Hi, my name is James White, I'm a 31 year-old designer and visual artist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I've been working as a fulltime graphic designer since 1998, all the while keeping up with my personal artwork on my own time. I have been running Signalnoise.com, my personal art website since 1999 and this year have opened up my own online art store where I have sold posters to people all over the globe. I'm still into videogames, toys and comic books :)

Commodore

I believe James' strength lies in the way he manages to bring complex geometric or organic forms together in a harmonious way. He is also a master in using primary and secondary colors and make them perfectly blend together. His work has an old school vibe but with a modern twist. This combination and in some case the addition of textures is what makes it all work imho. Wish I could experiment like that :) If you browse his older work on Flickr you'll see that James evolved quite nicely over the years.

La Femme

Did you always know you wanted to be an illustrator and did it take long until you had your personal style?

I've been drawing since I was 4 years-old, so being creative has always been in my blood. I was doodling all the way through school and using the family Commodore to make little posters for me and my friends, which was my introduction to rudimentary computer graphics. I did it because I loved it, and never stopped. In terms of personal style, it took a very long time with a lot of hard work and dedication. I started developing my own computer artwork when I landed in the design industry in 1998, and spent almost 10 years trying everything I could creatively.

Comic books, character design, posters, animation, videogame graphics, children's books, lots of logos, painting . . . and this was all outside of my design day job. I would be inspired by everything around me as well as the new artists I was finding through the web. It's been a long and windy road so far, and I'm always looking for the next challenge.

Legacy 2600

How did you come up with the idea to use the Dutch language on posters like 'Omringen' and 'Oplossing'? I'm interested in this as it is my main language and to me it feels less exotic when compared to French for example :)

It's funny you should mention that, because the reason I use dutch words is because they look exotic to ME :) When I use words I'm not familiar with it allows me to see them strictly as form, not meaning. I love using type and logos mixed in with my art, but if I use English (my own main language) it has a high potential to slant my own perception of the piece where the word is the most important element. It might go against many design regulations, but I use words I'm not familiar with to remove any preconception I have so I can judge the overall work on strictly aesthetic and composition.

Omringen

Oplossing

Can you tell us a little bit more about Flash Forge engine without giving away all your secrets :) For example about how you came up with the idea of using Flash in the first place and shed some light on how it works?

Forge is an engine I built in Flash to help me create random assortments of shapes on the fly. I am a very meticulous artist, so I really needed a tool that would force me to relinquish a bit of control over the elements to create a more organic aesthetic. It's a very clunky and cantankerous application, and I'm surprised smoke doesn't billow from my PC when I run it. But it works wonderfully for what I need it to do. I use Forge to create small random groups of vectors based on shapes I feed it, which I then export to Illustrator where I can clean them up and manipulate them however I want. This method isn't new, and is based on the work of Joshua Davis whom I have been a fan of since 1998.

Nebula of Shapes

Is your work the result of experimenting or do you have a clear picture in your head of the end result when you start + how long does it usually take until you reach an end result that you are pleased with?

I tend to start each work with a basic idea of what I want to achieve, but inevitably I stray from the course either intentionally or accidentally. I do a lot of sketching before I even look at the computer, sometimes drawing up to 40 thumbnails before landing on a composition I like. Once I jump onto the computer, I have a very organic process where I tend to say "Hmm, what if I tried this?" to see if I can discover new styles and ideas on the fly, so there is a lot of trial and error. That being said, I do try to maintain the overall vibe I want the piece to have, and banging through with so many variables at work can be quite a lengthy process. I'm a bit of a brute when it comes to not leaving a piece alone until it's doing what I want. The amount of time spent on each piece swings wildly, where one might take 3 hours and another, 15 hours. Eventually, things will snap into place where my initial vision and technical experimentation sync up.

Solid Gold Bomb

Did they internet change the way you work and create new opportunities?

