I was browsing the Rabid Children Flickr group for artwork inspired by the music of They Might Be Giants, which introduced me to the work of Vancouver artist Hine Mizushima, whose little felted characters blew me away with pure cute (more at her Flickr stream).

I was then immediately reminded that she was responsible for the stop motion video for TMBG’s Why Does the Sun Shine? from their wonderful Here Comes Science:

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Tags: Art, craft, Hine Misushima, plush, they might be giants, Vancouver

Painter Glennray Tutor is a photorealist. I particularly like his series of marbles and romance comics.

Photorealism always seems to get a bad rap in our comments from those who dismiss the practice as having no artistic value other than precision. But I like this quote from Tutor’s site:

“It’s easy to dismiss photo-realist work as an exercise in surface obsession, but Glennray Tutor, a Jedi warrior of the style, has to be admired for his dedication to what Yeats called ‘the fascination with what’s difficult.’”

The marbles, comics, canned goods, candies, and toys — all rendered in bright, saturated colours — evoke a sense of childhood wonder, especially when you look at his body of work, and not just individual pieces.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 16 comments
Tags: Art, Glennray Tutor, photorealism

How cool is this collage of heroes and villains by Jack Teagle? It’s made up of a series of smaller individual paintings, and his Flickr stream has all sorts of other drawings, sketches, and comics.

(via Luke Pearson’s Tumblr)

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 3 comments
Tags: Art, batman, Comics, Jack Teagle, star wars, superheroes

If there’s one thing I’m bummed about no longer being in Toronto for, it’s The Taxali 300, a solo exhibition of three hundred original pieces by the city’s own Gary Taxali. The show runs from January 28 – February 28 at the Narwhal Gallery.

But lucky for us folks outside of the city, Narwhal has uploaded a near-complete online preview of the exhibit. It’s a goldmine for fans of Taxali’s work.

(via Comics212)

Previously: Taxali vs. Google – Gary Taxali at Drawger: “Don’t call me”

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | One comment
Tags: Art, Events, Gary Taxali

Clement & Co. has started We Are the New Standard, an “ongoing documentary series covering people who are taking themselves and their work to a new level.” The first artist featured is Eric Nyquist, who speaks here on process and creativity.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 2 comments
Tags: Art, documentary, Eric Nyquist, process, video

Love: the found-art sculptures of Michael Johansson.

(via Booooooom)

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Tags: Art, found art, Michael Johansson, sculpture

Big Rabbit’s Bad Mood by Ramona Badescu and Delphine Durand

The most charming kids book I read this year (original review). Delphine Durand’s illustrations are pure joy, and could melt the heart of anyone who forgot how much fun drawing can be.

Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities by John M. Carrera

A beautiful love letter to engravings, bookmaking, and language from bookmaker John M. Carrera, Pictorial Webster’s collects the original engravings from 19th-Century dictionaries into a new pictures-only dictionary (original review). Pictorial Webster’s satisfies my hunger for visual list-making that probably grew out of picture book dictionaries from my childhood, and now extends to things like Blackstock’s Collections and the work of Tom Gauld.

The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld

And speaking of Tom Gauld, his The Gigantic Robot was another instant favourite of the year. His usual mix of subtle humour and minimalist drawings are used here to tell a parable about war, futility, and decay. It may not be a meaty book, but Tom manages to say more with 15 single-panel pages than some cartoonists do with entire graphic novels. Visit Tom Gauld’s website.

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

R. Crumb’s visual, literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis is certainly the most impressive comics project of the year, if not the decade. I usually try to avoid such hyperbole but, even though Crumb claims to have treated this adaptation as an impartial word-for-word illustration job, we must appreciate the context of such a book. That context is not only one of Crumb’s kingly status in the pantheon of underground comics–psyche-driven comics of sex, drugs, desire, and the antiestablishment–but a modern world in which the origins of life on earth are a highly-politicized battle between Darwinian Science and the Hand of God. In this context, a literal adaptation of the bible’s first book–a story of how we came to be–is a statement in itself.

Gig Posters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century by Clay Hayes

Quoting my original review:

Anyone familiar with GigPosters.com knows it’s the site for modern music posters. And with the CD going the way of the LP, and its cover art with it, these posters are fast becoming some bands and artists’ primary means of representing their music visually.

The Gig Posters book features over 700 posters, 101 of which are full-page. And it’s a true poster book; each page is perforated and ready to be torn out and hung on your wall.

It’s a terrific resource for how contemporary designers are fusing illustration, typography, and reinvigorating the world of the poster.

Naïve: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design by Robert Klanten & Hendrik Hellige

Inspired by the likes of Saul Bass and Charley Harper, the contemporary artists featured in Naïve all embrace the virtues of modernism and minimalist design–simplicity, restriction, patterns, and shapes–and even if the work was made with the aid of a computer, the pieces all boast an aesthetic that seems to say, “this was made with my own two hands.” Like the Gig Posters book, this is an invaluable source of inspiration for designer-illustrators and printmakers, featuring favourites of mine like Tad Carptenter, Matte Stephens, Linzie Hunter, and Nate Williams.

