Antikewl Daily » Illustration

Little Golden Books and other vintage illustrations

Trevor May — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:06:13 +0000

If you’re a fan of Little Golden Books, or indeed the mid-century illustration by the likes of Mary Blair, Mel Crawford, Tom Oreb, Alice and Martin Provensen — to name a few — drag yourself over to the Golden Gems blog immediately.

Be sure to delve into the Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera stuff too.

I could honestly spend the rest of the afternoon pawing through the pages. (via John K)

Backgrounds: The art behind the animation

Trevor May — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:54:06 +0000

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of all aspects of animation, from concept artwork to storyboards to roughs to the finished scene. One often overlooked piece of the animation puzzle is the humble background. Whilst the eye is drawn to the life of the moving characters on screen little attention is often given to the illustrated scene behind.

The Animation Backgrounds blog digitally removes characters from scenes and stitches together panned shots to reveal the uncluttered artwork underneath. There’s a wealth of background artwork here from the watercolours of Lilo and Stitch (above) to the Mary Blair-inspired Alice in Wonderland. (via Aegir)

Vintage Disney newspaper comic strips

Trevor May — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:38:01 +0000

D23, the new Disney fan community, are putting up classic newspaper comic strips every day. Right now they’re showing vintage Mickey Mouse strips from 1930, Donald Duck dailies from 1938 and Scamp (the son of Lady and the Tramp) from 1955.

There doesn’t seem to be any sort of archive, unfortunately, but hopefully they’ll add one in the future. And an RSS feed, please!

Little Big Planet’s “Sacktue of Liberty”

Trevor May — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:41:46 +0000

To celebrate 4th July this year, Media Molecule are offering a free downloadable “Sacktue of Liberty” costume for your Sackboy or girl to wear. If the summer solstice is more your cup of tea then you’ll be after the druid costume from last week, also free to download.

If they’re not cool enough for you, then how about these lovely in-game stickers designed by illustrator Jon Burgerman? They’ll set you back a couple of Dollars/Pounds/currency of choice though.

You’ll need a copy of Little Big Planet on the Playstation 3 to grab any of these and the Liberty costume is available world-wide from July 2nd.

Brushes: The iPhone drawing app

Trevor May — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:59:46 +0000

Here’s a fantastic must-have little app for any illustrator, artist or designer… providing they have an iPhone, of course!

Brushes allows you to use your iPhone handset as a virtual canvas, with your finger as the “brush”. When I was originally told about this I was pretty sceptical… how could you achieve any kind of detail with a big fat finger on a tiny screen? I was happily proved wrong. While it doesn’t have any kind of pressure sensitivity it does allow you select brush sizes, types and zoom in for those trickier parts.

If that’s not enough to get you to grab it already, what if I told you that artist Jorge Colombo has already had his Brushes art featured in (and of the cover of) the New Yorker Magazine? Thought so. Brushes is available for £2.99/$4.99 from the iTunes App store.

Also check out these sketches produced by Disney Art Director, Stef Kardos. Anyone know of any other artists doing cool stuff with this thing? (thanks Steve)

Brushes £2.99/$4.99 (iTunes App Store link)

Lost Charley Harper paintings found

Trevor May — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:51:41 +0000

The Charley Harper Museum have revealed on their blog that a number of lost paintings by Charley Harper produced for the Ford Times and Lincoln Mercury Times magazines in the 1960s have been discovered deep within their archives.

The discovery of these paintings came as a surprise even to Charley’s son Brett. “I felt like I was opening a buried treasure chest that had been locked up for more than 35 years.”

The Estate and Studio have already respectfully declined several immediate offers for portions of the priceless collection. Brett believes that as the market begins to understand what the collage originals of birds, fish, and travel series represent—the rarest of the rare—collectors will be stunned.

Some of the pieces will be exhibited at the Fabulous Frames & Art Gallery in Chicago from July 11th until August 8th 2009. I can only hope they make an appearance somewhere closer to me in the future! (via Grain Edit)

Update: You can see a whole load more of them here: Long Lost Charley Harper (thanks Ward!)

Otaku magazine issue 5: Play

Trevor May — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:23:31 +0000

Just a quickie! Otaku magazine’s “Play” issue is now out.

“Serious play represents a feature of any otaku’s activity. Basically you play, but you do it with the greatest dedication, seriousness and interest. We don’t want to be the prisoners of the industries that bet on our ability as playful mammals, but we desire to know them and explore their limits. Otaku PLAY explores the universe of players and play of all kinds. How and when you play. What you learn while playing and where do you risk arriving when you remain blocked within the same play.”

Otaku is an independent magazine from Romania which promotes Japanese-inspired visual arts. This issue comes with an interactive DVD and a superb 60cm x 40cm New York EbOY poster.