Absolutely. The internet is a constant and unrelenting source of inspiration. I get out of bed, make my coffee, and check out what all of my designer pals from all over the world uploaded while I slept. It's a wonderful creative organism, and I am very much addicted to it. As far as my own work habits go, Wordpress, Flickr and Big Cartel have changed my life with easily updatable websites, networking, and allowing me to sell my art online to a huge audience worldwide. Because of the internet I have been given opportunities to work with some amazing people, such as Toyota, Armada Skies and I have been recently contacted by MTV to work on a very exciting upcoming project. To say that the internet changed my life would be a vast understatement :)

Musica Viva

Robot Rock

More examples on James White's website Signalnoise.com. James is also active on Flickr and on Behance. He also has a Signalnoise store where you can buy his lovely posters.

Hi, my name is Alex Dukal, I'm an illustrator born in 1966 in Puerto Madryn, Patagonia Argentina. Early on I spent ten years in Buenos Aires, where I studied fine arts and started to publish comics in the legendary "Fierro" magazine. Back in my hometown I began to setup some painting exhibitions (I've already took the job of eliminate 95% of such material) and teaching illustration and comics to young people. That all happened during the nineties.

Then, in the year 2000, I travelled to the UK to create a digital paintings exhibition and to offer a workshop. Back home I decided to work mostly in web design, a new exciting area, learning a lot of new things and planning to return to Europe later. That was eight years ago, when Argentina experienced serious difficulties, not a good time to save money and to buy an airline ticket! So I continued working as a web designer while deciding what to do with my career. Only two years ago I decided to get back to illustration, working mostly for children's books, and that's what I'm doing since then!

Puf

Alex has a very painterly style that I totally love. He is also a master in using brushes to get that nice surface effect. Be sure to check out his brushes in the link below. His characters also show very strong expressions. These expressions are such a big part of the story and make you think about the story that is going on in front of you. A perfect addition to our continued illustrated journey.

El Càntaro

Did you always know that you wanted to be an illustrator and was it hard to find your own style and make a business out of it?

Ummmh yes! I knew it! but not exactly 'an illustrator', when I was a kid I dreamed of being a drawer, a comic-books artist, a painter or anything related to graphic arts. Everything has been happening in a natural way: a child scribbling the walls of his parents house, a comic books artist, a painter, a teacher, an illustrator and actually a "children's illustrator".

Some elements of what today appears to be "my style" emerged magically ten years ago, but I feel that my style is still under development, trying to go as far as I can from moods or fashions. This year I'm trying to do the big change, leaving my work as a freelance web designer and trying to do my business as a fulltime illustrator, working with some great editorials, seeking for a rep (not an easy task!) and working on some picture books.

Persecution

Do you first sketch your illustrations on paper? Can you reveal a bit of your usual workflow? Which applications do you mainly use?

Yes, everything starts with pencils or a ballpoint over paper, then I scan that and do some cleaning in Photoshop (here's a tutorial that I wrote about this step). I'm using mostly Photoshop but when I bought my Wacom tablet I had an affair with Corel Painter for a few months. At a certain point I started to flirt with Photoshop again, trying to obtain a more natural and "artistic" results and creating a whole new set of brushes. From that point on all my illustrations are done in PS.

The process is the same inside Photoshop or Painter. I create a flat color for the background, a layer with the line artwork, under that layer a new one to paint a whole colour reference, and above all these layers a new one with the final color with all the details. That's the basics, then I use layer masking to apply some textures and sometimes I modify a little bit of the color curves or apply the "Photo filter" to change the whole color. Of course, I also love to use inks, watercolors, collage, woodcuts, etc, but actually I can't take my hands off from digital creation!

Surprise

How does your ideal day looks like?

Wake up early on a spring morning, take a delicious breakfast, walk by the seafront, cross the main street, get in the bank and collect a nice check in order to draw the rest of the week without money worries.

The Artist

Does your work environment have an influence on your inspiration or work?

Not at all. I think that there's more influence from the region where I live, most of the people hate the strong winds here but I love them and of course I love the fact that the sea is just 200 meters from my study!

Ernesto & Bubblegum Man

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

In perfect times: mountain biking! But of course there is other stuff too like reading some books, watching some movies or TV series, visit some friends, and listen to music! ... Music is always a good source to put your mind in a good vibe before and during the creation process! Inspiration is like an English rain, it's always there ... but depends on your decision to keep your head wet or to be inside the house safe and warm!

