Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Google, in cooperation with Time Life, has posted a ton of photographs from the Time Life archive online, most of which have never been published before. The photographs are categorized by decade, and if you take a look at the 1950s section, you will find pictures of Walt Disney Studios, many featuring the man himself, but also others featuring the brilliant folks behind the scenes (such as Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and who I think maybe Marc Davis?)

A while back I posted a link to a series of monster trading cards scanned in by illustrator Rafa Toro:Monstruos Diabolicos. Flipping around Flickr today I’ve discovered that Rafa has started to redraw the entire set, and the results are pretty fun: Monstruos Diabolicos Redux.

Related: Toro! Toro! Toro!

The previously-blogged Giuseppe Ferrario is now blogging, so you can keep up-to-date with his deft cartooning.

Previously: Giuseppe Ferrario

Victor and Susie is a cute illustrated book in which the illustrations are all created with typography. It’s the work of design shop Brighten the Corners.

Design Sponge is kicking off a new video web-series – Design by the Book. Kind of a Project Runway but with a bunch of Williamsburg designers. And instead of the Parsons School of Fashion, it’s set in (drum roll) the NY Public Library.

The first episode is up and it’s got interviews with a bunch of interesting people. Notably:

Mike Perry (5:00) – an illustrator/font-designer and author of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type.

Julia Rothman (6:40) – a designer of beautiful patterns

Also of interest:
Hand Job: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Type

One of my favourite books this year has to be The Night Life of Trees. The book is a series of silkscreened illustrations (some nice photos here) of lushly patterned plants and animals accompanied by short mythical poetry and prose.

The illustrations are by three artists from the Gond tribe of India. Limited to a print-run of 1000, each page is effectively a beautiful limited-edition silkscreen print.

Here’s a video that shows the process. The subtitles are small, but the images are self-explanatory.

Flight of the Mermaid – another beautiful book from Bhajju Shyam
More work by Bhajju Shyam

Check out all the great art in the Hey You Guys art auction.

From the very talented Israel Sanchez:

I’m writing to let you know about a charity event that some friends and I are putting on this Saturday in Pasadena, California. It is called “Hey You Guys” and will include a screening of “The Goonies”, a raffle, and an art auction that has begun online.

…

The charity we are working to help is Donorschoose.org, they provide materials to needing classrooms. In this case, we are concentrating on classroom in Southern California that need art supplies. We are trying to help the next generation of artists!

Emru Townsend, founder and editor of Frames Per Second animation magazine and technology writer for PC World, passed away last night after a year-long battle with leukemia and a condition called Monosomy 7.

As Jerry and Amid at Cartoon Brew put it, Emru has “for decades been one of animation’s best friends and most intelligent critics.”

Emru’s contribution to the animation community was immeasurable but his legacy will be his tireless fight – alongside his sister, Tamu – to educate the public about the vital role the bone marrow registry plays in saving people’s lives.

Emru was a good friend of mine and I will miss him a profoundly. A few years ago Emru and Tamu sent me to cover the Waterloo Animation Festival for FPS and Drawn and we’ve been friends ever since.

He was someone who was thrilled by every nuance of animated films. People around him – including me – loved to feed off that energy. It breaks my heart to imagine that he’s gone. But I know that his energy, enthusiasm and love for art and pop culture live on in his loving sister Tamu and his wife Vicky and son Max. I send them my love today.

Also:
PC World remembers Emru Townsend
Cartoon Brew on Emru Townsend
Learn more about how to register to become a bone marrow donor

You might see something like this.

Made as an advertisement by Art Snob solutions. Check out the rest of the set to see how they made it.

Poster Boy remixes ads in the NY subway, often with hilarious results. Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan says:

Art: is it what he does? Culture jamming: a term too annoying to use any more, though everyone knows what it means. Sell out: is he bound to, eventually? Questions: he asks them.

Check out Poster Boy’s Flickr photo stream.