23 Jan 2012

Open submission: Valentine's day Rally!

illustration by Natsuki Otani

Hello everyone! It's that time of year again when the couples get snuggly and everyone else gets resentful, so with that in mind we are bringing out our Valentines Open Submission Rally. This is a chance to get out the word for your commercial work, spread the heart-warming, cute or funny message and let the world know you are ready for some love in 2012. It's also a chance to create something with an open brief to flex those muscles and dust off the wacom's and brushes after a dreary January. As ever all your rights are your own and send us your info so we can promote the hell out of you, oh and happy Valentines! x

Submission Guidelines 
  • Any form of art is welcome, illustration, photography, graphic design, animation and more.
  • You can submit as many of your works as you like.
  • Your submissions don't need to be created for us, old work is welcome!
  • 72 dpi jpeg file please.
  • Send us your artist name and the links to your portfolio sites, if you are sending us your product, send us a link to the pages you are selling your Valentine's day products on.
  • Send us your twitter name if you have one, so I can promote you on twitter effectively.
  • Deadline is Sunday the 12th February.
  • Please send your work to illustrationrally@hotmail.co.uk with the title "Valentine's day Rally Submission"

16 Jan 2012

Artist 123: Laura Wood






Artist feature time again everyone, and it is with great pleasure we bring you up and coming illustrator Laura Wood. Currently operating out of Melbourne but born and raised in Italy, she captures a sunny style with her engaging folksy illustrations. She manages to give her work a really disarming quality that draws in the viewer and allows her to subtly explain the scene in pastel tones and with a real sense of narrative. She uses colour gently and collaboratively to construct a very synergistic image, her work sits well with itself and gives a real idea of continuation and a great fantasy world that is both welcoming and mysterious. she has a nice touch for picking out the little details that are the hallmark of great children's illustration. Her character work is strong and her characters are both convincing and lighthearted. It's a good skill to have as portraying emotion in characters will lend her children's work the quality of exposition that all great children's books contain. The idea that you are communicating how a person should feel in a situation is quite empowering, the illustrator is the relay for learning that helps extremely impressionable young minds decipher the world. I think that they would be well served by Laura and I'm sure her illustrations will be among the first memories of some very happy kids in the not too far future. So with great pleasure we give you Laura Wood.

Who are you:
My name is Laura Wood and I'm an emerging illustrator based in Melbourne. I was born and raised in Italy and at the age of 24, after completing a Bachelor of Cinema and Multimedia, I decided to move to Australia. At the moment I'm attending a Diploma of Illustration at NMIT.

What do you do:
I draw pictures all day and every day, basically. I like to create illustrations full of earthy colors, cute characters and scenes with a folksy feeling. I plan to work one day in the publishing industry as a children's books illustrator. 

How did you start:
I've started doing illustration just one year ago. I consider myself a baby with a lot to learn yet. One day I just realized I needed to do what I really wanted in life or I would have never be fulfilled.

So I have enrolled in an illustration course, started drawing and never stopped. 

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
I am fascinated by illustrations which are able to tell stories and that's what I'm trying to achieve with my own pictures. 

Links:

12 Jan 2012

Fashion Illustration Rally result


We are very pleased to announce that Red Rock have chosen their winner for our Fashion Rally. We have had a great response for this rally and some wonderful entries from a our talented community. Due to the quality of the entries we are also giving out an IR choice award, which will net you 1 month of free advertising space, So without further ado here are the winners.

Red Rock Fashion Rally winner: Zoe Fay




Red Rock chose Zoe Fay as she was creative with the brief and represented the brand image, so congratulations Zoe you will win a fantastic Red Rock goody bag, and a month's ad space from Illustration Rally!

Illustration Rally Choice Award winners: By Rebecca Jay & Avril Kelly



Avril and Rebecca will win a month's ad space from Illustration Rally!

Congratulations guys, it was a tough choice. Finally a big thanks to our lovely community for making this such a fun rally, hope you will join us again in the future!

9 Jan 2012

Artist 122: Amanda Mocci







A new year and another new feature for you now with Canada based Amanda Mocci. Mocci is one of those illustrators who uses the rarest of commodities to great effect, hard work and mechanical skill. Her painstakingly constructed images build up gradually as she works out from her focus, the eyes into the rest of the image. It is a way of working that builds in her focal points from the off and informs the not only the composition, but the construction, her image radiates across the page. Her use of pencil and dark grey-scale gives her subjects a real tension which is a great talent, as tension and movement are aspects that can sometimes evaporate over a more lengthy creative process. She gives a smouldering intensity to her subjects so rather than spontaneity and movement her work gives us a sharp focus freeze frame that lingers in the eye like the after-burn from staring at electric lights. She stamps her authority in dark detail and uses colour to lighten and draw out elements to our attention. Quality work with a very intense creative process Amanda Mocci is sure to do well and we wish her the best of luck in everything she does.

Who are you:
My name is Amanda Mocci and I am from Montreal, Quebec.

What do you do:
I am currently working as a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer. On my free time I like to create personal pieces and I recently got into sewing. I am now working on a series of handmade fabric cases with my illustrations. Most of these personal pieces will appear in my exhibition which will happen hopefully sometime in March 2012.

How did you start:
From the moment I was able to scribble and hold a pencil. I was so entranced to create things that any moment I had I would get out my pencils and construction paper and just make things all day. I really hated being bored so I made sure that I was always busy. Even from when I was  young, I was always meticulous about detail. It has only been in the last 3 years that I have decided to make my passion into a career.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is greatly inspired by music, people, and the universe. When I start a portrait, I always complete the eyes first. This way they look alive from the very beginning. Even though I love looking at color, I have a hard time using too much of it in my work. Color is wondrous but black and white are phenomenal.

Links:

7 Jan 2012

Artist 121: Hadar Reuven






Another feature now with the wonderful Hadar Reuven hailing from the beautiful city of Tel Aviv, Hadar packs in detail like no other with a style and palette in direct contrast to her sunny surroundings, with a palette of muted cool browns and earthy reds. She has a unique way of distilling down an eclectic style of intense complexity into a readable scene that conveys the message of her image with both grace and aplomb. It's great to see a style that draws you in and lets you really explore the image and Hadar manages this with an engaging tone and good solid compositions that allow her work to exist an image at a time as well as part of a story. Hadar creates a good flow and brings a sense of movement to her work that belies an animators training and this will stand her in good stead in the future. wishing her the best of luck in all she does we present Hadar Reuven.

Who are you:
Hadar Reuven, an artist and an illustrator from Tel Aviv, Israel.

What do you do:
I work as a freelance illustrator and writer for all kind of projects, from children books to murals and illustrated websites. I have just launched a graphic novel for adults, called "Andromeda sleeps" that I illustrated, produced and independently published. 

How did you start:
I've started painting when I was a little girl. When I was a teenager I have painted only big oil paintings. Four years ago, I started at "Minshar for Art" academy as an animation student and focused on scenery and character design. During my first year I have realized that what I love in animation is mostly the illustration part and therefore I have changed my major in second year to illustration, which I have graduated a few month ago.

A personal statement about your work:
I enjoy painting and illustrating in every form and technique I have met so far, mixing them up and trying new methods. In my opinion, having a narrative for each work, if came with the project or was added by me, is the most important part of being an illustrator, and that what makes it interesting.

Links:
Hadar's new graphic novel, this graphic novel is also available for sale on  etsy!

Artist 120: Egle






It's another artist feature for you now, with the up and coming Egle from Lithuania, surrounded by nature in her upbringing leads her to themes of nature and rebirth in her current work. She has a complex take on the human body, integrating it into a body of work that spans illustration video art and sculpture, but continues the same thread of exploration that drives her forward. Her palette influences can be seen to be reflective of both her native Lithuania and England with her soft pallid tones evoking the dim myopic skies of London with their panoply of greys and subtle lighting. Her soft shades belies a kind of violence in her creations, with mutant limbs coalescing in redundant heaps like the end Akira, with an unconstrained and uncontrolled amalgam of body parts with the natural forms of hoof and nail, that at once brings something evocative and challenging. Her work is one of those that as it evolves will gain traction and I'm sure that she will continue to explore as she grows. Her inquisitiveness is one of the strongest parts of her working practice and long may it continue. With best wishes for a bright future it's Egle!

Who are you: 
My name is Egle, I am from Lithuania.

What do you do: 
I am studying drawing in Camberwell college of arts, so for most of the time I do illustrations, but I always try to be as much experimental as possible. So I do all sorts of art starting from video to sculpture or installation.

How did you start: 
I think I started when I started to observe the environment. When you are child drawing is the easiest way of expressionn and I never stopped.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
As the main technique for expressing my ideas I usually choose drawing. I consider drawing as a starting point which can lead me into any visual language of art. The most important aim for everything that I do is the emotion. I could say that I like to create a feeling rather than is it good or bad. I get the inspiration from, different life styles and cultures, from people that I observe in the street, my fears and of course nature. I grew up surrounded by flowers, so I make use of lots of fauna and flora (usually as mythological creatures). Furthermore I try to address questions of identity, desire and relationship between humans and nature.

Links: 

27 Dec 2011

Artist 119: Mega






It's quite a feature we have for you now, the unstoppable force that is Mega, bags of attitude and a slogan straight from the street art revolution. Mega is instantly likeable, the street style and attitude infectious, his globe trotting lifestyle creates a unification of global counter-culture in his work which overflows with a panoply of colour, slick well chosen lines and a hawks eye for a good angle, I guess composition is something you master quickly at 2am in the arrondissement with a bag of spray cans and penchant for climbing. Mega is one of those that simultaneously breaks the mould but acts as a distillation of his genre, his work trades in alternative culture kudos, which like a precious currency, corporates try to co-opt to put some dents in their cold calculating exteriors and inject some life into their atrophied veins of style by committee, all the while they fund Mega, laughing from his tropical paradise knocking out work he couldn't help but do whether he was paid or not. He controls his style in this way creating slick and justified work that is skilled not only mechanically but works as an illustrator should by selling the message hard. This can be down to his street roots or more likely honed by editorial experience, either way he can put a point across with a tropical sense of glee and a palette rich with street colour. A true talent, it's Mega.

Who are you:
My name is Mega, I am an artist and illustrator. After a career as an art director for magazines in France (WAD) and abroad (Acclaim, Australia), I decided to devote myself exclusively to my love for art and illustration.

Masked warriors, wild girls, cult objects, swarming insects and other wild animals come straight out from the jungle in which my imagination leads his insatiable artistic struggle. From Nike to Volkswagen through Complex magazine, my images are found on all media. The invasion has begun, they are already among you. After living in Brazil, Argentina or Australia, my office is now located in Bali, the island of the gods.

What do you do:
Actions speaks louder than words so I draw all the time, and create new personal projects when my freelance schedule allows it. This is not my job, this is my life. I wake up and draw, drink a coffee and post an artist interview on my blog, have a lunch with a lot of chili then draw, prepare new projects, have a dinner with more chili, reply to my emails and draw again before getting laid and sleeping. This is what I do 7 days a week, 365 days a year, a little bit more every leap year.

How did you start:
As a kid I used to cut magazines all day long in order to arrange and paste new layouts for my music tapes. As a teenager I naturally became a writer, painting the walls of my city and the trains of my area in a really new school vibe. As a big boy I quickly turned to art direction for magazines, since I wanted my art to reach more people. I've had this love of drawing inside me for all my life. I guess I haven't been a really social animal, and always enjoyed to produce stuffs by myself, following my own path. No god, no master. I see art as a something serious I can play with, trying combinations that would give a new depth to things I draw.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 
I inspire, you expire.

Links: