Drawn

Will Schofield shares another slew of fantastic Japanese illustrations from books he’s collected. The above is a children’s book cover by Seiichi Horiuchi from 1972.

Susumu Eguchi Illustration, Poster for a children’s science exhibition in the Tobu department store, 69-70

Book spreads, artist unknown, ca. 1964
(please leave a comment if you know who this is)

Haruyo Kawashima, illus. for Kansatsu ehon kindabukku, vol. 6, no. 7, 1933 (detail)

See the rest at Will’s blog.

I was in Portland, Oregon for a conference on Visual Communication in June. (Yeah, it’s almost August; yes, I’m that far behind). I just have to post about the whole darn city, it’s so great. Normally in any given town I only find about three shops that truly appeal to me… in Portland, there are whole neighbourhoods filled with them! Indie bookshops, Powell’s Books (the mother of all second hand book shops), vinyl record stores, vintage clothing, antique stores specializing in the weird, artist-run galleries, more artist run galleries, craft and art museums, restaurant patios, and multiple brew pubs. And it’s pretty affordable to be a tourist in, with good public transit, almost as many bicycles as Amsterdam, and cheap eats.

Normally we post on specific artists here on Drawn, but I’m going to praise the whole city, because a supportive city helps the arts flourish – and Portland seems to have done a great job of it. The civic planners and the artists deserve credit. I didn’t get to all the arts districts, but the Alberta Arts District really works well. There, you can find places like Together Gallery, and Monograph Bookwerks, which specializes in fine art books. The photo above MIGHT be from Together’s back area… it had a great selection of zines and other DIY… I didn’t do the greatest job of keeping track what I photographed. Maybe someone can confirm??? I also loved Ampersand Gallery, which has vintage ephemera, art books, and a lot of things related to photography.

If I were American, this is where I would go live and draw….

Below: street art on Alberta Street.

This is so great. Project Thirty-Three is a blog/gallery from Seattle’s Jive Time Records showcasing vintage record jackets boasting simple, modernist designs. There’s a resurgence of this clean, abstract aesthetic these days, mostly in the form of pastiche or faux vintage paperback parodies and movie posters. But there’s nothing quite like the real deal, especially because it so reminds us that this look was de rigueur for jazz and classical music. These designs were once on actual store shelves and not just student designer’s blogs.

On the opposite side of the visual spectrum, Jive Time also curates Groove is in the Art, a similar blog devoted to anything-but-minimal pop art and psychedelic album jackets like these:

One of my favourite scores from TCAF this year was a copy of Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson‘s Tigerbuttah book. Printed like a vintage Golden Book, the story follows the perfect retro-styled adventures of young Tigerbuttah rediscovering his imagination. The printing for the book was done by the Golden Books people themselves, so it looks and feels just like the real deal. In fact, its silver foil spine (the gold spine is copyrighted) is the only giveaway that this book is slightly different, and kind of special.

Tigerbuttah is available through the fine folks at Topatoco.

Don’t forget to visit Tiny Kitten Teeth for more Tigerbuttah adventures and comics.

Czech illustrator and designer Pavel Fuksa created yes, 178 illustrations on matchbox covers for the video “My Place” by the Navigators. Definitely inspired by vintage Eastern European matchbox covers (see some great examples here), Pavel does an excellent job of bridging the past and the present with these designs. See the video below:

The City of Vancouver – home to the Olympic Winter Games as of right now – is only a little over 100 years old. It never had a lot in the way of local printing and publishing, but some of the local businesses’ ads that ran in local directories have been posted by the City Archives. It’s a treat to see the old fonts, and the selection of businesses really tells us something about the state of the city a century ago: meat globules, fish, coal, tents, and “disappearing furniture”!

Children’s book illustrator extraordinaire Dan Santat was inspired by old 1960′s Japanese monster movie posters and vintage sci-fi magazine covers when he created the cover for his soon-to-be-released book OH NO! (Or, How My Science Project Ruined the World). Dan talks about the cover (which turns into an actual movie poster if you take the jacket off and turn it over!) in depth on his blog. A very fascinating read for a very fascinating cover. Here’s a spread from the book. Looks great. Dan says:

The intent was to make the artwork resemble an old Japanese 1960′s science fiction movie so I added dust, and film scratches with an aged feel around the edges. I had originally proposed to have Japanese subtitles underneath the text but that was shot down.

