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20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

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A lot of what is seen on TV commercials, catalogues flyers, posters, banners and internet advertisments are made by someone in the world of design or commissioned by someone in the world of art. As time passes, the distinction between artist and designer has been blurred beyond recognition.

Now, in times of instant press and release, inspiration from great artistic measures and processes are the influence and is just as important as functionality. When we see companies like Apple and RIM, we see a collaboration between art and design where the practicality is the designated, artistic measure and process, so what looks good, feels good and works well.

The works below are done in the same spirit; literally where the eyes are encouraged to explore, stimulating inspiration and aspirational ambition. Below we present 40 talented and impressive illustrators – their work is inspiring, creative, original and beautiful and as such perfect for a lousy saturday evening.

The Beauty Of Illustration

James White
James White is one of the more sought after artists today. His retro fitted style is pushed where some designers and artists won’t dare travel. You can check some of these and more at his site.

Jameswhite 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Nt in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Jameswhite 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

DecoGrunge
DecoGrunge can’t be described. There is a photomanipulated, intense lighting effects and a celestial base to a lot of this artist’s work. a page that should be checked. Spewing and shlacking old print, high-res objects and clouds are not the only thing that keeps this graphic designer on his feet. Like the rest this is about attention to detail in effects designers and artists use in respective mediums. Posters, album covers, you name it and it can be done.

Decogrunge 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Maimons Tees By Decogrunge in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

RHCP Tees By Decogrunge in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Samuel Green
Samuel has a very interesting and peculiar take on art and design, with his take on expression and execution. His random display of works are what drive his presense. His choices to display what he has andwith what message he is trying to say it is even more mysterious.

Samuel Green 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Samuel Green 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Karol Kolodzinski
Making advertisment for the likes of Coke and other high level companies, Karol has a sense of style in her lighting choices that emphasizes her ideas to maximum capacity.

Karol Kolodzinski 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

sauco – m
Some of the pieces look as though they are inspired by marilyn manson like the one below. Check his DeviantART page for more of the strange.

Sight By Sauco M in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Jesar From DeviantArt
Jesar is a graphic artist and art director that who can merge the chesstry of art and design. Make sure you check his gallery for more beautiful and original works.

Hydro By Jesar in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

KAWS
Kaws is one designer that has every facet of design and the art behind in his sights. As he continues to grow his brand as a top designer and art curator, KAWS’ influence is considered a mainstay in fashion, products and branding.

RTEmagicC Kaws-stormtrooper-original-fake-2 Jpg in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

veni vidi vince
From death to dying to wishing you were dead, comes big Vince aka veni vidi vince. “VVV” has some of the most detail oriented works, which is what makes a lot of even the most gross looking pieces come to life. You can check his portfolio.

VVV 4 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

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VVV 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

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VVV in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Genar De Sio Coppola
Genar De Sio Coppola has a vector approach with a high bright color effect that can be seen in a lot of the top adverts and exhibitions to date. Check the site for more work.

Genaro De Sia Coppola in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Monk-Art
Monk ART is a character designer and comic artist, who uses some of the more full harvested color combinations that make his style just who is as an artist. Some of what you see in the piece below, embodies everything that he has done in his career.

Always Funk By Monk Art in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

AXLBOX is an era mashup, photomanipulator, who seems to understand the mix of rugged and smooth concepts, which is the theme for a lot of what is done throughout his years as a photographer and art director.

Peter Jaworowski
Peter Jaworowski is an innovative graphic designer that has a nack for bringing something almost unthought of to the table. His usage of lighting and the below water and ink effects that has been pushing is something to be inspired by. Peter “J” is wild in presentation to his clients and on his commissions as art director. His attention the detail in effects make different than the “No Pattern” look that people are taking a trend hop for. I think a lot of what he has to offer is in his passion for what he can do in his attention to that peculiar detail.

Peter Jaworowski 6 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Jaworowski 5 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Jaworowski 4 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Jaworowski 3 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Jaworowski 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Jaworowski 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Peter Harrison
Peter Harrison is one of those of artists that seems to take the essence of something and makes something else. A lot of hip hop is inspired by this kind of artistic treatment. When you check the site, you will leave inspired and take something from it as well. I find a lot of what different approaches to light and effects in post production work the meat of what inspires most. This is no exception. Pete Harrison has some minute attention to detail that shows just what a few simple shapes and brushes and selections can do for his work.

Pete Harrison 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Pete Harrison 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Lost Continent By Wirestyle in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Alexandra Zaharova & Ilia Plotnikov
Alexandra Zaharova and Ilia Plotnikov are collaborators for a lot of branding and advertising sectors for high level design and artistic themes that suggests that they know what they are doing. Make sure you check the site for more.

Alexandra Zaharova 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Mark Newman
Mark Newman has a huge following on deviantart. His work varies from piece to piece, but he has his own twist to classic examples of mythological and comic infused characters like the below medusa piece.

Medusa By MarkNewman in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Marta Dhalig
Marta Dhalig has to be one of the hardest working digital painters to grace the pages of imaginFX magazine, she is well groomed in form, anatomy, composition and lighting. Some of her works pop out and create the kind of vision that you would see in traditional master paintings. you can see more at her page.

The Oracle By Blackeri in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Mike Campau
From green messages to advertisements, Mike Campau has a diversified depiction of some of his creative luster at his site.

Mikecampau 4 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Mike Campau 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

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Mike Campau 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Julia Pogodina And Mike Campau in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Axl Box

Axl Box 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Axl Box 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

yohan2
Yohan aka ciaran brennan is a mixed media artist is multli faceted in his approach to what he does. Some of his works range from caricatures to pieces like this very creepy doll below.

By Yohan2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Chelsea Lewyta (blog)

Chelsea Greene Lewyta 2 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

Chelsea Greene Lewyta 1 in 20 Talented and Impressive Illustrators

D'Argo Smith aka THENUMBERTOO is a Digital Illustrator, Hyper Blogger and musician that edits the 2ndshow Blog. He has been doing web and graphic work professionally for 7 years. You can also get a whiff of his growingly popular space here for his music.

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    1. 1
      Weirdo
      April 25th, 2009 12:45 pm

      “Karol has a sense of style in her lighting choices” – I’ve always belived Karol is a man ;)
      Nice collection, thanks a lot!

    2. 2
      Kreativrandale
      April 25th, 2009 12:47 pm

      Wonderful!
      Thx

    3. 3
      Steve Mullen
      April 25th, 2009 12:56 pm

      Very cool works. I have seen a lot of them, but some I have not. Thanks for the post.

    4. 4
      imsraaia
      April 25th, 2009 12:57 pm

      awesome… wonderful work…

    5. 5
      Eddy Munn
      April 25th, 2009 1:00 pm

      Funny, I used ‘James White’ in my Graphics Project yesterday as a source of inspiraiton. ^^

    6. 6
      acme
      April 25th, 2009 1:04 pm

      I dig Peter Jaworowski’s work for Martini — simple concept, well executed, and appropriately over-the-top for a leisure product.

    7. 7
      Ab
      April 25th, 2009 1:06 pm

      How come you didn’t include Patrick Brown? See patrickbrown.deviantart.com. He’s very talented!

    8. 8
      Simon Harlinghausen
      April 25th, 2009 1:17 pm

      Great article, Especially Mike Campau

    9. 9
      Richard
      April 25th, 2009 1:31 pm

      Awesome illustrations. Thanks for the list.

    10. 10
      rs
      April 25th, 2009 1:56 pm

      Actually Karol Kolodzinski is a “he”

    11. 11
      Yasu
      April 25th, 2009 2:06 pm

      An amazing collection of artists. A true inspiration for me.