Bad Day

Pakuffo cover

More examples on Alex Dukal's website Graphic Circus. Alex is also active on Flickr and has a blog called Pelícanos & Pescados that he writes on frequently.

Hi, my name is Alberto Seveso, I was born in Milan 30 years ago, but I have lived for more than 20 on the marvellous Sardinia Island. Today I live in Rome, where I work as a freelance Illustrator. I didn't study design and took no classes. I personally think this job doesn’t require a degree even when design schools are very important.

My passion for graphics was born about 15 years ago when I had an Amiga 1200 and Delux Paint that I loved very much. However I switched to PC when a friend showed me the potential of photoshop: I was astonished and I understood the power of that software (I know what you’re thinking right now, but no, this isn't a commercial, I actually switched to PC because of photoshop). From that moment on I started the basics of what I still do today.

The Three Graces

Alberto is using a layering technique on photos of people and faces in a very recognizable and original artistic style. The photos are his medium and become an important part of the whole artwork. Swirly patterns are definitely his thing. They add an elegant and sometimes sexy flair to his subjects. He's constantly playing with the idea of what to show and what to hide which adds some kind of mystery to each piece. I find his work definitely artistic and suitable for advertising and magazine covers.

Astro Bonas

You seem to have developed a new approach in applying vector graphics onto pictures. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with the idea and if it took long to master it?

The style used in the series "a me mi piace la gnocca!" was born for a joke about one year ago. The title says everything about the sense, the rough translation from Italian to English would be "I like the pussy". Personally I wouldn't have spent a "euro/dollar" for this collection but people seem to like it. I don't know why to be honest… I guess that's the mystery of inspiration, some things are born by chance.

I always had the objective to unite vectors and bit-map in a harmonious way, but it took me many years to reach this result :) The name "sperm shaping" is derived from the form of some of the vectors that are very similar to sperm :)

Example of a work in progress

The technique you use seems very complex. Can you reveal a bit about your working process?

Well, I usually begin my artwork within illustrator, where I create some vectors (all vectors are drawn by me, I don't buy these vectors). When done with this I place the vectors into a photoshop document where I start assembling the many vectors an giving them more depth and realism. The technique itself is not difficult but it needs patience, passion and taste. The assemblage is meticulous, I try to follow the curves of the body or the face with the vectors to give greater realism to the photo and to make the fusion between vectors and bit-map harmonic.

How to kill a man

Do you take the photos as well or do you work with a photographer?

Both things, some photos are shot by me, and others are done by various photographers. I also sometimes use photos that are purchased from various photo-stock sites.

Bagasce (2007)

Has this technique opened many doors that otherwise would have stayed closed?

Yes, this technique is well liked so far and I believe that me or other creatives will revolutionize it or even apply it in different ways than me. Personally I hope that this happens, that it evolves even if I don't love my clones I still prefer that people open new doors departing from my original.

DIF magazine edition 58

How do you keep your eyes on what's happening right now in the illustrator scene?

Through books, magazines, looking at blogs or e-zines or exchanging opinions and links with friends.

Prototype for a show

Did the Internet influence your work?

The Internet is a dangerous place :) It is a danger because there are so many good illustrators and creative people online! That way it is easy to become demoralized when looking for a job.

Sketch without a sense

More examples on Alberto Seveso's website Recycled Area. Alberto is also active on Flickr and has an account on the Behance network.

Hi, my name is Pieter Van Eenoge, born in 1976, I’m a fulltime freelance illustrator and live in Bruges, Belgium with my girlfriend, 2 sons and 2 cats.

I like the way Pieter plays with perspective and how he sometimes distorts and exaggerates depth and dimension. You get the feeling you're stuck in between in a two and three dimensional space. He loves to use black, still his color palette is always well balanced. A lot of his illustrations have this vitality, dynamism, energy with a twist of humor that I really love.

Did you always know you wanted to be an illustrator and did it take long until you had your personal style?