Click image above to view larger.

I love how he drew himself and the writer, Mac Barnett as people in the crowd, running away. Dan, with the evil professor eye patch, of course.

Alex Chechik only recently graduated from art school and he’s already doing work this sophisticated. Gorgeous!

He currently works in Toronto as a freelance illustrator and designer for animation and says his influences include Nicolas Marlet, Tadahiro Uesugi, and vintage children’s books.

As well, Alex tells me, “Music is a huge influence for me. It’s greatly inspiring, and helps you put more emotion into a piece. I love putting on a video of a great live performance and painting along to it – that’s where the jazz illustrations come from.

Jazz is incredibly influential, but I do enjoy a fair amount of rock, electronic stuff and definitely some good hip-hop as well.”

For proof, Alex laid down some phat beats on his terrific demo reel that really sets the tone!

Demo Reel from Alex Chechik on Vimeo.

Alex says, “Since July of this year I’ve been trying to get into the freelance thing, while slowly applying for work. Making contacts and marketing yourself is definitely the biggest challenge in the freelance route; it’s a skill I still have to learn much about. But I enjoy the studio environment and collaborative work, so I’d love to get a full-time gig in visual development or design for animation. That’s a goal and I’m just beginning to seek out that type of work more aggressively.”

To which I have to say, “Hello animation industry? Why haven’t you snapped this guy up?!”

Alex Chechik’s website and blog

Until the mid-1950′s paperback covers tended to be illustrated in a very ‘literal’ style. Then along came a young artist named Mitchell Hooks.

In the mid-’50s Mitch (and a few others) revolutionized the look of paperbacks by montaging brash graphic images together and rendering them in unorthodox mixed media techniques that tipped their hat to abstract expressionism.

Its easy to be blasé about punk rock design in today’s visually overloaded world where everything’s been done… but in the Leave-It-to-Beaver America of 50 years ago this was pretty wild stuff!

There are some remarkable collections of vintage paperback covers on Flickr. One of the best has been compiled by collector/archivist UK Vintage. Recently, he assembled for our viewing pleasure a tidy little set of 1950′s Mitchell Hooks covers ( with a promise of more to come).

If UK Vintage’s Mitchell Hooks set leaves you hungry for more (and I don’t blame you one bit) then drop on over to Kyle Katz’ Mitchell Hooks set and satisfy your craving with even more hot dames, cool dicks and sizzling art, design and type that’s as fresh and inspiring today as it was half a century ago.

Immensely consumed artist, animator, illustrator, graff writer, designer and director, I’m married to Andrea and have two quirky, yet lovable kids, Ava and Ezra. Originally from the deep South: Atlanta, GA, and now live and breathe in Portland, OR. A few things about me: I love collecting old ephemera, cookbooks, children’s books and whatnot from the 1940’s to the 60’s. I’m a big fan of mid-century art, architecture, and design. I also love old school hip-hop and graffiti. Go figure.

You can find more of my work and animation on my official site.

I sell prints of my artwork here: The Ward-O-Matic Shop.

Yes, I drew the drawings inside this book:
How To Train With a T. Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals by Michael Phelps with Alan Abramson. I hear that Phelps kid is a good swimmer. If you want me to talk to your school about making the illustrations for this book, feel free to contact me. I’m game.

Even though I might have an abundance of ideas and concepts in various states of production at one time, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to watch cartoons with my kids.

Flickr groups I’ve started and/or moderate:

The Retro Kid: illustration and artwork from children’s books, illustration, games, ads, etc. from 1940′s-60′s.
The Retro Teen: same stuff, but meant for teenagers.
Vintage Science: anything science-related pre-1980.
Mid-Century Science: vintage science 1940′s-1960′s ONLY.
Vintage Education: vintage textbooks, etc., from 1940′s-60′s.
Jim Flora Art: devoted to the fantastic artist, Jim Flora.