illustrations

Pawel Kuczynski is a name you should know, especially if you’re interested in satirical artwork of any kind. This amazing Polish talent has been working over a decade to produce some of the most thought-provoking pieces of artwork on the page. Whether he’s making a statement about the world of politics or making a more general attempt at analyzing the human life and its value, you can’t help but feel a little embarrassed and a little bemused every time you lay your eyes on one of his illustrations.

While he might be a Polish artist, his works are clearly speculative of the entire world, and there are even some hints of metaphysical concepts that appear throughout his collections. Each piece of art tells its own individual story, but themes that touch on the value of human life, human interaction, and disconnect in human thought are certainly present in them all. There’s a lot to be said in regards to these illustrations, but what’s most obvious is that they manage to say everything they need to without using words at all. So on that note, I’ll stop here and just let you enjoy…

How does one draw “warmness?” It’s not something we typically think about until we stumbled across Taiwanese illustrator Miss Cyndi‘s work. Miss Cyndi is a self-professed animal lover and coffee drinker, who enjoys the simple beauties of life, like a hot cup of tea, doing yoga in her underwear, and people watching from her apartment window. Her art is like an homage to the beauty of solitude, a wondrous window into the life of a freelancer. And since we are freelancers ourselves, we can definitely empathize.

But Miss Cyndi’s work is more than just doodles of everyday life. She also explores deeper truths with a poetic touch, showcasing the surreal boundaries of what’s considered “feminine” and the limits within that construct. Her world isn’t always butterflies and coffee and animals. There’s a lone sadness to her work that expresses the downsides of hermit-hood. But when asked in an interview if she would rather work full time in an agency or continue life as a freelancer, she said she prefers the freedom of the freelance life. And that’s ultimately what Miss Cyndi’s work is all about–complete personal freedom. And when you think about it, that approach to life is indeed the warmest.

The best thing about illustrator Rafael Mayani‘s Girls in Music series is that it’s an accurate summary of the hottest singer/songwriters in the indie scene right now: FKA Twigs, Waxahatchee, Ibeyi. If some of these names are unfamiliar to you, you should probably hop over to YouTube and start getting acquainted. Mayani’s colorful approach to art is almost Disney-esque with its exaggerated shapes and overly curved forms. But the approach she takes with her musician portraits shows a different side, a side that’s less interested in pretty realism and more interested in exaggerating the familiar forms that make certain faces recognizable. She also manages to squeeze in a nice assortment of well-known artists (Florence and the Machine) with groundbreaking newbies (Ibeyi). What can we say? She has good taste.

Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator living in London who publishes zines and comics. We first heard of her when we stumbled across these gorgeous illustrations of classic book covers she did a year ago. But aside from her illustration gigs, Stewart has an entire Tumblr devoted to illustrated diaries about her life as a penniless 20-something living in London. Lonely, introverted 20-somethings with Tumblrs isn’t exactly unique, but what makes Stewart special is how she doesn’t try to be any more than what she is. Instead of bending over backwards to look profound, Stewart’s comics are straight to the point. Sometimes they’re introspective and sometimes they’re not, but they’re always honest. It’s a shame she doesn’t updated it more frequently. However, you can always read more stuff from her via her zines that she sells in her shop.

Last year, illustrator Gabriel Picolo started the 365 Days of Doodles Project to fight artistic procrastination. For 12 months he drew black and white sketches and uploaded his progress to his deviantArt page. But this year he wanted to focus less on doodles and more on color.

The Palette Project, a seven-month long color challenge, is a series where he creates new illustrations each month based around a central color. For February he tackled the color red, and now for March he’s tackling the color orange. By the end of August, seven colors will be completed. Picolo says the reason for the project is to practice creating sketches that aren’t black and white. You can track his status here.

Art and science don’t typically go together, but artist Chantal deFelice has made her love affair with microscopes, marine biology, and micro minerals her artistic muse. Working with various mediums, her pieces show off the beauty of Earth’s organisms and minerals, whether it’s an illustrated series of natural microcosms or videos about the glittering sea floor. Her zine we stab ourselves for the love of science is a collection of illustrations, sketches, and quotes about the allure of scientific unknowns.

Most of the zines we come across are about feelings. So we thought it was pretty cool to stumble across one that was just about nerdy stuff for once. You can buy her work via her Etsy store.

We’re no strangers to pop culture art, but sometimes it can get a bit stale. However, artist Jim Ferguson‘s ongoing series Making a Scene goes further than simply creating homages to his favorite movies. He highlights pivotal scenes in the movies, the kind of scenes that are recognizable instantly. His illustrations are simple and not overly done, simply showcasing moments in cinematic history that everyone connects with. From childhood classics like Labyrinth to cult favorites like The Big Lebowski, every iconic scene you can think of in American film is here.

A native Texan, Ferguson recently returned to his love of art after quitting to focus on his family. After realizing his son could draw better than him, he picked up a pen and started doodling movie scenes to get his art mojo back–and hey, it worked. You can buy Making a Scene in fancy coffee table book format from Etsy, or buy prints of selected movie scenes from his store.