Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

I love the work of Nathan Jurevicius, though it fell off my radar for a while until I saw another one of his fantastic toy series on a recent trip to San Francisco. It’s amazing to see his creations come to life in the string of MTV bumpers above.

(via Nathan’s twitter)

Chhuy-Ing IA is a character designer, illustrator and animator. She lives and works in Paris. Here’s a page of her personal work from her website.

Chhuy-Ing IA also has a fantastic blog, Ciia… what’s up? with tons of fun art and delightful little animations – and she recently published a sketchbook.

Aaron Blecha works in animation, illustration, and character design. He’s got a distinctive, funny style… but this isn’t it.

Aaron designed and animated three of these clever, catchy little spots for a company called “Leadwire” in a manner that reinforces the old adage: “Simple is best.”

Leadwire- “Tracking” from Aaron Blecha on Vimeo.

I found them on Blecha’s Blogcha where Aaron also posted two other animated spots he designed and animated for a Danish organic food company called “Kur”.

Kur Cartoon – Morning Glory Animation from Aaron Blecha on Vimeo.

Even if you’re suffering from a case of the morning grumps these two perky little ads will definitely put a smile on your face and get your toe tapping. Then visit Aaron’s website for additional guffaws and snickers. *Note: the homepage is worth waiting out the few seconds it takes to load – don’t be so impatient! Geez!

The Gobelins animation school in Paris seems to crank out fantastic animator after fantastic animator, and Emanuelle Walker is no exception. Her character design is so much fun, and don’t miss her illustration pages.

This super-fun film, Après La Pluie, was made by Walker and her cohort at Gobelins. I love the concept of water-as-portal:

Après la Pluie ©2008Gobelins from Emmanuelle Walker on Vimeo.

Everyone knows about the Monster Cereals, right? They’ve been a part of the fabric of our childhood (well, at least, for me), along with their classic animated commercials for decades now. The commercials left such an impression on me, I’m surprised General Mills won’t revive the characters for any new spots. This totally perplexes me. Andy Cage sees the potential here and has started up The Monster Cereal Blog for everything and anything related to the iconic sugar frosted characters of Franken Berry, Count Chocula, and Boo Berry. Earlier, he posted fan art featuring the trio (as well as lesser knowns Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy) throughout the entire month of May. (The image above was done by Saxton Moore.) There’s even a Facebook page to support the cause.

Character Hunter collects photos of cartoon mascots, kawaii art, and other character designs seen on the streets of Tokyo.

Andy Helms draws a dude a day, and I love how he applies his style to various movie franchises, like these Star Wars dudes.

(Thanks, Box Brown!)

Peter Machat writes:

I am a Student of Visual Communication Design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany and I would like to introduce you to the 51 Japanese Characters project, which I developed during my stay as an exchange Student at the Nagoya Zokei University in Japan … Japanese society is full of special expressions for certain people, characters and Japanese cultural phenomena. When such an expression is used, a member of Japanese society instantly knows what kind of person, character or cultural phenomenon is meant. As Being a foreigner, a Gaijin in Japan, I tried to lift the curtain and shed some light on the areas of Japanese society that are often perceived as being mysterious and closed. I wanted to know the exact qualities of an Obatarian, a Narikin, an Otaku, a Bosozoku or an Ikeike Onna.

In a post that will surely brighten the spirits and light the imaginations of any young cartoonist, Jake Parker has posted a series of drawings that chronicles the evolution of his character Missile Mouse, and in the process, the evolution of his drawing chops. Me, I can’t wait for the Missile Mouse book.

Dean Fraser’s been reimagining some of his favourite superheroes, 80s cartoon characters, and pop culture icons as pitch-perfect Simpsons characters: Springfield Punx. This month it’s all Marvel heroes, but some of my favourites are the real-life actors like The Office’s Dwight seen here, or Arrested Development’s Tobias.

(via)

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