Ogri

When I was a boy two things consumed the majority of space between my ears- comic books and motorcycles. So when I came across Paul Samples "Ogri" in Ride Magazine naturally I became obsessed.

Ogri is the story of a fictitious cartoon biker of the same name. The comics focus on the day to day on goings of Ogri's life and dealings with his friend Malcolm, his dog Kickstart, his girlfriend Mitzi and the various trappings facing the modern motorcyclist. 

The thing I always liked was the mixture of detail and humor. Looking at the larger images, for example, if you look closely for a while you see that in each scene, aside from the main story, there are lots of different stories unfolding in the frame, sort of reminiscent of Martin Handford's wheres wally.

Mostly the stories revolve around similar themes with key elements- motorcycles (obviously), pigs (the police), danger, alcohol and sex (the last three best served together). Samples depictions of women in his strips have a Robert Crumb feel- that same honesty that reflects the artists interests and offers male readers something to relate to.

Sample

Crumb

Since becoming a motorcyclist myself I understand much more about the way that these comics are written, the roads are a different place from the perspective of the strange minority group known as motorcyclists. Ogri really embodies the spirit of this rather unusual ilk.

Sure the roads react differently in bad weather, road debris is a deadly foe and motorists are trying constantly to kill you. But those things aside There is a vision of a biker embedded in the conscious of society, it is a tired idea of an easy riding tear away but underneath that over used cliche is a very simple idea that still rings true, before all the Marlon Brando, Evil kanevil, leather jacket wearing studded codpiece, harley davidson, tassles crap. That idea lives in the heads of all motorcyclists, we know this from the displays of comradery to each other, our talk of roads and rides or that we nod at each other when we see another biker. Its because we understand that feeling, that feeling is escapism, we can close the door on our lives and all of the nonsensical stress of modern living. Leave the work, kids, dogs, parents, girlfriends, wives or whatever behind, step out into our garage's onto our bikes and just fuck off. 

Victo Ngai

New York Based- Hong Kong born- world wide wicked!

Personally I find Victo's work gives me a slight Utagawa Kuniyoshi taste with a tinge of modern day but I could be way off, tell you what judge for yourself, you can see her work here: http://victo-ngai.com/#javascript or on her wonderfully candid and honest blog

Paul Blow

This is of course the work of illustrator Paul Blow. I first came across Paul's work at the

Pick me up exhibition at Somerset house. Paul's work is often witty and humorous but nearly always touches on deeper subject matter- which works as a perfect taster for topics that are usually too dark for imagery.

However, don't let me tell you that his work needs text to justify it as you can see from examples on his site or in his beautiful prints, Paul is able to express the intention behind the pieces clearly using only simple visual tools (perhaps best illustrated in his piece on Internet pornography). These elements form your intellectual stimulant but far from being a one trick pony his use of color and line make a decent aesthetic impression too.

feast your eyes on Paul's goodie bag here: http://www.paulblow.com/

Matthew Green

So theres this guy, Mathew Green and he's f**king awesome! anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

Told you so

Illustration Podcast

I found this little gem whilst searching for something to listen to whilst doing a spot of drawing. It is the
Escape from Illustration Island podcast and you can pap it on your itunes by clicking here and following the links. From the variety of usefull episodes you can check out talks with leading critics, historians and a multitude of artists, editors and illustrators. My favorite is episode 74 - intermission where you can hear musical hits such as "i might have to get a day job" and "illustration high coo".

Paine Proffitt

"Whyyyyyyyyy whhhhhhhy whhhhhhhhhhhhy Delilah?" the roar of a working class generation over the freezing terraces across the country on a grey Saturday morn- the real britannia- an inspiration?
 The latest addition to our visual melting pot is the work of one Paine Proffitt an American artist currently residing in the city of Stoke-on-Trent perhaps best known for his vintage-'esk' imagery surrounding British football culture.
For a few hours this week Proffitt was good enough to allow me through the door of his studio- a veritable treasure trove of painterly canvas creations to get my teeth into.
From his commercial pieces to his darker personal projects Proffitt's style is bold and consistent.
I was especially interested to see his growing collection of match programs that form a series of commissions by Proffitt, in years to come collectors items- i'm sure.

Check out some genius here- http://www.paineproffitt.com/

Tom Rowe

cant go wrong. think machines made of candy. website here

mickey duzyj

Cool work, interesting name- he's got it all! well at least his own style of graphic/digital illustration. nice to look at.

have a gander at his stuff ere: http://www.mduzyj.com/illustration

Brad Holland

The Illustration industry is widely considered to be in poor shape. This is due to the growing preference for other mediums for their ability to convey a message quickly- mediums such as photography and graphic design. But what (if anything) does illustration offer that these other disciplines don't?
Good illustration to me is the marriage of rich imagery and wit. Images that follow this formula can provoke the viewers fascination, bring a body of text to life and reveal thought provoking truths about almost anything.
Brad Holland is an illustrator who is well aware of this and achieved critical success in the early 90's. His work rather than info graffics, explores the feeling, the artistry behind illustration with his painterly imagery. The message behind the majority of Brad Holland's work is often based on politcal affairs or news offering a satyrical undertone as an extra dimension to his style.

visit his website here: http://www.bradholland.net/

awesome prints

Just a quick post to say- super duper fantastico woodblock prints available here at Tugboat. look at the detail- lovely

BLU

Another old one here- Muto by BLU- this piece quite simply raises the bar, you can see from the sheer scale of the frames that a lot of work was put in here making this a short of epic proportions.

I Met The Walrus

Long overdue post here, I saw this animation about 3 years ago and for my money it's one of the best short animations Ive ever seen.
The premise is based on a lost recording from an interview John Lennon gave in 1969.
Illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina picked up an Emmy in 2009 for this little beauty and rightly so. It is a great example of how illustration can embody the meaning of sentences to not only explain the message but open the viewers imagination to a plethora of ways that its meaning could be interpreted.

Jonny Hannah

These are a few good examples of how there is still a lot to be said for hand rendered illustration;

From the simple colour schemes of the lino prints to the naivety of the typography. Within we see a textured, pleasing and retro aesthetic, elements that work as ingredients for a very meaty visual stew.

These pieces are just a few offerings from the great Jonny Hannah, I particularly like the use of text in Hannah's work- I find it free and unrestrained, qualities that are less common in contemporary typography which seems to lean more towards the digital.