    12. 12
      Nicolás Calabrese
      April 25th, 2009 2:12 pm

      You guys should see the work of Marcelo Grassi. http://www.marcelograssi.com.ar

    13. 13
      AYANO
      April 25th, 2009 3:04 pm

      Wow. The whole deviantART stars are here. ;D I like it.

    14. 14
      Positron
      April 25th, 2009 3:50 pm

      Hello, this collection is amazing!

      Just want to recommend one more artist:
      Michael Heald @ Fullyillustrated.com
      He’s very talented!

    15. 15
      anne_nime
      April 25th, 2009 5:55 pm

      I think Dean Mckean, illustrator for some of Neil Gaiman’s work is worth mentioning here as well.

    16. 16
      Joe
      April 25th, 2009 7:31 pm

      That doll gave me the chills as soon as I saw it.

    17. 17
      Danny
      April 25th, 2009 9:48 pm

      Great article and showcase.

      But some parts of the text were quite hard to read because of broken English.

    18. 18
      Hynek Zatloukal
      April 25th, 2009 9:56 pm

      I love this sort of art! Especially the first two are awesome — playing with rainbows :)

    19. 19
      Akhil
      April 25th, 2009 11:35 pm

      Nice collection. The link to the Monk Art deviantart page is wrong, it is http://monk-art.deviantart.com/

    20. 20
      Dan Hill
      April 26th, 2009 12:54 am

      Some really great work! Really like the almost surrealism of Peter Harrison’s work.

      Serene Studios

    21. 21
      bara
      April 26th, 2009 1:05 am

      this is really awesome ..

    22. 22
      C. Rauter
      April 26th, 2009 1:31 am

      yeah.. awesome!

    23. 23
      Ed
      April 26th, 2009 1:44 am

      Some great work, but since when does photo manipulation count as illustration?

    24. 24
      Jehad
      April 26th, 2009 2:20 am

      Most of the works presented here are just intermediate ps & illu manipulations & comps. I know good illustrators are scarce, but did you even bother to look for them? How about Kevin Cornell (Kevin Cornell), Alex Dukal (Alex Dukal), Jacob Souva (Jacob Souva) and even my fellow Romanian illustrator Matei Apostolescu (Matei Apostolescu) for starters?

    25. 25
      Paul
      April 26th, 2009 2:45 am

      Nice collection, although I would have included Radim Malinic (Brand Nu) I think his work is amazing!

    26. 26
      Alex
      April 26th, 2009 3:06 am

      Now here are some hard working designers. Lovely!

    27. 27
      zgryzz
      April 26th, 2009 3:14 am

      More boring, batshit commercial crap illustration.

    28. 28
      jeff
      April 26th, 2009 3:16 am

      great illustrations,
      but if you are working for coca cola and you are using the most overused picture of a speaker, i think something’s wrong.. (Karol Kolodzinski, stock from sxc.hu)

    29. 29
      Tapan
      April 26th, 2009 4:01 am

      I like this collection… really really good work…..

    30. 30
      Antoine
      April 26th, 2009 4:20 am

      An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information (such as a story, poem or newspaper article) by providing a visual representation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustration)

      Most of these artists are not illustrators.

    31. 31
      bs.kishore
      April 26th, 2009 5:34 am

      Great stuff capable of invigorating one’s creative juices !

    32. 32
      bluedee
      April 26th, 2009 6:44 am

      absolutely beautiful…great stuff..really inspiring…

      I love decogrunge art…:)

    33. 33
      teabag studios
      April 26th, 2009 7:41 am

      have a look at si scott! i have two of his prints –

    34. 34
      Mike
      April 26th, 2009 8:18 am

      Karol has a sense of style in her lighting choices that emphasizes her ideas to maximum capacity.

      HIS, HIS…
      As far as i kno, karol is a men…

    35. 35
      valp
      April 26th, 2009 8:49 am

      Great collection of inspirations, no doubt! Great to see friends with other known designers as well as some new faces!

    36. 36
      Chrissie
      April 26th, 2009 11:04 am

      I really did not like this collection. A lot of amateurish cheese. Really surprising coming from Smashing. Disappointed.