No, I didn’t, but I discovered pretty early that I could draw a bit better than most people. I wanted to become an engineer, that way I could draw bridges and machines. An illustrator was something I never heard of. Then I went to art school to become a graphic designer and ended up graduating as an illustrator. Maybe it is my destiny… ;-)

It is still hard for me to believe I have a personal style. Ok, every artist has a unique way of building an illustration or even a popsong, but there is always that shipload of influences that controls a part of the creative process. In art school I discovered underground comics and psychedelic poster design from the 1960’s. Robert Crumb and Henriette Valium were my heroes and crosshatching was all I did. Then Ever Meulen became my teacher and at the end of the 1990’s Chris Ware was the big next thing, so my style became very Klare Lijn or Ligne Claire. Over the years I experimented with pencils, paints and papers, and only now I have the feeling my style is becoming personal. It took me 10 years…

Which of your projects are you the most proud of? And why?

Last year I made a series of bookmarks that I wanted to be published. Instead of contacting every possible publishing house or postcard company, I talked to the people of Stichting Lezen and convinced them of using the bookmarks as a new year greeting card for their 3000 ‘friends’. This way I got paid quite well and 3000 interesting people and/or have seen my illustrations and maybe use them as bookmarks.

Big deal, you say? Listen to this: I had the idea for these bookmarks 6 or 7 years ago, made a lot of sketches and had them all stuffed in a backpack that I took to the Pukkelpop festival. My girlfriend and I had a great time, but when we came back to the the camping ground, not only our tent was gone, but everything in it as well. Goodbye clothes, goodbye sleeping bags and goodbye sketches. Some asshole(s) stole everything we didn’t wear that day, and it was hot as hell. Staying up all night in shorts and a t-shirt, pissed off and cold, not my idea of fun. …We never went back to the Pukkelpop festival.

Did the Internet influence your work or helped you in any way?

Thanks to the internet:

• I discovered a lot of great illustrators like Jeffrey Fisher or Gary Kelley.
• I can easily promote my work abroad.
• I found an agent in the UK.
• Chris Curry from the New Yorker mailed me to let me know she liked my work
• It’s a lot faster to look for a picture of a belle époque bookcase
• I’m on this webpage…

How do you typically come up with a concept for a new illustration?

I learned that a lot of things happen on paper by coincidence. Sometimes I can see the whole illustration in my head, but usually I start with some very small roughs, maybe 4 cm high, and deal with ideas and composition. Mostly the size or placement of an object or character can lead to new ideas. Or I start drawing characters interacting with each-other. I even made some nice illustrations thanks to mistakes and erased parts.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

I used to have the same feeling when I played in a band and went to a concert, but sometimes when I go see an exhibition of really great beauty, there is that moment where I’m not looking anymore, but want to leave as quickly as possible and start working. Then I know my creative batteries are recharged. I try to reach that level with everything I look at.

More examples on Pieter Van Eenoge's website Analog Catalog.

Hi There! My name is Oksana Grivina. I'm 32 and I live in Russia. I am a freelance illustrator.

Oksana's illustrations simply blew me away. Her technique and style is simply adorable, not to mention the perfect color palette she uses in each and everyone of her creations. People, who I believe are the most difficult things to draw, are her favorite subject, and you can tell. The expression on the faces are so perfectly captured. My fingers are itching to draw when looking at her work, it's so very inspiring. She's definitely added to the list of my favorite illustration artists.

Your work is very diverse, was it hard to develop these different styles and become equally good in them?

To be honest, it is a certain problem for me to conform to one style. I started my work as an illustrator 4 years ago after a 14-year break and now I continue to learn. It is obvious that on the way to find my own style I tried different styles and techniques which were interesting for me that time. The result is the eclecticism. I hope I will find my right way in the nearest future.

Can you reveal a little bit of your techniques to get to the stunning results of your finished work?

OK, I have no secrets. I use standard brushes in CorelPainter. At first, I take a common brush (such as Basic Round or something like that), then I use any of the blenders, recently my favorite one is Grainy Water. That is how I draw: brushes, blenders, brushes and again – blenders…When the picture is finished I use Photoshop to fix up hue and saturation of the image if it is necessary. I prefer working with curves and apply a couple of my own grunge textures.

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

I find a lot of inspiration in music. I have a pretty wide selection of stuff I listen to. Plus, my business is a combination of illustration, graphic design, and web design. They all require different skill sets and proficiencies, so I try to keep a healthy balance. I also like to cook. It's relaxing and creative in a completely different way.

Does your work environment have an influence on your inspiration or work?

The environment does not usually influence on my work, but if I have to create not on my working place, I am at a loss at first, but after a while everything becomes alright again. I don’t like when somebody disturbs me from my work that’s why I prefer working at night. I always listen to audio books (Russian classics or detective stories, when I need special attention to my work). I think that a good author or reciter is a 100% guarantee of an ideal result in my work. Of course, the theme should also be an exciting one. I like, for example, business themes because you can invent various metaphors about jobs which are connected with money making (it is a very big sphere). And the most pleasant moment for me in my work is to create faces. I never know what I will finally get; it is a very unpredictable process and I like that.

What makes a designed piece or illustration successful?

I am sure that a good sketch is 80% of a successful illustration. Even in children artistic school we were told: “A bad sketch won’t become better even if you paint it gold”. And another important thing is colour. I am very careful with colours; sometimes I get the right colour in no time ( then we can tell about the inspiration and its influence); but sometimes choosing the colour is a very long process which takes as much time as the drawing itself. Coloristic is the only subject which I have been good at since my childhood and which I needn’t learn.

How would your ideal day look like?

Every day is ideal and I am proud of such achievement. I don’t need to wake up when it is still dark outside or go to bed when I don’t want it because I must go to the office tomorrow. It isn’t important when my day starts (in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening or at night – I usually change my daily routine). I work till the moment I haven’t got any strength at all. I contact with customers by e-mail. And they live in different places of the world, so I can say that I do not depend on the time of work, I can create in any time I want. But in my future plans there is a point to sober down and get up early in the morning to start my work, not spending much time on Internet surfing.

More examples on Oksana Grivina's website.

Hi There! My name is Jacob Souva. Born of two loving and artistic parents, I was always drawing things for the sole purpose of having them immortalized forever on the fridge. Thankfully, Mom and Dad valued the making of art (even if it consisted of random scribbles that would never look like a mandolin playing platypus, or whatever the topic was at that moment) and encouraged me with kind words. I later discovered the joy of Maurice Sendak, Bill Peet, and Dr. Seuss at the library and fell in love with illustration. Middle school cemented the love, when I found out that the ability to draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could make you popular (if but for the moment). All of these early memories of illustration drove me to Syracuse University, where I received my BFA in Illustration.

After a brief hiatus away from the profession, I decided to jump into the world of freelance illustration and design. I enjoy the challenges of rendering ideas into images and love working with other creative people. I live and work from my home in Binghamton, New York. I have an amazingly supportive wife who pushes me to really pursue what I love.

A million stories

The first thing I noticed when visiting Jacob was the elegantly-designed site. It's rare that illustrators pay attention to Web Standards as most of them just opt for Flash. His site shows you can create a standards based site that matches the portfolio perfectly. Talking about his portfolio, I really digg his loose, sketchy style. Most of the work contains evocative imagery and pulls you right into the story that's behind it. The finished pieces always use a very attractive color palette that bring out the energy of the art.

Open for Interpretation

What interests you most in an illustration?

I think that the concept is really what makes an illustration. I'm always pulled towards the rendering or creating stage of illustration, but generally the concept or communication stage (usually in the beginning) is vital. The art I love the most is usually a great concept, illustrated in a beautiful way.

Emergency in the Woods

Can reveal a little bit of how an illustration comes together (from coming up with the idea till finished piece)?

My process has been tweaked a lot from when I first started. I've been narrowing and refining things to best suit my strengths and my aesthetic. I start by brainstorming the concept, usually on paper with thumbnails and key words. Once I've picked one that I'm most happy with, I usually knock out a bigger thumbnail with more detail. Sometimes I get ideas for lighting and color at this stage, a very good sign that things are progressing well.