Also check out their blog for much much more of the same! (via Sam)

Martin and Alice Provensen: Creating Tony the Tiger

Trevor May — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:22:42 +0000

Leif Peng has a superb piece over at his blog, “Today’s Inspiration”, on Martin and Alice Provensen’s creation of Tony the Tiger, the long-standing spokes… uh, -tiger for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes (“Frosties” to us over this side of the pond). As it turns out, Tony wasn’t the only animal auditioning for the part…

Tony the Tiger’s birth was noteworthy enough to make it into the news briefs section of the September 1953 issue of Art Director and Studio News. The short piece mentions that Tony was not the only cartoon mascot intended for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. There was also Katy the Kangaroo and Zeke the Zebra, and from doing a little research I discovered that Elmo the Elephant and Newt the Gnu were also under consideration.

Busted Up Pokémon by Justin White

Trevor May — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:23:18 +0000

Californian illustrator and designer Justin White has been creating a series of Pokémon portrait illustrations.

The idea was to capture each character after a long battle
recuperating inside their pokeball. Or maybe I just wanted to imagine pokemon in a lot of pain. This was really just a fun way to keep active and creative.

You can find all of them on his Flickr stream or in his portfolio. While you’re there, also check out his other great projects including the Mario Brothers portraits and the Alphabet vector illustrations.

Wondering if I can fit the word “illustration” into this article one more time. Done. Enjoy!

Terrible Yellow Eyes, illustration inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are

Trevor May — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:11:11 +0000

With the Spike Jonze-directed movie forthcoming, illustrator Cory Godbey has started an awesome project, Terrible Yellow Eyes, to celebrate Maurice Sendak’s illustrated children’s classic, Where the Wild Things Are. He’s invited numerous talented artists to contribute their own works, inspired by the book itself.

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll display a growing collection of works created by invited contributing artists and myself. We share a love and admiration for Sendak’s work and the pieces we present here are done as a tribute to his life and legacy.

Simply put, like a visual love letter to the book, with Terrible Yellow Eyes I am seeking to celebrate and promote the original masterwork by Maurice Sendak in the best way I know how — with pictures.

I was going to write a list of my personal favourites from the collection but there are simply too many to mention!

Maurice Sendak celebrated his 81st birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday Maurice!

(discovered via Ward, who’s contributed this lovely illustration to the project)

Update: Lindsey just drew my attention to the We Love You So blog. It’s a diary of multitude of stuff that has inspired the making of the film adaptation by the film crew themselves.

Update Sept 3rd 2009: Terrible Yellow Eyes will now be running as an exhibition at the Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California between September 19th and October 6th, 2009.

Illustrator Joey Ellis

Trevor May — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:23:10 +0000

I originally discovered Joey’s work through The Disney Blog who highlighted the superb Disney-themed avatars that he uses as his Twitter profile pics. From there I discovered the fantastic Mickey Mouse mural he designed and painted onto his son’s room.

He’s also used his talents for some incredibly good deeds too. He’s set up Cory Fights Giants to help raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Check out his latest work on his blog and on his Flickr stream.

Antikewl gets SWFTed

Trevor May — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:03:07 +0000

I mentioned Sam Bradley, the guy who’s been doing the illustrated social experiment on Twitter, a week or so ago. Since then he’s put all the illustrations he’s produced up on their own website, SWFT.ca, and added me to the ranks alongside such glitterati as Douglas Coupland and Drawn’s Robot Johnny.

Might need to lighten up the tone of my tweets though — I appear to have been depicted as a miserable tiny balding man!

John Hanna, Illustrator (1919 – )

Trevor May — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:08:27 +0000

Browsing through my backlog of blog feeds this morning a post by Nick Asbury caught my eye. He was looking for more information about the illustrator who created these beautiful covers for Country Fair magazine, signed “Hanna”, in the 1950s.

By the time I had found the post he had already managed to discover that it was an Australian artist by the name of John Hanna who lived in England from 1948 to 1962.

Surprisingly there’s very little the web about him, but I have managed to dig up a few additional scans of his work for Country Fair. (via Ace Jet 170)

Update 5th Sept 2009: Lots more lovely images here on the Delicious Industries blog. Frustratingly they appear to have been dug up at a boot fair very close to home! (via Drawn!)

Sam Bradley Illustrates Twitter

Trevor May — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:15:17 +0000

Artist Sam Bradley has started a new social art project: He’s pledged to illustrate, four times a week, an individual tweet from the social networking site Twitter.

He hasn’t set up a site for it yet (I’ll update this post when he does) but you can see his drawings as he posts them on his Twitter stream @abysmalred.

Update: You can now find all of his Twitter illustrations at SWFT.ca

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Trevor May — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:19:42 +0000

I’ve just been browsing The Art of Penguin Science Fiction, a website “that explores the history and cover art of science fiction published by Penguin Books from 1935 to 1977.” I’ve always been a big fan of classic Penguin paperback books covers and this tied neatly to yesterday’s post on man’s vision of the future through the years.

The cropped image above is from the 1963 paperback of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes. It was scanned by Michael Bojkowski — he has a few more higher resolution scans of classic paperbacks on Flickr. If you’re into Penguin covers be sure to browse Penguin Paperback Spotters’ Guild Flickr pool too.