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life (Popular Edition)

That brings us to Charley Harper himself. There’s not much I can say about this smaller affordable version of its larger, more expensive counterpart, that I haven’t already said in my initial review, but I can once again stress that if you had put off purchasing the original behemoth of An Illustrated Life because of its size or pricetag, you have little reason to avoid adding it to your collection any longer. Charley Harper’s work is modernist, abstracted illustration at its best.

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

I’ll start by stating that I didn’t love the story, or the characters in Asterios Polyp. But I am a sucker for formalism in comics and artists that play with the medium itself. Usually, cartoonists’ forays into form-bending rarely sustain full-length stories. But in Asterios Polyp we may have the first true formalist graphic novel–a story actually about style and duality that exploits form, motif, colour, and line to their fullest, in a way that could only be achieved in comics.

George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth

Seth’s serialized story for the New York Times Magazine is collected here in a gorgeous volume, which makes the wait for the next Clyde Fans book a little more bearable. Mixing mid-Century Canadiana with death and the passing of time, Sprott is pure Seth through-and-through. The panels are rich in the warm, monotone colours befitting a tale of nostalgia and the oversized pages allow Seth to showcase some of the best-designed page layouts of his career.

Never Learn Anything From History by Kate Beaton

Fans of webcomics darling Kate Beaton finally got a book this year, collecting Kate’s hilarious comics featuring historical figures (if not historical fact). Kate’s expressive characters are up there with the best of Jules Feiffer’s work, and it is always a good day when my RSS reader gives way to one of her comics. Guaranteed to be the only book on your shelf featuring Tesla, Napoleon, AND Stompin’ Tom Connors!

Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

In this memoir, illustrator David Small tells the harrowing story of a childhood spent with unloving parents and the cancer they unintentionally gave him, and subsequently kept a secret from him. A quick but engrossing read, Stitches features some of the most vivid images of childhood to be realized on the comics page, and several truly stunning wordless sequences–appropriate for a story of a child who loses his voice, and finds it again in his ability to draw.

Monsters by Ken Dahl

Monsters almost didn’t make the cut this year, and only because I didn’t read it until just a few days ago, when it quickly secured itself a position on this list. Ken Dahl/Gabby Schulz’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel about herpes is a cautionary tale for, as Jeffrey Brown writes on the back cover, “anyone who has had sex, is going to have sex, or wants to have sex.”

Honourable mentions: Jeffrey Brown’s Funny Misshapen Body, R.O. Blechman’s Talking Lines, Denis Kitchen’s Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix, and R. Sikoryak’s Masterpiece Comics.

See also: Matt’s Picks for 2009
Last year’s lists: Matt’s Picks / John’s Picks

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Art, best of, Books, Comics, Illustration, review

Mary Blair

I saw this concept art by mid-century animation designer Mary Blair on the wall at Illustration House the other day, and I was blown away by its jewel-like beauty. The colours really are as lovely as the jpg shows. According to the catalogue (you have to click through a few pages to find the full list), it was made for Disney’s 1948 Melody Time. The estimate is only about $2000, which is pretty low for original art by a very well known and loved artist, in my opinion. Oh and there’s a second one being offered too – but I’ll leave that for you to find on your own!

Gyo Fujikawa

I am also enamoured of this cute little illustration by Gyo Fujikawa. “Who?” you may ask? Fujikawa was another female illustrator working at approximately the same time as Mary Blair. She too worked for Disney, before turning to freelance and making children’s books. This image here is from her 1957 Child’s Garden of Verses. Fujikawa came to my attention recently because she appears to be the first woman illustrator to actively take part in the administration and volunteer activities of the Society of Illustrators, circa 1951, which is doubly impressive given her Japanese American background and it being right after the War.

Disclaimer: I hang out a lot at Illustration House. Yes, this is a shameless plug of sorts. But the artwork’s worth it.

Posted by Jaleen Grove on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Art, auction, children's books, Gyo Fujikawa, Illustration, Illustration house, Mary Blair

The combination of silliness and simplicity of Luke Butler’s series of Star Trek paintings, Enterprise, is right up my alley. His paintings seem to capture both the campiness and the pure spirit of adventure of the original series.

(via Booooooom)

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Tags: Art, Luke Butler, painting, star trek

Tagtool is a performance art instrument that projects live illustration and animation onto walls with a laptop, drawing tablet, and gamepad. (Previously)

The Wall of Light was a ten day event in York, UK, showcasing Tagtool performances by a number of various artists and free-for-all sessions. I’d love to see something like this at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche.

Check out this full Wall of Light video album on Vimeo for more videos of some of the performances. And visit Tagtool.org for more about the Tagtool project, and to learn how you can build your own.

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Art, Graffiti, performance, street art, tagtool, Technology