Ross Collins

Ross Collins is an illustrator who was born in 1972 in Glasgow. From a young age he always liked drawing and in 1994 he graduated from the Glasgow school of art with a first in illustration. In 1994 he won the MacMillan children’s book prize. He moved to London for two years where he experimented and refined his style. He then moved back to Glasgow where he now spends his time writing and illustrating children’s books.
As well as illustrating he also works doing character animation.
I like his work its very eye catching and I think there’s a sense of humor behind it which it what draws me into the images more. Even thought the titles of the books have a dark theme to it the colours on the cover are still bright and I like the juxtaposition of this. There is little pattern which keeps the eye on the main object.  

 

see more at http://www.rosscollins.net/

Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud was born in 1960 in America and is a famous cartoonist. He has written books such as understanding comics and making comics. He studied illustration in Syracuse University where he graduated in 1982. In 1984 he created the science fiction series zot!
I know very little about comics as when I  was younger I never read them and never liked them so to have to look at this artist to me doesn’t inspire me as it doesn’t connect with me. I think he is very good at drawing and to people who like comics they would probably love his work yet I don’t. I don’t want to create comics or read them, however I think in future it would be nice to create something within the same layout style of a comic as they are very eye catching and have a link with pop art which is something I like, but as an artist I don’t really like his work.

 

see his work at http://scottmccloud.com/

Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart is an illustration and artist who attended Falmouth college of art and since then he has been writing and illustrating his stories for a living. He is mostly known for working on his picture books, Dexter Bexley, and for providing illustrations for poet Carol Ann Duffy. “I am trying to make the kinds of images and picture books I thought, or half remembered existed, but couldn’t quite find when I went and looked. Of course they come out some other way again than that, but maybe one day other people will half remember them."
I think the drawings Joel Stewart creates are very vintage and cute, even though I do not think I will work in his style in the future if I was to ever have to do a project around illustration I think I would look closer at Joel Stewarts work to get some inspiration as the pictures he draws are a little creepy and surreal which is what makes me like his work more.

 

see more about this artist at http://www.joelstewart.co.uk/

J. Otto Seibold

J. Otto Seibold is an illustrator of children's books he is best known for illustrating picture books. His most famous illustrations were created for the author Vivian Walsh.
One of his most famous books is the Alice in ( pop up) wonderland, which offers interactivity for the audience and this I feel is a great idea, however I think personally his illustrations look a bit creepy and I don’t really like them . I think his ideas are good and I would like to think that I could make a pop up book in the future. I think his work is very bright which would appeal to younger audiences but for me it’s just a bit too much.

see more of his work http://www.jottodotcom.com/

Kathleen Hale

Kathleen Hale was a British artist, illustrator, and children's author. She is well known for the illustrations she created about Orlando the marmalade cat.

During the 1920s she focused on creating book jackets, posters and illustrating children’s books as well as selling her own drawings.
Orlando the marmalade cat was a story that she would tell her two sons before they went to bed and in the 1940s and 50’s the book became very well known especially due to the illustrations.
To be completely honest I don’t really like the work of Kathleen hale for me they look to old fashioned and dated, I can see why they would appeal to illustration students and children as the drawing its self is really remarkable and the texture on the fur of the cat looks really nice but this style of work is not for me and I doubt I would ever do any work in the style of this artist.

Sara Fanelli

Sara Fanelli is an artist and illustrator who was born ion Florence but studied in London. As well as illustrating books she has also written a few such as sometimes I think I am which won an award in the D&AD.
Considering that I don’t really like children’s illustration that much I do really like this artist as it remind me of the work of Teesha Moore whose work I admire so much. I like the different textures and the patterns used in the image as this adds depth. I also like the fact it looks like it has been manually put together instead of just using a computer and I think many graphic designers spend too much time on the computer and never really experiment with doing manual work. The bright colours attract me to the work and the surrealism that the work projects also attracts me to Sara Fanelli’s work, and I think I would take inspiration form this artist in the future.