(discovered via Noisy Decent Graphics)

75 Ways to Draw More

Trevor May — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:53:30 +0000

This is something I should do. I love drawing, but can’t remember the last time I did it (except for on my son’s erasable drawing pad… Ok, I do that most days…).

Illustrator Michael Nobbs has put together a little booklet with 75 light-hearted ideas on how to get yourself to draw more. You can print it out for free or order a signed copy from his website. (via Drawn)

Illustrator Richard Wilkinson

Trevor May — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:58:41 +0000

Just stumbled across illustrator Richard Wilkinson‘s portfolio/blog via his speculative work for Head & Shoulders that Dustin posted on Think Faest.

He also did a number of superb illustrations for the Deluxe edition of Cory Doctorow’s latest novel Little Brother. If anyone has the £100 asking price spare I’d love to own a copy!

Scarygirl: Nathan Jurevicius’ illustrated web-based platform game

Trevor May — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:21:32 +0000

Just been playing this adorable web-based platform come puzzle-ish adventure game Scarygirl. It’s absolutely wonderful despite it being a little buggy at present. Go check it out. It’s free too!

The game was produced by Touchmypixel and is based on distinctive artwork of Australian designer, artist and illustrator Nathan Jurevicius. You can find his vinyl toys over at Scarytoys.

Exploration of the Digital Comic Book

Trevor May — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:18:22 +0000

Inspired by comic artist and theorist Scott McCloud, French artist Yves Bigerel visually demonstrates how he believes online comics have the scope to be something much more than just reproductions of their paper-based counterparts. Freed from the limitations of print digital comics offer a greater control over the pacing of sequential storytelling; control Yves believes hasn’t yet been fully explored.

He follows this up with a second exploration, imaginatively entitled “About About Digital Comics“. (via Steve)

Little Robot: Paper, pictures automata and other fanciful things

Trevor May — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:36:48 +0000

This is something I’d been meaning to share for some time and has, in fact, been sitting in the Friends’ links to the left for about a year!

I used to work with Lindsey many years ago when she was all pixels and vectors. Since then she’s moved to Scotland, branched into some rather splendid Victorian-inspired artwork and goes by the name of Little Robot.

She also has an Etsy shop.

Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves

Trevor May — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:20:49 +0000

Check out this wonderful blog entitled Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves of “vintage children’s books from thrift shops, library sales, book stores, online and elsewhere”. Image from Gyo Fujikawa‘s exquisite Lets Grow a Garden.

Incidentally, if you like Gyo Fujikawa, there’s a ton more images of her work on Flickr.

Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration

Trevor May — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:01:17 +0000

I was, apparently, born in the same town and went to the same school as Illustrator Quentin Blake, most famous for his wonderfully apparently effortless illustrations for the books of Roald Dahl; although obviously not at the same time… what with him being 43 years my senior. Anyway, I managed to spot an interview him on BBC Breakfast News before I left for work this morning where he was talking about a proposed museum for illustration in London.

They’re currently trying to raise the £6 million required to build a “House of Illustration” in Kings Cross, London by 2011 — the world’s first museum dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.

The House of Illustration is a registered charity that was established in 2002. It is the brainchild of Quentin Blake. As an experienced illustrator and teacher, he saw a gap in the UK’s museum sector. At the moment, illustration is only seen in occasional temporary exhibitions in other museums and galleries. The House of Illustration will change that.

The House of Illustration will be the place to see past and present illustration, both British and international. It will be the world’s first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.

They are a registered charity and currently accepting donations via their website.

Ward Jenkins’ B-Boy Show

Trevor May — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:16:31 +0000

Ward Jenkins, animator, contributor to Drawn! and curator of the wonderful Ward-O-Matic blog current has a wonderful looking solo show at the Grassy Knoll Gallery in Portland, Oregon inspired by graffiti and 80′s hip hop. This is a little too far for me to travel so I’m grateful that so many photos are available online.

Original artwork can also be purchased directly from the gallery website.

Game Boy-inspired screenshots of recent video games

Trevor May — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:36:44 +0000

Hah! Blogging! Remember that? Er, where was I…?

Recently (and by “recently” I mean “over a year ago“) Pixelation ran a little contest on their forum to see who could create Game Boy-inspired screenshots of more recent video games. The entries are fantastic — some of my favourites, World of Warcraft, Bioshock, Sam & Max and American McGee’s Alice, are above.

Go take a look if you haven’t seen them already… and if you have it was probably so long ago now that you’ve forgotten about it and should go have another look anyway!

American Elf daily sketchbook diary

Trevor May — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:08:44 +0000

Ok, yeah, this kind of happened a few months ago now (brace yourselves, you’re going to hear that a lot over the next few weeks!) but it’s still worth mentioning. Previously only available to paying subscribers, comic artist James Kochalka has made the archives of his wonderful daily comic journal, American Elf, free to access. That’s nine and a half years worth of sketchbook life!

They’re also available as a series of books, I have a copy of the first one which compiles the first five years and it’s a lovely big tome. The second volume, which collects 2004 and 2005, is also available and volume three will be available in November.