Illustration celebration

I bought Jenna a Communication Arts subscription for Christmas, and it's safe to say I'm enjoying it at least as much as she is. Last week, my favorite issue arrived in the mail: the Illustration Annual! With my greasy grilled cheese held at a safe distance in my right hand, I eagerly paged through the magazine with my left, spotting great work from some illustrators I've heard of, and some that I haven't. For this post, I'm going all Drawn on ya and posting a few of my favorites.

Yuko Shimizu (work shown at left/above) is a name I'd swear I'd heard before, but nothing in her online portfolio really rang any bells, although it did cement my position as a fan of her work. A little rugged, a little raw, a little OMG NSFW!!

Marcos Chin (you know, the guy who did the Lavalife ads?) had some lovely art in the magazine, but I didn't find anything I liked nearly as much on his website. Here it is anyway! Get some of your new stuff on the online please, Mr. Chin.

Everyone is crazy about Gary Baseman. I like his work alright, I even went to see the man at Ox-Op earlier this year, but I just can't catch the fever. It's just as well, since my wife hates his style, so it's not like I'd be able to decorate our home with Baseman paraphernalia anyway! For some reason whenever I think of Baseman I also think of Jeff Soto, and that's a dude I could get on board with. But he wasn't in Communication Arts, and we'd be here all night if I started free-associating all the artists I like. So back to the issue at hand.

My favorite illustration of all is a half-page image of HMS Victory done by an artist named Kako. I had to dig a bit, but I managed to find it online! It is here, and now also featured on my desktop background.

When I first read about I am 8-bit, it sounded like pretty much the best idea ever. Art based on vintage video games, you say? It's about time, I say. Google around and you'll be sure to round up more images; I couldn't go to the show, but I heard about it on Wired and this Duck Hunter/Thompson mashup by Tim Tomkinson was one of my favorite pieces. Let's enjoy it with me.