Word/Picture relationships

Visual Metaphor revisited

The platypus is the key to mammalian genetic evolution

Original piece here

Tesselation Revisited: Sustainable Energy

Old tessellation

Visual Rhyme Silhouettes Revisited

Corinthian Fish

Cactus Kid

Lettering Studies

Insect lettering study

Burnt toast lettering study

Blind contour lettering study

Negative lettering study

Scribble stick (3 foot) lettering study

Visual Metaphor

Duck-billed platypus; understanding evolutionary mammalian biology.

Artist Research: Nicolas Bouvier

Bouvier is a French illustrator/concept artist that now lives and works in Dallas, Texas working for ID software. He traveled extensively when he was young and perhaps this influenced his love for landscape, architecture, and various cultures. He has worked on several projects including Alone in the Dark 4, Prince of Persia 2 or Ubisoft, for Darkworks-Studio that have collaborated with Namco and Capcom. He has also worked in Montreal to work for Ubisoft on Assassin's Creed. He has also been illustrating book covers in France and England throughout hi life. Examples include: Lou Anders and PYR publishing. I find his work intriguing because he is able to depict the most complex and otherworldly scenes effortlessly and still imbibing the illustrations with energy and life.
his blog
his site

Artist Research: Sam Weber

Weber is an American Illustrator born in Alaska, but grew up in Ontario, Canada. He attended the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and then moved to NY for graduate school at the School of Visual Arts. He worked as and assistant art director for the OpEd page at the New York Times for two years after graduating. Right now he mostly does freelance illustration. He has published work for Atlantic monthly, New York Times Book Review, Time, Rolling Stone, SEE magazine, Business Week, The New York Times, Playboy and a host of other clients lining up for him. Weber's use of ethereal imagery and realistically depicted figures is an interesting combination that seems to evoke thoughts of individuals that are trying to fit into their place in an environment. His use of flatly rendered graphic elements and rendered elements also works effectively representing unsettling and uncanny looking imagery.
his site

Artist Research: Murray Kimber

Kimber is a Canadian illustrator and graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1988. He became a freelance illustrator for subsequent years working as a children's book for packaging, billboards, postage stamps, etc and then began teaching for 5 years until 1997 when he moved to Mexico with his wife. He returned to British Columbia, Canada in 2001. His clients include the Vancouver Opera, American Express, Canada Post, GM, the U.S. Tennis Open. His work seems built for the iconographic/ communicating ideas in a deceivingly simple manner of stylizing forms. He has a great manner of oil application and his color choices always strongly emphasize the emotional tone of his illustrations.

Artist Research: Kevin Michael Dalton

Kevin Michael Dalton is an American freelance illustrator born in 1983 in Detroit Michigan. After high school Dalton enrolled in the College for Creative Studies and tutored under David Chai for 2 years learning animation and character design. He now works on commissions and freelance illustration like Flight volume:4 comic. He lives and works in North Hollywood, California
His working method is a such:
"I tend to use regular white copy paper 8x11 for starting things out or Bristol if I'm trying to be extra fancy or selling work. I ruff out the drawing pretty hard in red col-erase, go over it with pencil or ink, I knock out the red in Photoshop (this saves for lightboxing), then I use Photoshop to color mostly since it’s the fastest. But whenever I got the time I like to use prisma color markers, watercolors, and any other traditional medium that suits the mood. That’s where the real fun is at, sitting waiting for things to dry, smelling the paints, getting it on your hands, it really touches your inner child. I tend to now more than ever just color digitally using gradients, cuts, and the airbrush tool. Since my work is mostly 2-dimensional I think this way fits it the most." source
Dalton's character design and color usage are his strongest attributes I think a lot can be learned from his working method too. His characters hold a lot of personality and visual interest which all illustrators strive for. His style of drawing also translates into animation which is a quality I'm very interested in too.
his site

Artist Research: Svetlin Velinov

Velinov is a 29 year old Bulgarian illustrator/concept artist that lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria. He graduated at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia with a concentration in animation in 2003 after a brief stint at the National Academy of Arts.He was trained with a staunch adherence to the academic styles of painting, but later abandoned it in favor of digital media which he now uses exclusively. His work has been featured in the CG Society's Gallery of Choice Awards, on Conceptart.org, in Format Magazine, Death Jr. 2 for Konami, World of Warcraft for Blizzard entertainment, etc. Velinov has a very lively and dynamic style and is one of those cg artist pushing the media to its fullest potential. His style has also garnered attention from Dark Horse comics and a future project is in talks.
Interview with Velinov
his site

Artist Research: Michael Kutsche

Michael Kutsche is a German illustrator/concept artist, animator/designer that lives and works in Berlin. He has been working in the visual effects industry since 1998 working in advertising, video games, and feature films. His passion is creating character concepts and Kutsche uses the programs Painter, Photoshop, XSI in conjunction with each other to bring his illustrations to fruition. His style varies depending on the project he's working on, but usually retains a level of polish and inspired character development. His clients include SEGA, BMW, The Creative Assembly, Sony Ericsson, Fiftyeight3D, Publicis, etc.
his site

Artist Research: Alex Toth

Alex Toth is arguably the most influential illustrator's illustrator in the last 50 years. Toth's work spans from comics, to animation, toy design, storyboarding for movies and tv, and even teaching. Toth's work was revered amongst his peers and the subsequent generations of illustrators that followed. Artists like mark Chiarello, Tim Sale, and Paul Pope to name a few are greatly influnced by his work. His work for Hanna Barbera designing characters for Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo, The Herculoids, Space Ghost and many more ensure that every kid in the born in the last 40 years has seen his work. Some of Toth's influences include Howard Pyle and Milton Caniff. Toth's story telling and most of all spell bindingly elegant design sensibilities set him apart. He is a true legend. Alex Toth lived from 1928- 2006.

See his work here
There is also a great podcast tribute here over on Sidebarnation

Artist Research: George Pratt

George Pratt was born in 1960, October 30th in Beaumont, Texas. He moved to NY to study Drawing and Painting at the Pratt institute where he also taught later in his career. He also taught at the Joe Kubert school in New Jersey. His work appears in private collections throughout the world. His graphic novels like Enemy Ace: War Idyllic for DC Comics/ Warner books have garnered several awards and nominations and have been translated into many languages and have won numerous awards, most notably the Eisner Award for Best Multimedia Artist. He teaches full-time at Ringling School of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida and each summer with The Illustration Academy. I really enjoy Pratt's use of color, a juxtaposition of muddied chromatic grays with muted colors producing tension which in tern creates form, space, and story telling.
his site