Illustrophile, Illustration blog, Illustration news, Illustration art blog

Daniel Chang’s portfolio is a collection of softly surreal work with very light, loving touches of humor. He seems to have a fondness for animals over humans, having rendered everything from cranes and pelicans to bees and beavers.

Allen Douglas‘ illustration career spans nearly a decade, in which time he has picked up a slew of awards, plus a dream collection of clients. From Tor to InQuest to Spectrum, fantasy fans must surely have seen one of his excellent paintings throughout the years.

Fiona Staples makes some handsome covers for comic books, and does some sequential shorts herself. I hope she gets more work in the industry; female comic book artists deserve much more credit that they receive.

San Francisco based Bagger43 does fantastic street style paintings and portraits. Check out his blog for sketches, more paintings and even vinyl toys.

Mark E Smith’s powerful watercolor acrylic ink works really bring out the mood and atmosphere in his subjects without being melodramatic. Some of his pictures are accompanied by interesting, haiku-like poems, which lend an interesting extra touch of quiet tension.

Swedish illustrator/artist/film student Alexander Jansson makes full use of his skills to create vivid, surreal pictures. His site also contains tantalizing images from his to-be-published children’s book, Boatsman Hattington.

Uk’s Mark Boardman makes some dark, dark paintings that gleefully usher you into a bleak introspective on the state of everything. His work looks like it would be happily at home on a John Steinbeck novel. Mark’s got a collaborative project called Too Much Turps going, where the finished artwork is available for purchase to collectors.

Jerihely Leal España produces some of the most amazing caricature work on the planet. It really takes talent to make something so bad and so good at the same time! His current exhibition includes a delightful rendition of Brad Pitt from Troy, wihch is probably quite befitting his performance in said movie…

Joseph Blake creates some amazingly watercolor-ish oil paintings that evoke strong feelings of nostalgia.  No less impressive are his sketches and drawings, which continue to celebrate the quiet charms of simple life.

If Jean-Maree Pool’s paintings were children, they would be best friends with Mark Ryden’s paintings. While I don’t like the term ’spooky cute’ myself, I do think JME’s paintings have a nice touch of the surreal. And she has a very obvious style for her people too. See if you can find the rabid panda painting in her galleries!