The next step is a drawing in blue pencil. It's lighter and I like how fast it flows on the surface. I then take a good old number 2 pencil and formalize my line over the blue. I don't mind mistakes or mishaps, because I really like my illustrations messy and imperfect. It adds character.

I scan my drawing in at a fairly high resolution and bring into Illustrator for shape building. This stage is not fun, as the Pen tool and I have a long history of disagreements. (I have really enjoyed some of the changes in CS3, however.) After I get things built, I drag shapes under my drawing in Photoshop. I really like the combination of sharp, clean vector images with messy pencil drawings. From there, it's a whole lot of masking, color tweaking and collaging textures and images in. I really enjoy this part!

The Captain Kirk

What do you do to recharge your creative batteries?

I find a lot of inspiration in music. I have a pretty wide selection of stuff I listen to. Plus, my business is a combination of illustration, graphic design, and web design. They all require different skill sets and proficiencies, so I try to keep a healthy balance. I also like to cook. It's relaxing and creative in a completely different way.

Two Fish

Did the Internet influence your work?

Yes. In college we spent a lot of time looking at traditionally created illustration. I realized I didn't like to paint so finding other illustrators that work digitally helped me find my style and process. There are so many talented illustrators and designers out there that it's helpful to be challenged and motivated by their work, daily. The almost instant feedback on my own work is helpful in many ways too.

Help

What's your ultimate dream project as an illustrator?

That's a tough one. I'd really like to create illustrations for organizations that are doing good things in the world. I also would love to do more music packaging with bands and musicians I admire. Of course, creating art for children's books would complete the circle, as that's where I was first exposed to some brilliant illustration.

Pick Your Phobia

Baseball Goes Backwards

More examples on Two Fish Illustration & Design, Jacob's site.

We are Mopa. A graphic design and illustration studio established in Brasilia, Brasil, 2006. Our team exists out of 4 graphic designers and 1 manager.

The style of Mopa feels very MTV like, I'm not sure how else to describe it. That's also why I am not surprised that they already did work for them as it is a perfect fit. As you'll notice they have a sweet colourful array of work. Color seems always to be prominent when looking at work coming from South America. I'm a big fan of colors so won't get any complaints from me :) Keep an eye out for more from these upcoming superstars.

How big of an influence is the web in the studio's work?

We use it all the time and almost everyday. It takes us like an hour to get updated in when looking at good websites as cpluv.com, lounge72 (discontinued), ventilate.ca etc.

Can you explain a little how a typical illustration comes together. I mean the workflow from coming up with the idea, colors till finished piece?

We are not into tutorials, but we like to come up with the ideas as a group then we leave the work to one or two members as they can finish it as well. We like to work different everytime , always on the lookout for new experiences. So each work gets its own way.

What's Mopa's most rewarding project so far and why?

We believe that Computer Arts Cover we did in August-September last is the most rewarding project so far. It created a large visibility for us. We started to be known in our city just after that. We are used to work a lot for other places, so this kept our work on other cities but made our start on Brasilia as well. So its remarkable for us.

How do all illustrators in the studio stay inspired?

We try to make a good living, going to movies, plays, listening to music, reading books and everything else everybody told us before.

How do you keep up with what is happening in the illustration world?

We get to know other peoples work by getting in touch, making friends, traveling and looking at blogs, flickr pages etc. We are just back from Argentina now, and got amazed by the quality and quantity of illustrators that lives there. It's really awesome. We made a lot of friends there and also got in touch with a lot of different styles.

More examples at Mopa.

Hi There! My name is Scott Hansen, I'm 30 years old and live in San Francisco. I split my time creating visual work as ISO50 and making music as Tycho.

If I would have to make a top 5 of my favorites artists Scott Hansen would be in it since I totally dig his style. The typography and the color palettes work so well together everytime which isn't easy, but Scott is a master at it. The graphic techniques makes things look old and very contemporary at the same time. Much of Scott's work uses organic components and when that is combined with textures it becomes simply brilliant. I totally loose any knowledge of time when browsing through his work. I am in awe!

What was your best concept for an illustration so far and how did you come up with the idea?

It's hard to say what I think my "best" would be, but I do have some personal favorites. One that instantly comes to mind is the cover for my last album, "Past is Prologue". This album was a re-release of my previous album and so I took the original artwork I had done a couple years earlier and evolved it. This was a rare chance to spend a lot more time refining the image. Usually there are some pretty strict timelines and you don't have the luxury of fully familiarizing yourself with the piece and then revisiting it, so this was a great chance to sort of fix the mistakes of the past. The initial concept was to simply visualize the music, create an image which reflected the essence of what I was trying to convey musically. I knew I wanted everything to feel very organic and I wanted it to create something that didn't look "designed", it needed to look more like an illustration or a painting. In my music, I am always trying to create layers of perception that peel away to reveal new things as you listen closer and become more familiar with the songs. I applied this concept by using the negative space to imply that you were viewing some organic form that had been cut open to reveal its contents. The resulting form was supposed to vaguely recall the inside of a heart, with the chambers and such. As for the imagery itself I wanted to use a lot of photography but effect it heavily and arrange it in a montage as metaphor for the way voices and sounds sort of drift in and out of the songs. I used a lot of paint and ink and color overlay effects to give a psychedelic overtone to the piece and lend some kinetic energy, reflecting the surreal nature and motion of the music.

Many examples of your work are collages, can you reveal a bit on how those come to life? Do you start out on paper? I mean the workflow from coming up with the idea, colors till the finished artwork?

I'll usually sketch up a rough outline to get the main ideas and elements defined, but the finished product rarely turns out looking much like those sketches. The colors are all done in Photoshop; I'll have a sense of the mood I want to convey, but I do a lot of experimenting with the colors until I hit on what I'm looking for. Overall, experimentation is a very big part of my process. I don't just sit down and whip out an image, it evolves over time, sometimes in a single sitting, sometimes over days or weeks even. It's the process of constantly trying different approaches and refining things further that I enjoy, it often opens up new avenues you'd have never imagined before.

How do you keep up with what is happening in the illustration world?

I guess I really don't. I am not sure if that's a bad thing or a good thing, but I have never really been up on the design / illustration world. I'll see interesting things here and there randomly and ask myself "How did I miss this person's work? It's brilliant!". I sometimes wonder if being exposed to more outside work would positively influence me in some way, but I suppose I would rather be informed by the vague sensibilities instilled in me from a lifetime of passive observation than be swayed by contemporary trends and design fads.

How do you stay inspired and are there any special links/books/magazines you use that you would like to share with us?

My inspiration comes mostly from within. All my life I have had these sort of hallucinations, if you can call them that, where I see very vivid images and colors. I have spent most of my time designing trying to somehow recreate those ideas in the real world.

You seem very busy with Tycho too, touring etc and I saw that you even visited Europe with your music. How has that experience been and are there plans to come back?

Music is a very powerful force in my life. It balances my creative energy and allows me to express ideas that I could never manifest with visual work alone. I am very grateful to be able to share both my audio and visual work with people through shows, I feel like it brings the whole thing together. I will certainly be coming back to play some shows in the future and I'll spend all of this coming January there, but this time just for fun, no working!

If you want to hear, buy or learn more about the music visit Tycho's Virb page or the Tycho website.

More examples at Scott's ISO50 website and don't forget to visit the ISO50 blog too for all recent work and news. Oh and one more thing, don't forget to tune into Layer Tennis at Coudal tomorrow for the match between Scott Hansen and Rob Cordiner.

Hi There! My name is Leo Espinosa, I'm a 37 year old (yikes, I'm getting old) freelance illustrator and designer from Bogotá, Colombia (The coolest, most dangerous, hectic and creative city on the planet), but I live in quiet Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before moving here I lived in New York and Barcelona. As many other freelance commercial artists, I doodle and drink coffee all day and all night long. I love creating characters, doing comics and from time to time I enjoy commissioned work too ;+)

Leo is one of those illustrators that can't be described in just one sentence. His style is so divers. It shows his true talent. One of my favorites is the header illustration of his blog and the work he did for Coca-Cola. Absolutely jaw-dropping! His color palette and use of typography is always well thought-out which often adds a special retro touch and still has a new style too.

Has drawing always been your full time job and was it hard to get your name known in Belgium or abroad so that you could make a living out of it?

I'm a former Graphic Designer and before being a full time Illustrator I worked as an Art Director in Advertising. When I first started my Illustration career I was living already in New York so it wasn't that hard to get my promo material around. I visited a couple of AD's but mainly people knew of my work through Illustration directories.

Can you explain a little how a typical illustration comes together. I mean the workflow from coming up with the idea till finished piece?

I do not have a template for that but I used to because of my Graphic Design education. My work was still too rigid a few years ago and I decided to approach each assignment differently depending on the nature of the job. I sketch very little but spend a good chunk of time thinking about different ideas. I love accidents that detour the process. That's the best thing that can happen while creating an illustration.

What's your most rewarding project so far and why?

The watches I did for Swatch a couple of years a go. They made me think about my work being part of the environment rather than inside a magazine. I also think that when I did comics back in Colombia I allowed myself to be me a hundred percent. I need to go back to comics, I'm a sucker for storytelling.

Does your working environment has an influence on your inspiration or work?

I wish I could have a messier place but there's a modern Bauhaus bug living inside my brain and the studio is rather austere and neutral. Lots of white walls.

How would your ideal day look like?

I would bike all morning long then have a loooong lunch with friends, drink some wine, dance my way to the studio and paint or draw over a Radiohead soundtrack or some salsa and be done early enough to go upstairs and play or read comics to my kids. So far, that perfect day hasn't ever happen but it's nice to imagine it.

More examples at Leo's website and while you are at it take a look at Leo's blog studioespinosa too.

Hi There! My name is Maarten Vande Wiele, I'm 29 years old, live in Gentbrugge, Belgium and I'm an illustrator/ comic book artist.

Maarten's illustrations are cheerful, even with a touch of humor, I like that. Women are definitely his favorite subject and the use of fixed simplified shapes in combination with a vibrant color palette is what sets him apart. Also the way he plays with the big eyes in most of his drawings makes his work very recognizable.

Has drawing always been your full time job and was it hard to get your name known in Belgium or abroad so that you could make a living out of it?

No, it hasn't always been my full time job. When I came fresh out of school I had to take all sorts of misereable part-time jobs and drew in my free time, but as years progressed I was able to get more work as an illustrator. No start is easy, but you just have to keep on going. The more work you get, the more you are making a name for yourself, but I'm still not anywhere near where I want to be. The sad truth is, not many illustrator's get famous. There are no real superstars.

Can you explain a little how a typical illustration comes together. I mean the workflow from coming up with the idea till finished piece?

It's always a struggle between what you want to draw and what the client wants to see. I want to have a little fun while I draw, but the client has to be happy too. Usually I get inspired by all sorts of things, like a movie or a great picture. It could be an elegant pose... anything really. I usually work very fast, so I get the idea, I start sketching, try to find an interesting composition. I usually do my commercial work in 'Illustrator', so I scan the sketch and redraw it in 'Illustrator'. 'Illustrator' is wonderfull, you can tweak the design, play with the colours as long as you want. I love it. It's a great tool.

Your art always has a nice color palette. Any tricks you like to share on how you come up with them?

Look at everything. Ads, other people's work, comic books and steal, steal, steal! After a while you'll be able to work out what colors work good toghether and which ones are a disaster. The color has to fit your illustration and the mood you are trying to give it.

Does your working environment has an influence on your inspiration or work?

Yes, a little. If my desk is messy I'm not able to work. Your working environment should be a fun place, because work should be fun. I don't believe in being miserable, because when I'm miserable I can't work. Period.

What's your ultimate dream project as an illustrator?

Working for 'Vogue' or 'Vanity Fair' would be fabulous. Are you reading this Anna?

More examples at Maarten's website Dollywood and while you are at it take a look at Maarten's blog Champagne Cat Fight too.