Drawn

And his robotts. :) Luke draws more than just robots, but I really liked these little guys.

With times being so hard for illustrators right now, I’m always impressed and encouraged to see fellow commercial artists come with with new ideas to keep themselves busy and keep revenue flowing. Like illustrator friends here in BC, Doug Jones and Fiona Richards, who started a smart little side business called Cartolina, selling stationery featuring “centuries old block prints and antique cartouches, combined with twentieth century lead type, contemporary colours and our own original illustrations.”

And it’s not just paper cards; they also have an accompanying iPhone app which is really quite delightful and brings a whole new spin on doing e-cards:

This app is all about sending brief but beautiful emails and texts using one of our customizable Cartograms. Choose from a selection of beautiful designs, customize your message and pretty up someone’s inbox! Includes an integrated calendar which sends you automatic reminders.

I attempted getting into the stationery business years ago, and it was harsh. It’s hard work to carve out a spot for yourself in an industry dominated by two or three giant aggressive companies, so I’m glad to see Fiona and Doug making a go of it and being successful.

Here’s a lovely little animated promo for Gaz Metro created with stop-motion chalk on a wall. The shoot took place over 4 nights and used over 1600 big pieces of chalk.

The animation-work is by my friends at Montreal’s La Moustache (previously).

Note: I’m skeptical of the environmental claims of any non-renewable resources, so I’m aware there’s an element of greenwashing here. But with Big Oil doing what’s it’s doing, I can see how natural gas seems like a friendlier alternative for some.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot. It helps if you understand French, but it’s still fun to see how it was put together.

Great Flickr set of sequential graphics by Puño from a recent TEDx Madrid conference.

Umbra (HD – 2010) from Malcolm Sutherland on Vimeo.

In this beautiful new, surreal animation by the ridiculously prolific Montreal animator, Malcolm Sutherland, “an explorer adventures into an unknown world… yet it seems that he has been there before.”

The latest edition of the Cloudy Collection letterpress print series is now available! With art by Drawn’s own Matt Forsythe and myself, as well as Frank Chimero (previously), Maura Cluthe (previously), Eleanor Davis (previously), Julia Sonmi Heglund (previously), and Vincent Mathy (previously).

It’s an incredible stack of awesome! Get yours here.

Parallel Parking from Yum Yum London on Vimeo.

You’re welcome.

Those fingerpainters have organized! In the last 18 months or so, iPhone artists from all over the world have been happily creating and filling their Flickr pages with lots of amazing art. But  now they’re ready to get serious, and the result is the first annual conference of The International Association of Mobile Digital Artists.

The conference will be co-sponsored by NYU’s ITP program at the Tisch School of the Arts, and held October 22nd-Oct 25th. The con will be based on participation, so the organizers are aiming for an OpenSpace format.

For more information, check out the iAMDA web site.

Marc Boutavant’s amazing Around the World with Mouk (previously) has been made into a pilot. The video is not embeddable, so I took the above screenshots. See the full pilot here.

(via our friend Claire)

I recently snagged a copy of Aaron Leighton’s Spirit City Toronto from Koyama Press.

Inserting drawings of creatures into real-world photos may not be new (see: Monster’s in Real Places, Aaron Brady’s Magic Camera, and Avid Liongoren’s Project 365) but there’s something about Aaron’s simple geometric spirit creatures inserted into the seemingly mundane landscape of urban Toronto that really resonates with me. He manages to turn an environment that’s familiar to me into something otherworldly.

Some excerpts: