i-D Magazine Interviews KAWS
June 30, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration / Magazine

This months issue of i-D Magazine features a collaboration with graffiti/artist/creative genius KAWS and man does it look epic. The issue features that whole crew of people including BAPE founder Nigo, Kanye, Pharell, and I’m sure everyone else in that whole scene. I just think it’s rad that they let KAWS art direct the whole issue, including illustrations over the fashion spreads and the such. Hypebeast posted this interview that i-D did with Kaws and it’s kind of cool to see him speak about the process and his own work. Having met a few pretty amazing artists over the last year of running this blog, I always find it extremely interesting to see what artists, these people who I so admire, are really like. So far they’ve all been extremely cool and nice, and KAWS seems equally so as well.

Bobby

Raymond Biesinger
June 27, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

A staple of every good magazine is the illustrator. Not every article needs a photograph and often times an info-graphic alone can help you decide whether or not the story is something you want to read. One such person who absolutely excels at this practice is Raymond Biesinger.

Raymond is a Canadian illustrator who’s style reminds me of old school prints or illustrations in books from the 50’s. Everything has this mildly gritty appearance and nothing is quite perfect. Those textures and imperfections are what I find so beautiful and amazing. I’m also in love with how much black and white work he does. The blacks feel so saturated somehow, I don’t know how he does. He’s also rather good with colors as well, but he uses them rather sparingly. I’ve put a couple more images under the cut, so be sure to check those out as well.

Keep reading Raymond Biesinger…

New Work from Ron Kurniawan
June 26, 2008 | Categories: Art / Illustration

Los Angeles based artist Ron Kurniawan recently updated his online portfolio and I’m in love with it. I posted last year about Ron’s work but I’d definitely say that’s he made leaps and bounds since then. His work still reminds somewhat of Jeff Soto but not I feel like he’s taken more of a turn towards James Jean, with a tons of amazingly beautiful colors and a dash of surrealism. The image at top was done for Men’s Health Germany and the one below that is titled CarSick. I would love to have this hanging up above my fireplace, if I had said fireplace. Take a visit to Ron’s site and check out the rest of the goodies!

Reminded by Changethethought

Bobby

Mario Hugo
June 24, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

Where as yesterday things were a bit more colorful, today I’m feeling a little more minimal, at least when it comes to palette and form. So it was nice to see the work of Mario Hugo once again, thanks to a reminder by the folks at Changethethought. Mario’s online portfolio has already been updated with over 10 projects, but my personal favorite was definitely his spec work for Beck.

Mario was asked to develop “non-verbal,bold, iconic concepts for Beck’s newest album”, and man he did an amazing job. My guess is that it was too minimal for Beck’s usually outrageous and over the top style, but I’m really glad Mario was able to share what he created with the rest of us. Even though the pieces are done in only cream and black, they’re amazingly striking, filled with tons of different patterns and amazing shapes. I love the wood grains you see above, clean, contemporary and so completely graphic.

Check the rest of Mario’s work, especially if you haven’t been in a while!

Bobby

Never Been by Stuart Kolakovic
June 23, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration / Internet

Though I don’t post a lot about it, I really love me some folk-ish art. I was raised by my mother who drag me to craft fairs all the time, which made me kind of hate anything of the sort. But then I was introduced to the work of Margaret Kilgallen and my perception was totally and completely changed. Stuart Kolakovic’s work gives me the same feeling as Kilgallen’s does, maybe with a touch of Kara Walker’s sense of narrative.

Stuart recently did a giant mural for his solo show at Projeckts MCR, which he’s now scanned in and put online with the help of his brother Adam. The mural is titled Never Been, and has now become and interactive art project that is absolutely stunning and mind blowing. You go through the mural by dragging your mosue across the screen, slowly exploring this beautiful world that Stuart has created, filled with the most beautiful, muted colors and thousands of minute details. One of the first images you come across is an old woman sitting on the shore of the ocean, her dress made up of patchwork quilts, all featuring the most amazing patterns.

As you go you start to realize that you’re following the trials and tribulations of a small family. A man falls in love with a woman, the seasons change, there’s life, there’s death, happiness and sorrow. When you look at this, definitely take the time to figure out which are the main characters in the story, and go from there, I promise you’ll enjoy yourself.

Bobby

Puño
June 23, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

Continuing my posts about fun, European illustrators is a guy named Puño who lives and works in Madrid. Puño was born in 1978, and makes his living “drawing for books, for press, and for publicity.” He also enjoys the city, cities in general, and travels a lot, but that doesn’t help him pay the bills.

