Monday Mix: Inspiration: Lisbeth Zwerger

Today's Monday Mix is dedicated to one of my favorite children's book illustrators, Lisbeth Zwerger. Zwerger's is a name I heard often in my illustration classes because of her distinctive style. Her simple but lively characters are usually set in some ambiguous space, often just a loose watercolor wash, with a muted color palette. She uses a lot of favorites of mine like ochrey browns and grayish blues and bright red highlights. I also love her line quality - so loose and free, yet so descriptive. She is a modern master reminiscent of Rackham, Dulac, Anderson. I truly love her work!

Monday Mix: Inspiring Installations

Hi all! It's been a while - between starting a new job and just being generally busy, I've been forgetting to blog! And to draw. It's bad, I know. But things have started to calm down, and what better way to start back up than to share some things that have been inspiring me lately? I've always admired three-dimensional art; it's something I feel I don't have the mind power to do, to think that way, so it's both inspiring and extra impressive in my mind. Installation art takes the three-dimensional concept to a completely different level. Though we're missing out on the personal, physical aspect of these works, here are some that are just as amazing through photo/video.

♥ Magic Carpet by Daniel Wurtzel. Simple, but beautifully mesmerizing. This reminds me of doing fabric studies back in school. I love painting fabric... I want to pause this video and paint the shapes in midair.



♥  Spread and Return Point by Bartek Swiatecki  The sense of movement in these images is incredible. Like stills from a sci-fi film.

♥ Plexus no. 3 from the Density of Light by Gabriel Dawe. Made with thread. I'm dying to see these in person, to see how each thread and each color overlaps the other. The combination of hard geometric shapes and soft, blurred edges is unreal. 

Monday Mix: Other Art

♥ My amazingly talented bff Chris McAlister did this mural... in 21 hours! He'll have a video of the process up soon too, so if you like to see gigantic amazing artwork being made, keep an eye out for that on his blog.

♥ Rebecca N. McKinnon writes about depression, motivation, and being an artist, as part of her new Wicked Wednesday/Sacred Sunday series. I love the idea and am really looking forward to this!

♥ And I just got my beautiful print from Amanda of Earth Angels Art today, of her piece "Track Ways". Do take a look at her art - it's so dreamy and magical, I love it to bits. Can't wait to frame this on my art room wall! 

Monday Mix: A few inspiring things

♥ Absolutely stunning sculptures by Fernando Mastrangelo, made from sugar, salt, and other edibles.

♥ The "Geode" Street Art Project. I'd love to come across one of these in person. Magical.

♥ And! My friend Chris MadMan McAlister designs displays for our local Anthropologie - his most recent display features beautiful illuminated jellyfish: 

Monday Mix: Inspiration: Leo and Diane Dillon

Husband and wife team Leo and Diane Dillon are among my very favorite artists of all time. Together they have illustrated for an astounding number of books, and won an equally astounding number of awards. They draw from all cultures to create their images; Leo and Diane have worked in more than one distinctive style while still maintaining a cohesive body of work, which echoes their message of unity among all people regardless of cultural differences. They are truly inspiring people. Here are just a few of my favorite pieces. 

Monday Mix: Inspiration: Curtis's Botanical Magazine

I've always loved botanical illustration. My boyfriend and I own a few books, one chewed to bits around the edges by our dog (maybe she loves it too), because we both find this art form so beautiful and inspiring. Recently his parents bought a new one for me about the history, and upon seeing it, a fellow artist we know told me about how the Smithsonian offers internships in botanical illustration, and about the head illustrator who gets brand new plant species sent to her to paint... and so since yesterday I've been unable to get the idea out of my head. What a dream job! We went to a local nursery today and I felt my heart fluttering seeing everything up close. We took apart and examined some of the flowers in our yard. To get paid to do this would feel almost unreal. It doesn't look like they have anything currently available, but I'm going to keep looking into it. 

Until then, Smithsonian, if you see this: call me! 

To help with my cravings for all things flowery, I've been collecting some images from The Botanical Magazine, first published in 1787 by William Curtis. It's still being published today. Here are some of my favorites of the images I've been able to find. While many talented artists have contributed to The Botanical Magazine, it was not as easy as I'd hoped to find artist credits for each image, but some do feature the artist's name in print. (And if you're interested in further reading, here's the wiki page for starters!)

 

Beauties. 

What I Wore Today: The Book!!

Yay!

Just a quick note this Wednesday: Gemma Correll's What I Wore Today book was officially released last week! Do take a look - it's full of lots of cute and stylish doodles from artists around the world (and me too!) *_* I'm watching the mail every day waiting for my copy to arrive...

Monday Mix: Inspiration: Maxfield Parrish

When we were younger, my sister used to write these short, strange little stories that sometimes featured famous people. One in particular involved me receiving a gift (my own rollercoaster) from Maxfield Parrish. At that time we somehow knew the name without knowing anything about who he was; at this time in my life he is one of my very favorite illustrators and biggest inspirations, master of color and story and mood. Here are some examples of his truly incredible work: