, paired with quirky captions, on Instagram.
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Art Illustration
Drawings by WanJin Gim Capture the Nuanced Energy of Seemingly Simple Gestures
“Potter’s Hand No. 1” (2019)
WanJin Gim (previously) continues to amaze with his detailed drawings that show the nuanced colors and textures of bare skin. Most often working on kraft paper, Gim uses cross hatching—a technique most commonly associated with ink drawings or prints—with an array of colors to capture hands, arms, feet, and the occasional cat. Though simple in subject, Gim’s drawings pulsate with the gestural energy that informs the postures of each carefully rendered limb. You can see more of the Seoul-based artist’s work on Instagram, and find prints of his drawings on Gim’s online store.
“2 Cycles” (2018)
“Phenomenon No.2”, detail (2018)
L: “A Man Standing Up” (2018), R: detail
“A Pure Hand” (2018)
“Potter’s Hand No. 2” (2019)
“A Patient Cat” (2018)
“A Patient Cat”, detail
L: “Said and Done” (2018), R: detail
“Resting in Daylight” (2018)
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Illustration
Find Yourself in the Pages of the New Search-And-Find Book ‘Where Are You?’ Illustrated by Marija Tiurina
“Where Are You?” is a new customized search-and-find book illustrated by Marija Tiurina (previously). The children’s book combines elements from “I Spy,” Where’s Waldo?,” and video game avatars to create personalized pages that invite readers to search for themselves across six different universes. Adults can choose from one of 12 avatars that best match their child, which will be printed into a book with the child’s name on the cover. Kids can then hunt through Tiurina’s crowded scenes to find alternative versions of their themselves as chefs, archaeologists, paranormal investigators, and more. You can customize your own book on Wonderbly, where the book has currently sold over 160,000 copies worldwide. Take a look at Tiurina’s personal artwork and behind-the-scenes shots on Instagram.
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Craft Illustration
Highways and Rivers Form Capillaries on Anatomical Paper Organs by Katrin Rodegast
Photographs: Ragnar Schmuck
Illustrator and paper artist Katrin Rodegast fused human anatomy and city maps in her editorial work for Globe, the magazine of ETH Zurich, a Swiss science, technology, engineering and mathematics university. Rodegast rolled, coiled, cut, and scored colorful maps to form a heart, brain, lungs, spine, and knee joint. Curving highways and waterways seem to mimic the intricate network of capillaries that surround our organs, while also highlighting the innovation that arises from different systems and organizations working together.
The anatomical creations were made to showcase “Zurich Heart,” a flagship project involving nearly 20 research groups, which aims to develop a fully implantable artificial heart. Rodegast works with a wide variety of brands with a focus on magazine covers and editorials, often in the realm of health and science. You can see more of the Berlin-based artist’s paper illustrations on Instagram and Behance.
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Illustration
Frazzled Cats Formed From Hundreds of Hatched Lines by Luis Coelho
“Meeko, Zipps, and Bubi”
Illustrator Luis Coelho uses cross-hatching and stippling to form wide-eyed and bushy-tailed cats, armadillos, and flying squirrels. The seemingly surprised stylized animals are built using carefully placed short lines that build texture and volume. Coelho, who lives in his hometown of Guimarães, Portugal, shares with Colossal that he has had a lifelong affinity for art. After studying painting and illustration in college and in Barcelona, he explored other paths for several years. Coelho returned to art in seeking the meditative qualities of the practice:
One day I gave both my two nieces a blank sheet and I told them that they would have to decide what animals should appear on those white papers and that then I would have to draw those animals for them. I also told that those animals would be the guardians of their dreams and whenever they needed to get out of a nightmare they just needed to call them. What I didn’t know at that moment was that those two drawings marked the very beginning of the style that I’m working today.
Inspired by the delight he felt in collaborating with his nieces, Coelho has focused his formerly wide-ranging art practice on animal interpretations for the young and young at heart. “Maybe because it started this way, I feel like all my creatures seem to have come out of a dream world, somewhat obscure but also adorable,” Coelho explains. Through sharing his work online, the artist has been able to leave his office job and pursue illustration full-time. You can see more from Coelho on his web shop and Instagram, where he accepts commissions. If you enjoy these critters, also look into the work of Kamwei Fong and Lindsey Thomas.
“Johnny Crumpets”
“Papami”
“Phoebe”
“Plopsy”
“Puffin”
“Panpan”
“Zipps”
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Art Illustration
Black and White Illustrations by Redmer Hoekstra Merge Animals with Architectural Elements
Netherlands-based artist Redmer Hoekstra (previously) presents surreal depictions of animals merged with architectural exteriors and everyday objects. The illustrator combines hawks and bell towers, giraffes and toothbrushes, and imagines a goose composed of saxophones rather than feathers. The playful drawings are both literal and abstract: one sad wiener dog is tied in the middle like an edible frank, and pair of swans’ soft tufted feathers fly off like dandelion seeds. Soon Hoekstra will begin a large-scale drawing titled “Noah’s Ark II,” a reimagining of the famous boat occupied by the animals “that didn’t make it,” he explains to Colossal. You can see more of the artist’s work on Behance and Instagram, and view works for sale in his shop.
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Editor's Picks: Illustration
Highlights below. For the full collection click here.