 

Even thought this is designed for children I think the surreal feel it has attracts adults also with the bright colours it would easily stand out. I like that it is a little bit creepy and the use of different techniques used makes it far more interesting to look at.

 

 

 

I really like how the colour has been kept simple in this image as it means you focus on the text more, The fact that many different fonts have been used I also really like and in my work I want to start experimenting more with type. I would really like to produce a piece of work like this as it looks like it would be fun to do and it would be something different as I doubt many graphic designers would use this style.

 

 

I didn't know that sara fanelli had designed stamps until now and when looking at the artists I was looking over the over of another stamp designer and I was really drawn to this and started to think it would be really interesting to design stamps when i'm older. I like how bright the could is and it would stand out a lot from the envelop. Even though I don't like the design on the stamp that much i'm glad i've seen a stamp that doesn't look boring, it looks like to would capture peoples attention and that is something I want my work to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

see more work at http://www.sarafanelli.com/docs/bg01.html

 

Lauren Child

Lauren Child is an English author and illustrator. She is best known for writing the Charlie and Lola books. The books where realised in 2000 and won the Kate Greenaway Medal, the same as Shierly Hughes.
From an early age she was surrounded by art as her father was head of art at Marlborough college.

I like how the illustrations use collage to give pattern and texture to the work as this lifts the images and stop them looking flat, it also adds a nice break up to the pictures as otherwise they would have been block colour. However I don’t like how the eyes and the hair all start to over lap each other, however I can see how the drawings would appeal to the younger audience .

 

 

see more of her work http://www.milkmonitor.com/

 

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle was a British artist who is most famous for creating the St Trinians School with Geoffrey Willans. He studied for 2 years at Cambridge college of arts and technology, whoever in 1939 he had to give up his dream of being an artist as it was obvious that war was about to take place and Ronald Searle enlisted in the royal engineers. In 1942 he was taken a prisoner of war and was forced to work of the death railway. Even though he was now a prisoner of war this never stopped him drawing and documenting what he saw, many of these drawings appear in his book Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939-1945 in which he talks about what it was like to be a prisoner of war. He continued to work of the St Trinians books as well as his book on cats before moving to Paris where he started designing for the cinema and worked on films such as Monte Carlo or bust.
I like how the drawings are mostly in black and white it gives a child like feel to them, I love the drawings of cats he has created as they have so much character and humor to them which appeals to me as I’m sure it does to many other people. And even though I don’t want to go do the illustration path I still would use his work for inspiration.

see more of his work and learn about him http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/january/ronald-searle

 

John Maeda

 

John Maeda is a Japanese-American designer and computer scientist who focuses of design technology and leadership. Due to the fields he looks into he has wrote a book titled the laws of simplisity which is aimed at helping people overcome design problems and flaws and help simplify peoples life in a time where complex technology could be seen to be taking over. John Maeda is currently the president of the Rhode Island school of design. John Maeda likes to combine the technical side of design with the traditional. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Cartier Foundation in Paris.
Some of John Maedas other achievements are being named one of the 21 most important people in the 21st century and receiving the national design award for communication design.

 

 

John Maedas Fireball

Read more about the laws of simplicity http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

 

Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes is a children’s illustrator and author who has illustrated more than 200 books. She worked on books such as my naughty little sister. Shirley later went on to write her own books and illustrate them her self, books such as Lucy & Toms day, this book was so popular that is was made into a series of over 50 books. The classic and traditional look of her work has captured the minds of many people and has led to her success. In 1977 and 2003 shierlys work won the Kate Greenaway medal for British children’s book illustration. Her most famous piece of work is Dogger and in 2007 was voted the favorite piece of work entered into the Kate Greenaway medal competition.  What has made her such an icon illustrater is the way she works, she believes that “A good picture book is never words with illustrations added later to make it look more attractive. As with a movie, the word and image develop together, independently."
In 1999 Shirley Hughes was awarded with an OBE for services to Children’s Literature.

 Learn more about Shirley Hughes and her work: http://alfiebooks.co.uk/allaboutshirleyhughes.asp