I like Puño because of his fun, brush and ink style. All of his frawings have an amazing amount of depth and life to them and really make me smile. I put my favorite image of his up top, I just love that the Fantastic Four are fighting some drugged out giant Mickey Mouse, I mean, who wouldn’t? The other image is an illustration he did as a personal project, but wouldn’t that be awesome to see as an advertisement for a library? I know if I were a little kid (or the age I am now) that it would get me excited to see what’s going on inside!

Bobby

Wolf Am I by Colby Nichols
June 19, 2008 | Categories: Art / Illustration

Seeing how most everything is going digital these days, it’s nice to see that a lot of people are still into hand-making things. For example is Colby Nichols’ newest zine titled Wolf Am I, featuring “an assortment of ideas that otherwise would not have gotten out.” I really love Colby’s style, with lots of fun doodles and patterns to browse through. My absolute favorite though is the top image that simply says “GNAR”, a word that Colby has been obsessed with now for years, or so he told me. I personally like the font that he drew together with the subtle blue lines combining them all.

Wolf Am I is 24 pages and is only $6, so be sure to check it out along with the rest of his work, including these awesome guitars he decorated!

Bobby

Dave Franzese
June 19, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration / Video

I got an email from Dave Frenzese a couple days ago, and it was so exciting and well written that I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. It was full of energy and great bits that I knew this guy had to be something cool. When I checked his site, I was damn right. Filled to the gills with awesome work. Dave’s style of art/design is totally inspired by comic books, first and foremost. He does everything by hand for the most part, though he’s starting to warm up to computers. Most of all he loves to keep things simple and tell a good joke in the process, making you laugh and enjoy yourself.

On his site you’ll find a bit of everything. There are bearded vampires, a project he calls The Third World, showing third world countries inhabited by 8 bit Nintendo creatures, lesbian porn turned into an epic, god-like battle (totally NSFW), and that’s all just the tip of the iceberg. One of my favorite things he did was a video for LVHRD, where he and another guy dressed like A and B buttons and participated in a Wiimbldeon Tennis Tournament, and then another video where he plays bad and another girl plays good, and they go around doing what they do best.

He and his work are both extremely charming, so take like 20 minutes and check out all he has to offer.

Bobby

Megapuss with Lauren Dukoff at The Hammer
June 19, 2008 | Categories: Art / Music / Photography

Last night I had the pleasure of going to The Hammer museum for a concert by a band called Megapuss along with the photos of Lauren Dukoff. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, though I know I liked Lauren’s photos, and I had heard rumors that Megapuss was the new side-project of Devendra Banhart. Well it turns out the rumors were true, Devendra, along with Priestbird drummer Greg Rogove and two other fellows (and a harpist for one song), are Megapuss.

The whole thing took place out in the courtyard of The Hammer, which is an absolutely beautiful place to see a concert. They ended up playing for about an hour, playing songs titled things like Duck People Duck Man, Chicken Titties, and Surf. They sounded a lot like Devendra, maybe a little more Beach Boys-esque, but still just as weird and awesome. This was their first show, so they were all over the place, playing a lot of Tears for Fears in-between songs. I also just want to say that Devendra Banhart is the funniest, most charming man alive. His banter was great and he seemed like a very genuine, nice guy. I also spotted Natalie Portman hanging out at the show, and I guess my friend Kelly talked to her about her racist dog. No idea what that means.

Check out Megapuss’ MySpace to get a taste of what’s to come! Also be sure to check under the cut for one more photo I took!

Keep reading Megapuss with Lauren Dukoff at The Hammer…

Masked Karimbah Vinyl Toy by Paul Pope
June 17, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

There hasn’t been much exciting Paul Pope news lately, this is probably because he’s been working on two giant projects. The first is his line of clothes for Diesel called 2089 which I posted about in April. But there’s a brand new project he’s doing where he’s teamed up with the folks over at Kid Robot to create a vinyl toy, a new branch for Paul.

Originally they wanted to create a line of vinyl figures based around his comic book THB, but it’s been at least a year, possibly two, since the last issue of the comic came out. So instead they’ve decided to com out with the Masked Karimbah, which is a character in the THB universe, although he’s only been seen on a kid’s television show. What’s really cool about this toy though is that Masked Karimbah’s dog is ACTUALLY the size of a Boston Terrier. That’s one damn big vinyl toy.

Here’s the deal though. The toy is limited to 300, is going to go for $150, and will only be available at the San Diego Comic Convention. Why do I have to be unemployed now?! haha…

Bobby