With an excellent eye for colour, Grace Parvin is a 3rd year Illustrator from Portsmouth University.

Having a strong passion for print and pattern design, Grace has created a thing of beauty with her, “Rhythms of the Reef”  - a sequential concertina artist book, which explains through the use of illustrations the moons influence on how coral spawns and reproduces. Balancing the idea of keeping the book factual, yet fun, is a key aspect in Grace’s work that she has accomplished very well.

Grace tends to specialise within nature, and the activities which are taken place within different environments among different eco-systems. Creating various images through the practice of print and digital medium, is what she tends to engage inn.

I would certainly advice having a cheeky browse at her site, where here you can find more great work by the illustrator.

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Illustrator turned animator Adam Hayes, graduated from Kingston University last year having completed an MA in Communication Design. Having never intended to deviate from his plan of becoming an ‘illustrator to the stars’, it came as a surprise to find himself a year on putting the finishing touches on a three month long stop-motion animation project ‘Properties’ as his final submission to the course.

Searching for an explanation of how this all happened, Adam cites an interest in early computer games growing up, the kind of games that came on multiple floppy discs that you’d have to install on a your Dad’s office computer - games like Monkey Island. Since then the illustration work of Jon Klassen and animations by Mikey Please have been a constant source of inspiration as well as occasion trips to the cinema with Electic Fleapit, a small East London film club run by friend and University of the Arts colleague Vicky Fabbri.

Since graduating, Adam has joined Miller’s Junction, a shared studio space in Dalston run by ‘Print Club London’ and home to a diverse group on young freelance designers. They all say hello too!

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Creating a book can sometimes be a tricky thing, especially when it involves capturing the essence of another person.

Today’s post features the work of the very talented Nicole Tan and her piece, Sigmund Freud: Genius.

Currently studying Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent Uni, Nicole has certainly created a thing of beatuy in my eyes. Her idea was to create an illustrative journal of Sigmund Freud, portraying his theories in a personal, traditional and old fashioned way.

What I love about Nicole’s book is the way each page looks as though it has a rough feel to it. It also seems old in appearance, which is great as it perfectly reflects the idea that the book may have been carried, whilst on an adventure. From the material of the paper used, right down to the handwriting in ink - everything has certainly been accounted for.

Spot on, Nicole!

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WSA Level 1 Fine art students recently had their studio spaces transformed into their first show, and a successful at that it was.
As part of their second semester’s work, this exhibition was the finale to a 10 week self initiated project, that had taken the students down through the realms of sculpture, printmaking, film and many more exciting and vibrant outcomes.

Curating this show must have been a difficult task due to the immense variety of final pieces that the first year artists had produced. In one of the 3 spaces this show took place in alone, there was an array of sculpture for both looking at and interacting with, large scale paintings and several films each handled completely differently; making it a struggle to summarise the diversity of artwork. Peter Driver, a participant in the show said, “No one’s work looked like anyone else’s, which is amazing with around 60 people.” As well as the contrasting styles of this array of work, the thing that struck me was the quality.

Each first year appeared to have manipulated the medium of their choice into really intriguing and visually exciting final outcomes. There was a competence that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a group of young artists finding their feet in a new place, adapting to a new way of working.

One piece that stood out particularly for me was Lewis Clark’s film, which focused around a mirror: compiling a series of clips of the same ‘character’ looking in the mirror gradually getting older.  Lewis described his piece as being “the envisioning of the male protagonist in regards to a mundane setting”. It was a really beautiful portrayal of the stages of a lifetime studying the way people look in a mirror at various stages along their journey.

There was something for everyone in this exhibition, appealing to the more classical painting lovers as well as the fans of modern, conceptual art. The first year fine artists are ones to watch for exciting developments into the visual world.

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Illustrator Hannah Lewis is an old friend of mine. Since college days, I always remember seeing her illustrations, and thinking, ‘wow, these are really cool’ !

Today’s post shows not only Hannah’s talents in being an illustrator, but also her abilities in sculptural making.

Currently at her final year at Southampton Solent University, Hannah’s work predominately tends to be with paper, inorder to create her images. Most recently, in her final major project at university she has developed her flatter paper cut work, into 3D models. With sequential narrative as a strong inspiration for creating images, her fox sculpture is based on a character from the novel ‘The Snow Child’ by Eoywn Ivey. Her development into 3D and set-like images was almost inevitable as her interest in theatre and theatre design sparked her creativity from a very young age.

Keep up the great work!

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Here at Plog, we absolutely love zines! and when I stumbled across Illustrator Carl Reed, and his beautifully screenprinted concertina zine, I felt obliged to post about it.

The zine itself is based around online interaction and pseudonyms (14cm x 20cm on 300gsm card).

Currently studying illustration at the University of Portsmouth, Carl is certainly one to look out for in the future. From a cheeky browse at his portfolio, you get the impression that he is a very dedicated, talented and creative individual.

Certainly worth a click!

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Today’s post features some great work by Phil Cooper.

Since graduating in 2006 from NSAD, Phil has continued to experiemnt and try out new techinques within the world of illustrations.

Phil works with the imagined; narrative imagery found in folk tales, hallucinatory fiction and occult symbolism. This vivid source material is intensified by his use of graphic line-work, negative space and acid colour palettes. Recalling 1960’s advertising, abstract book jackets or library album sleeves, each piece is immediately arresting while also hinting at a hidden centre within.

Phil lives and works as an artist and illustrator in Norwich, often assuming the alias Petit Mal. He exhibits regularly. Recent clients include Popshot Magazine, The Rialto and Red Bull.

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Picking up a First Class BA Hons Degree in Graphic Art and Design at Leeds Metropolitan University, Emily May is currently a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Artist based in London.

Her work is a mix of hand-drawn illustration and computer manipulation. Primarily working in pen and pencil, she later develops her work on screen by playing with colours and layering. Emily’s subject matter is varied, often inspired by ideas that she finds humorous, or simply by things that display intricate detail.

When I first had a browse at Emily’s website, I could’nt help but fall in love with pretty much every project she has created. Although each one is completeyly different, its evident that Emily has a unique working style, which flourishes throughout.

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Francesco D’Isa is an Italian artist and art curator. After studying philosophy in Florence, Italy, he pursued his path as a self-taught artist and cultivated a healthy fascination with visual imagery that has driven him to master the corresponding skills. Although already a pioneer of digital art in Italy, his drawing abilities have also allowed him work with more traditional media.

As co-founder of the Italian Art & Literature magazine Mostro, he was able to publish his first pieces. His digital and traditional artwork was featured in many magazines around the world, such as cExpose III, Ballistic Publishing (USA); Pixel Surgeons: Extreme manipulation of the figure in Photography, Mitchell Beazley Art & Design, Octopus ed. (UK); Black magic, White Noise and Illusive 3, Die Gestalten Verlag (GERMANY); Design 360°, SanDu Culture ed. (CHINA), GQmagazine (Italy), and INSIDE ART (Italy). His accolade in contemporary art practice has been recognized with several art prizes. He has often exhibited internationally, most notably in Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, England, USA, Australia, Russia and South America. His theory and practice have been extended as a Workshop Leader and Lecturer in Multimedia.

In 2007, he became a “Pornpope” by founding the porn-artistic collective Pornsaints. He organized art exhibitions and parties for Pornsaints international at art galleries and erotic festivals, both in Europe and in the USA. Through his work as Pornpope, many international porn stars like Kylie Ireland, Stoya, Madison Young, Sasha Grey, and Ariel Rebel acted for him as muses, models and working partners. In 2009, his art was chosen for the image of the Italian fashion brand bigfatfanny and featured at the fashion fair Pitti Immagine 2010.

In 2010, his comic “I., a comic drawn by everyone” became a regular blog of the Italian online newspaper Il Post. It was published by the Italian publishing house Nottetempo in November 2011.

Today’s post features some fantastic work by the artist. What I love about Francesco’s work is the attention to details that he brings out. From the colours introduced, right down to the shapes used. I noticed that the use of overlapping lines is a feature that the artist engages in, and does very well.

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Freelance illustrator, Lucy Eldridge loves to get stuck into any illustrated designs, especially when watercolours are introduced, as todays post shows!

Currently living in Brighton, Lucy enjoys making narrative based images, not to mention creating various mini-books based on anything that inspires her. On the subject of inspiration, Lucy tends to find hers from, taking photographs, clouds, shadows, the moon and biscuits - Love this! Its Certainly boils down to a mixture of anything and everything that fuels Lucy’s creative flow.

I woud certainly recommend checking out her site. More fantastic work on show.

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