Illustration Now!

I found this Taschen book in a gallery and had to buy it. Illustration Now! Portraits.... It's perfect for inspiration for this brief.... Rather than photocopy everything I wanted a record of I went through and took pictures....

This first Illustrator is Stina Persson from Sweden. I love the style and colours of her portraits... She uses watercolours, plastic film and Photoshop to get these effects. I especially like how often her portraits have a lot of white space within the face itself, it brings so much depth to the rest of the portrait, making it look as though a super bright light is being shone right into her face...

Edel Rodriguez uses acrylic and pastel on paper. He often illustrates for Time Magazine. He says 'I try to get at the essence of the subject in a clear and concise manner and often include biographical details that help inform the viewer' As I said before I think this is a good idea and make an interesting portrait...

Paula Sanz Caballero is an illustrator from Valencia. She creates portraits of high society using embroidery and hand stitching. Her work really stood out to me, it's different from the average portrait. The hand stitched fabric gives the illustrations a lot of depth and texture. I like the idea of using mixed media for my portrait. She also states how important it is to get the feeling and meaning of the characters into her portraits, she loads her work with 'irony, dark humour and unsettling details that hint at deeper meanings below the polished surface'

Helen Schiffer is an illustrator from Frankfurt, she uses mainly ink on paper to create charming line drawing portraits.
I don't particularly like the larger drawing, it seems very soulless, I don't get anything about who the portrait is of or what's on his mind. The other 2 however feel very different, I think it's in the way she has drawn the eyes. They kind of remind me of a colouring in book but for adults, it's almost up to the viewer to make the characters who they want them to be...

Dugald Stermer creates Illustrations for publications such as Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and Esquire to name a few. His work is very varied in style and he creates anything from portraits to anatomy or food. I love the portrait below, it shows the globe turning in the corners and if you look closely you can see the mapped out lines on the face (like in a map showing various heights of mountains or hills)

Raphael Vicenzi is an Illustrator from Brussels. She has created a few works for clients but mainly just has her personal work displayed in books (like illustration now) She uses, pencil, ink, watercolour and photoshop to create these pretty, fun portraits... I love the mix of media used in the illustrations, the girl 'crying a rainbow' is beautiful and delicate...

Silke Werzinger is an Illustrator from Berlin. She has won many design awards, has been commissioned to create illustrations for clients such as Elle magazine, Carlson and McDonalds. She combines ink and colour to tell amusing stories or to re-create scenes from everyday life...

Fumi Nakamura is an illustrater from Japan. She uses graphite and colour pencil to create mainly portraits. She has worked for magazines such as Nylon and designed t-shirts for Gap.

Lapin is a French freelance illustrator who has been comissioned for work by clients such as Viktor & Rolf and Intermarche. I particularly like the portraits below on graphed paper, he uses ink and watercolour to create beautiful portraits to add to his 'collection of faces'...

Eduardo Bertone's work is very comic book like. He uses a huge range of colour and typography in each of his illustrations. I particularly like the style he uses for his characters, the vintage comic book black and white feel comes to mind, but then overlaying blocks of colour in different textures brings it to a new level....