First Look Book Review: Vader's Little Princess

Here at IR towers it has been a hectic week but we have something of a real treat right now for you with a first look and review of the wonderful Vader's Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown.The delectable people at Abrams and Chronicle sent us over a copy to show you guys as I'm sure everyone here knows and appreciates Jeffrey's work.

So lets get to it then, Vader's Little Princess is "the irresistibly funny follow up to the breakout bestseller Darth Vader and Son" so reads the press release, but hey if my job was to re-hash press releases I'd work in games...

This book is the sequel to one of the most elegantly executed viral breakouts that illustration has seen in the last few years. The extremely talented Jeffrey Brown has redefined what success for an illustrator looks like,  we can all take note, talent sells and you just have to be out there and keep on it. Cracking the mainstream gives you the freedom to do what he wants, which in anyone's book is a good thing. His charming work for Vader and Son was picked up the world over for both it's gentle truthful humour and brilliant subversion of one of the most recognisable pop culture villains of our generation, so in reviewing the sequel I'm mindful of the fact he has really tried to build on the formula with Vader's Little Princess and not just release a cash cow.

The book itself is lovely, crafted with care and slickly presented, Jeffrey Brown's illustration is top end. His work is both charmingly concise allowing the humour and humanity of his characters to shine through but also detailed in a Raymond Briggs sort of way that gives the viewer a real visual feast and classic children's book feel. He really is great at capturing character and expression which is a rare skill to master with simple line work and pared down characters. It's a really clever thing to get so much emotion into Vader, considering the full face helmet, this is the real key to the appeal of the series.

I feel like there is more character development here than the films as we have a beautiful selection of classic first world problems that is painfully familiar. This ease of understanding and universality strikes a chord with the arcade kids now grown up, his style, the icing on the cake.

Deliciously funny and bang on my demographic, what's not to love.

Vader's Little Princess is by Jeffrey Brown
Published by Chronicle Books
Available 4th May (National Star Wars Day!)

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Exhibition News: JCRUZ retrospective and group exhibition

News time now with the fabulous JCRUZ, whose scarves are fast becoming hot property. With the launch of RISE & FALL  Joe Cruz has pushed his designs to new heights with their vivid colours and pop themes. A kind of sardonic swipe at modern candy-floss celebrity culture with more than a touch of great craftsmanship. Lovely objects by a great artist that you can see in person as now we bring you news from the Debut Contemporary in Notting Hill where JCRUZ will be taking part in a group exhibition between 6:30 and 9:30 on Wednesday the 7th of March. The images above are a retrospective from the launch of the new RISE & FALL collection. Below is a short press release from JCRUZ.

"During London Fashion Week February 2012, JCRUZ will launch its first ever collection, RISE & FALL, featuring a range of beautiful silk printed luxury scarves. The scarves are Made In England and feature the artist’s signature. Inspired by the bitter sweet highs and lows of a celebrity obsessed nation, artist Joe Cruz, presents his ideas in textile form using classic forms, bold line and bright colours."

So what are you waiting for! Get out there and see a slice of fresh hot art!

Links:

portfolio
@JCRUZ_ART
flickr

Debut Contemporary

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Book Review: Tea and Cake

Hello everyone, its review time here on IR and we have a lovely book to bring you now, from an IR favourite, Emma Block published by hardie grant books. The book itself is a wonderful collection of great tea time recipes, from old classics like cucumber sandwiches and sponge cake, to cupcakes and tea cocktails. It is a refreshing book with 50 recipes that has a great take on the subject, though the real star of the show are Emma's gentle illustrations. Her style works exquisitely well with the tone of the book, her appealing illustrations and spots capturing the spirit of teatime with a relaxed cool palette describing beautiful recipes in soft colour.

This book is definitely worth a look, with a modern witty approach and good quality yet simple recipes you are sure to have a bank of classy cocktails and snappy sweet treats. A great modern book on that favourite English subject, the afternoon tea, under appreciated nowadays but having that perfect relaxing cuppa on a rainy day is something that I adore. I know how many of you guys also like your tea so if you want to make some cake to go with you can buy the book here.

Info
Price - £12.99
ISBN - 9781742701943
Extent - 128 pages 

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Book Review: Hand Made Type Workshop

It's review time here on the IR and we have ourselves a great new book to take a look at now, Hand Made Type Workshop, created by Charlotte Rivers gives the reader an in depth tutorial style approach to learning different techniques useful in creating fonts by hand.

This seven chapter book is divided into two overarching sections. Character creation and describes in detail the processes and techniques that you can use to create characters for your home made typography with different methods, from found or installations to cut stitched or illustrated, digital and even photographed. Each chapter covers a set of these techniques which are presented by clever and easy to follow tutorials written by a number of artists, concluding with a gallery each chapter will give you several different perspectives on how to go about creating text.

The second section of the book deals with how to take your creation and turn it into a font, pretty essential to making a full set up if you intend to keep your lettering for other projects. 

In all the book is well put together with a great tactile feel and  a clear yet stylish presentation. Definitely one to take a look at, due to the variety of the content and also the clarity of the tutorials it's available on Amazon and  you can purchase it here

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Upstairs for Thinking, Downstairs for Dancing Review

Return of the Chip! Hello everyone, the sharp eyed among you will recognise the ice cool style of one of the best BW illustrators on the scene and realise that this is the first solo show of the fantastic Mr Millerchip. With some awesome eye popping work Mr Millerchip really hands it to the viewer with an experience that just pops with flavour and quirky sardonic style. Mr Millerchip is a great live artist and he backs this up with some serious chops in this, his first solo show by proving he is a real force to be reckoned with. Shows are great, but they are so much better with an atmosphere and tactile element. The whole show works really hard both aesthetically and also as a method for bringing the viewer into a crafted world. The kind of deliciously sweet satisfying props that a thousand trendy bars would kill for and a use of space that would make a trendy boutique cry with envy. Millerchip is the whole package and it's great to see his stand alone show providing such a good platform for him. Guaranteed to be a real star of the future Millerchip will be bringing you BW illos with a real grace and poise. An ace exhibition at the Pure Gallery it runs till the end of the month so if you're quick you can still get down there.

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London Fashion Night Out: Retrospective

Illustration by Erica Sharp 

Illustration by Natsuki Otani

Illustration by Matt Thomas

A quick retrospective look at the the Vogue London Fashion Night Out in London, which saw some amazing scenes as shops all over the capital opened their doors late into the night in a celebration of all things fashion. Our little piece of the action centres on Covent Garden where illustrators Matt Thomas, Erica Sharp and Natsuki Otani were busy creating quick sketch fashion illustrations for anyone who sat. This was in aid of swanky English eatery Canteen setting up a new popup restaurant in the Market building in Covent Garden. Suffice to say they went down a storm with queues peaking at five deep the intrepid three kept sketching, inking and colouring late into the night producing some wonderful illos capturing the essence of their subjects in a matter of minutes. All in all it was a great night, and despite being too busy to eat after their brows stopped sweating and the fingers stopped hurting it we have the chance to have a look at some of the great work they produced.


So here's to Matt, Erica and our very own Natsuki please check them out! 

Artist: Matt Thomas
portfolio: www.mattthomasillustration.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/matt__thomas

Artist: Erica Sharp
portfolio: http://ericasharp.co.uk
twitter: http://twitter.com/erica_sharp
blog: http://dailygenki.blogspot.com

Artist: Natsuki Otani
portfolio: http://cargocollective.com/natsukiotani/
twitter: http://twitter.com/nat_o
blog: http://natsukiotani.blogspot.com/

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Book Feature: Soul Pancake "Chew on Life's Big Questions"

Art by Justin Williams

Art by Mario Hugo

Art by Joanne Cruickshank

Art by Julia Pott

Art by Maxime Francout

Art by Jack Teagle

Art by Natsuki Otani

Art by Anthony Zinonos

It's another book feature for you now. Soul Pancake is a book that both asks and answers life's big questions. It was born from the Soul Pancake website created by actor Rainn Wilson and is an both a comic indictment of organised thinking and a source of wisdom and strength. The best way of describing this book is as a journey you don't know you are on but you realised you've already come a long way. Not only is the book fun and clever, encouraging interaction and it's own subversion but it does this in an elegant way with clear and fresh typography pitched against some insightful and beautiful illustrations. In this book the idea is the star and its a melting pot of the deep, the trivial and the life affirming.

The book itself is a fusion of images and text that is as vibrant as it can be without taking the shine off the ideas, Beautiful photographs meld seamlessly into anarchic text and incisive illustrations lend a hand to creating something that feels truly warm and innately good. It literally asks questions of you as you read and draws you into something you feel you should have known about since day one. It's gently effective, like a brick in a feather pillow it has a solid message but at no stage do you feel badgered or pushed. It lets you take the lead and take what you need from it. You can tell there is a craft involved and that it has a great deal of intelligent talent hammering it into this one concise volume, but yet it remains as irreverent as it can be whilst tackling the deeper side of the soul.

It really is a special thing to hold and to keep, in part as it's not only beautiful but a really vibrant idea filled guide to the spiritual side of your life.

A wonderful piece of heartfelt spirituality, here it is, it's Soul Pancake's "Chew on Life's Big Questions".

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