Dave Stevenson map illustration for Huntress by Malindo Lo

Dave Stevenson recently created this black and white map illustration of an imaginary land for the book, "Huntress", written by Malindo Lo and published by Little, Brown and Co.
He created the map in pen and ink, and did all of the hand lettering, as well.  I just received an advance copy from the publisher, and the reproduction looks great!  They printed the map in a deep plum color on the endpapers - love it!

Huntress book cover

Dave Stevenson - Huntress endpapers with map

Dave Stevenson - The original map in B/W pen and ink

View more of Dave's maps

Cathie Bleck's "Transformation" at the Convivum 33 Gallery

Cathie Bleck is part of an all female group show opening this Friday at Cleveland's Convivium 33 Gallery (see event details below).  Cathie's new work for the exhibition is part of a larger series titled "Transformation", which originally began as a result of observing in great detail cocoons hatching over a period of time.  The cocoon became a metaphor of inspiration honoring transformation as a natural process. In the meantime you can view more of Cathie's work here.

Cathie Bleck - detail from Triptych "Becoming"

Cathie Bleck - detail from Triptych "Becoming"

Cathie Bleck - "Becoming" triptych

CONVIVIUM 33 GALLERY, CLEVELAND, OH
Opening APRIL 1 THRU MAY 8, 2011 at St. Josephat Arts Hall
Exhibition runs through MAY 8, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION :: APRIL 1, 2011 :: 6-8PM with a special 8pm performance sneak preview of scenes from Insomnia: The Waking of Herselves by Cleveland Public Library

CLOSING RECEPTION :: MAY 8, 2011 :: 11AM-2PM :: SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY BRUNCH

Gallery Hours : Daily by appointment Wed, Thurs, Friday 10am-1pm, Sat, Sun 10am-2pm

Convivium 33 Gallery at St. Josephat Arts Hall
1433 East 33rd Street
Cleveland, OH
216.881.7838
http://josaphatartshall.com/

Kim Rosen: I see a pattern here... (Update!)

We were pleasantly surprised to see Kim applying one of her new pattern (13) to flooring - see the transformation as it happened in a small area of a room in her 1898 home.

Photos from Kim's blog

Kim Rosen - Pattern 13 being applied to flooring

Kim Rosen - Pattern 13

Dave Stevenson goes back to school!

Last week we received a call from a man in Florida whose son was working on a school project about Egypt.  While searching online for a map to use as part of the presentation, he ran across Dave Stevenson's illustration of a map of Egypt.  He was nice enough to call and ask for permission to use the image, and we of course, with the artist's approval, were happy to help.
Well, a week later, we received a follow up e-mail with photos of the final class presentation along with the great news that the school project was a hit.  His son received an A+ and even an extra credit of 10 points for creativity!

This made us all so happy!  Sometimes it's the little things in life...

School project using Dave Stevenson's map of Egypt

Dave Stevenson - 'Map of Egypt'

View more of Dave Stevenson's illustrations of maps

Kim Rosen: I see a pattern here...

Kim Rosen has been steadily building her portfolio of patterns, and here are a few of her most recent designs.  She's been playing around with more geometric shapes and flatter color, and we're digging the new direction!

Here's a little fun tidbit, per Wikipedia's description of art patterns: Many patterns, as created by artists, incorporate a 'golden ratio', which has been found in nature to operate as a universal law bringing harmonious proportions to elements, to make them appear well balanced.

Kim Rosen - "Pattern 13"

Kim Rosen - "Pattern 12"

Kim Rosen - "Pattern 14"

Kim Rosen - "Pattern 15"

Check out more of Kim's patterns at our gallery.

Chris Buzelli - part of a group show fundraiser for Japan

Chris Buzelli is one amongst a large group of artists taking part in Water Works at Giant Robot 2. The event, which opened March 19 and goes until April 13th, is a benefit for UNICEF and child victims of the earthquake in Japan.

From Juxtapoz.com:
"What was months ago planned in the theme of water and as a benefit for clean drinking water, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has turned Giant Robot's Water Works show into a fundraiser for the devastation in Japan."

See below for the full press release, including the complete list of participating artists.

Chris's contribution for the show, "Fish Fountain":

Chris Buzelli - "Fish Fountain"

Full press release from Juxtapoz.com::

Water Works at GR2 - A benefit for UNICEF and child victims of the earthquake in Japan

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF (USF) is raising funds to help children in Japan impacted by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. This is an unusual decision, as Japan is a donor to UNICEF, not a recipient of its assistance. However, due to the unprecedented nature of the epic disaster and its impact on children, resources are going to be critical in helping provide for the very unique needs of children. These may include health, development, and protection and other needs that may have been compromised or disrupted in the wake of the catastrophe. Giant Robot is proud to join the effort, and have asked many of our talented friends to create water-themed art to raise funds to support the efforts of UNICEF.

In addition to raising money by selling artwork, Giant Robot will be donating the following to UNICEF:

1. Proceeds from the sale of water bottles featuring labels created by artists and signed by celebrities.
2. Fifty percent of proceeds from Giant Robot’s small restaurant, gr/eats, on Saturday, March 19.
3. A percentage of all sales at Giant Robot, GR2, and GRSF during the weekend of March 18-20.
4. Raffles for donated merchandise including designer- and artist-signed items, GR gear, horseback rides, and other items.
5. Cash donations accepted for UNICEF.

Contributors include the following:

Andrice Arp Gary Baseman Chris Bettig Bigfoot Jude Buffum Chris Buzelli Louise Chen David Choe Luke Chueh Jesse Fillingham Renee French Ayako Fujitani Matt Furie Rodney Greenblat Katherine Guillen Joe Hahn Clement Hanami David Horvath Mari Inukai James Jean kozyndan Jesse LeDoux Lisa Ling Barry McGee Ryan McGinness Jeff McMillan Junko Mizuno Megan Mullally Gary Musgrave Mark Nagata Saelee Oh Bryan Lee O'Malley Nathan Ota Mu Pan Albert Reyes Jay Ryan Rob Sato Ryan Jacob Smith Deth P. Sun Jillian Tamaki Katsuya Terada Edwin Ushiro Esther Pearl Watson Daniel Wu Yoskay Yamamoto Kohei Yamashita This event is made possible by the generous help of Intertrend Communications, the most innovative, digitally savvy Asian marketing agency in the country. In addition, Intertrend has pledged to match the first $10,000 raised by proceeds and donations through Giant Robot.

Cathie Bleck: A study in Black & White

Although Cathie Bleck is well known for her intricately detailed fine art works, she continues to create powerful yet simple works in black and white scratchboard, as well.  Her process of building upon the board with inks and clay and then scratching away at the surface with a razor sharp tool in order to create these pieces is so interesting, and it's amazing to realize the amount of work that goes into each one.

See below the images for more details on Cathie's process.  Click here to view more of Cathie's amazing work.

Cathie Bleck - "Hollister House Garden" icon

Cathie Bleck - header for The New Republic website

The following two images are from Good Earth teas packaging:

Cathie Bleck - "Mango" for Good Earth teas

Cathie Bleck - "Tiger" for  Good Earth teas

Scratchboard Process - From Cathie's website:

by Cathie Bleck:

I work on white clayboard; which is a board that has a thick coating of Kaolin clay, often making my own clay pigments. It is a relatively new art process though it's roots lie in some of mankind’s earliest attempts at creating art. The Cro-Magnons scratched pictures into rock or bone to tell their stories. As a visual storyteller my goal is to connect in this context by carving into this natural medium of clay that has been formed at the bottom of lakes.

I work on two types of scratchboard. The works on paper are manufactured in England with a cardboard base. The clay boards, invented by Charles Ewing are coated on archival masonite and manufactured by Ampersand. Both types of board provide me a surface in which I can build upon with inks and additional clay prior to scratching them away with razor sharp tools.  Recently, I have also been experimenting with the kaolin on  papyrus and handmade papers.

The process of scraping the inks off of the clay is my favorite experience in creating the piece. It is a performance that celebrates the articulation of lines. The movement of my wrist and arm are rhythmic in nature not unlike a performance of a jazz musician or a dancers fluid movement.

The first step in my process is making a preliminary drawing in chalk or graphite. I usually transfer this to my board with graphite paper under the sketch retracing the preliminary drawing with a pen. This creates an indentation in the board and graphite image to serve as a guide. Next I paint with permanent colored inks prior to scratching. My preferred tool for scraping is triangular in shape with a fine razor edge and various razors. Recently, my works are much larger in scale (30”x60”) and I have been getting beautifully crafted custom boards made by Ampersand with a birch trim cradle and back supports for stability. Upon completion of the piece I apply a coat of acrylic protective spray using the recommendation of a museum trained art restorer.

Charles Glaubitz poster for "MI festival" 2011

Charles completed the poster for the Mi Festival 2011 music festival in Tijuana Mexico. As a bonus, we were able to obtain the sketches for the work - which are always fun to browse:

 

Charles Glaubitz - "Mi Festival 2011" final art

 

Charles Glaubitz - Sketch 1

 

Charles Glaubitz - rejected illustration (process sketch 1)

 

Charles Glaubitz - sketch 2

 

Charles Glaubitz - sketch 3

 

Charles Glaubitz - sketch 4

Kim Rosen for Hot Java Cool Jazz

Kim Rosen was commissioned by Starbucks to do portraits of 5 high school jazz bands for their annual Hot Java Cool Jazz event.  You can read more about it on the Starbucks site, and be sure to check out the posters below. Not only are the illustrations of each band member great, but we also love the design of the posters which, when placed in a row, creates a seamless panorama of the five bands.

If you're in Seattle on April 15th, 2011, you should go hear these cool kids play!

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" poster series

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" Edmonds-Woodway High School

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" Garfield High School

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" Mountlake Terrace High School

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" Newport High School

Kim Rosen - "Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz" Roosevelt High School

Claudine Hellmuth illustrates for Faber-Castell

Claudine Hellmuth recently illustrated for Faber-Castell, using one of her retro girls... who would of course be holding a set of Claudine's favorite pens! The extra bonus was all the new goodies the client sent her ... see below.

Nice work Claudine!

Claudine Hellmuth - "Faber Castell"

Claudine Hellmuth's new Faber-Castell artist pens!

Bob Dob in the Hi Fructose Group Show Invitational

Bob Dob is one of the participating artists in Hi-Fructose Magazine's 2011 group exhibition at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle.  Here's a preview of Bob's piece titled, "A Punk Named Django".  If you're in Seattle, you can check out the original at the opening tonight, March 11, from 6-9 p.m. If you can't make the opening, no worries, the show will be up until April 2nd.

Bob Dob - "A Punk Named Django",  inspired by Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhart.

View more of Bob's work here

Jen Lobo and Bob Dob in INLE show

Jen Lobo and Bob Dob are both in the upcoming INLE show, which opens this Friday, 3/11, at Gallery 1988 in LA.  Over 100 artists created their own interpretation of the antihero in the novel, "Watership Down", by Richard Adams.  Here is a preview of Jen's piece titled, "All the World Will Be Your Enemy", and Bob's piece titled, "Inle"...

Inle show poster - 3/11/11

Jen Lobo - "All the World Will Be Your Enemy"

Bob Dob - Inle

View more of Jen Lobo's and Bob Dob's work

Martha Rich's Salad Book: Potato Balls, Cheese Dreams...

Salad Book: Potato Balls, Cheese Dreams, Frankfurter Bunwiches

What else would you expect from Martha Rich -- a book full of balls and cheese and wieners... we love it!  (By the way, Happy Birthday to Martha!!)

Open publication

Check out more or Martha's groovy art

Chris Buzelli illustrates Radiohead's new album for Rolling Stone magazine

From Chris' blog on Drawger

By Chris

"A few weeks ago, I got a rush call from Steven Charney to illustrate Radiohead's new album "The King of Limbs" for Rolling Stone magazine. The album takes its name from a 1,000 year old tree in Wiltshire, England's Savernake Forest. I was really excited to work with Steven again and to illustrate for such an iconic band. I listened to their new album while I painted and hopefully some of their haunting yet beautiful music snuck into this piece."

Chris Buzelli - "King of Limbs"

You can see more of the process work here or see Chris's gallery of work here.

Kim Rosen's Portrait of Russian Ballerina Tamara Karsavin

From Kim Rosen's Blog

By Kim Rosen,

"I love portraits. It's always a pleasure to learn about a person and then try to capture them in an illustration. Here is a portrait of the late Russian Ballerina Tamara Karsavin a in this week's New Yorker magazine for a 'Critic's Notebook' column by Joan Acocella. Thanks to Jordan for another fun job."

Kim Rosen - "Tamara Karsavin"

View more of Kim's work

Martha Rich in Managing the Design Process

Martha Rich is one of the only illustrators featured in a new book by author Terry Lee Stone, called "Managing the Design Process Implementing Design: An Essential Manual for the Working Designer". You can skim through a few of the pages here.

Martha Rich - section in "Managing the Design Process Implementing Design"

See more of Martha's groovy work

Calef Brown & Chris Buzelli in Society of Illustrators 53

This Friday, March 4th, is the awards presentation and gala for the Society of Illustrators 53 Advertising & Institutional Categories, and Calef Brown and Chris Buzelli will be two of the featured artists.

Calef's selected piece was created for The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, a collaborative chapter book created by a group of writers and illustrators for the Library of Congress. You can see Calef's chosen piece in chapter 15 of the online book.  While there, you can peruse the book and see more of Calef's work in other chapters, too.

Calef Brown - "The Gingerbread House",  illustration for The Exquisite Corpse Adventure

Chris Buzelli has 5 pieces in the show, including his cover illustration for Paul Mark's Mirage Cartography CD (winner of the Gold in the advertising category), M44,  Macy's Flower Show 2010, Mariachi, and Future Visions.

Chris Buzelli - CD cover for artist Paul Mark's album "Mirage Cartography"

Chris Buzelli - "M44"

Chris Buzelli - "2010 Macy's Flower Show"

Chris Buzelli - "Mariachi" from MGM Viva Festival posters

Chris Buzelli - "Future Vision"

Congratulations, guys - amazing work!

See more of Calef's and Chris's work

Kim Rosen Surfs for Billabong

Kim Rosen illustrated two surfboards for the Billabong Stores!

From Kim's blog:

"Here is another surfboard I had the pleasure of illustrating for Billabong. Both of these surfboards are used for in-store displays. This new one will be in a Billabong store in Florida. The first board is in five stores throughout the country. Thanks to Anne for such a fun job and for giving me all the freedom in the world."

Kim Rosen - The new Billabong Surfboard

Kim Rosen - Previous Billabong Surfboard

View more of Kim's illustrations here