    37. 37
      biplaza
      April 26th, 2009 1:16 pm

      I recommend the spanish illustrator Luis Tinoco
      http://www.luistinoco.com

    38. 38
      Matt Palmer
      April 26th, 2009 1:47 pm

      Check out Hogboy, Ian Francis, and http://www.letsmakeart.com/art.html for something completely different.

    39. 39
      boss
      April 26th, 2009 2:37 pm

      Illustrators? looks more like graphic designers.

      Also, the kaws link is broken.

    40. 40
      David A
      April 26th, 2009 3:32 pm

      I wish people would stop confusing garish design with good art.

    41. 41
      MasaBird
      April 26th, 2009 5:16 pm

      One of the weaknesses of Smashing Magazine is that often your “25 best” “40 great” or “50 amazing” articles are compiled by one person. Then you tend to get “30 most beautiful” websites all look exactly the same, or “20 Talented Illustrators” that basically have perfected the “swirling light magic entwined in a slow motion implosion” technique or whatever that is. These posts should always be done by a diverse group rather than an individual.

      The other problem is that it’s not a magazine. How did the purveyors of what’s cool on the web come to the decision that their website of what’s cool on the web would be cooler if they called it a “magazine”?

    42. 42
      Bejoy Thomas
      April 26th, 2009 8:51 pm

      super collection, thanks for the great illustrations

    43. 43
      Alex
      April 27th, 2009 1:40 am

      That is awesome! Not really illustrators but these artists are just insane… thank for the list!
      But you should add “Dan Mumford”! Go and check him out (he’s a true illustrator ;-)

    44. 44
      WAcreative
      April 27th, 2009 2:51 am

      Man I surprised to not see Scott Hansen (ISO50) on here. He is a much better “retro” designer than James White in my opinion.

    45. 45
      Jeff
      April 27th, 2009 5:28 am

      You forgot Justin Gerard. Actually, all the guys at Portland Studios are digital art maniacs.

    46. 46
      Meg
      April 27th, 2009 6:07 am

      Wow, thanks for taking time to pull these together! These guys are so talented!

      Meg

    47. 47
      Okibi
      April 27th, 2009 4:07 pm

      Some great images, I was expecting a lot of hand drawn art but it’s good to see some great digital artists too.

    48. 48
      dapas
      April 27th, 2009 5:28 pm

      Inspiring. thx…

    49. 49
      Vernon Decossas
      April 28th, 2009 3:44 am

      Thank you for the great list. Amazing jobs!

    50. 50
      Mario Paz
      April 28th, 2009 6:46 am

      Peter Harrison rocks!…love how he mixed realistic with fantasy…

    51. 51
      uns
      May 1st, 2009 4:49 am

      Some of this is great But why oh why do so many of them have to include women with their boobs or ass hanging out!!!! this kind of sexist sh*t makes me think of these designers as sad little nerds creating women on their computer because theyre too afraid to actually talk to one, very sad.

    52. 52
      kixvix
      May 1st, 2009 1:27 pm

      Great post! :)

    53. 53
      Oglasi
      May 3rd, 2009 5:18 am

      Very good collection, some of them are awesome. Thanks

    54. 54
      Goran
      May 4th, 2009 1:47 am

      They are very talented. Thanks for inspiration.

    55. 55
      Andre Rodrigues
      May 6th, 2009 3:38 am

      Awesome collection. Especially Peter Jaworofski and Monk art, brilliant.

    56. 56
      Crystal lee
      May 11th, 2009 9:36 am

      great graphics though most of it is more “graphic design” and not illustration!
      Perhaps the title should be Impressive Designers, not Illustrators.

    57. 57
      Eric
      May 12th, 2009 1:25 am

      Damn this guy is defiantly cant xplain, damn Good i need to get their, how can i get to know the tricks behind it. I need to know pliz

    58. 58
      LARA LY
      May 12th, 2009 5:21 am

      Wonderful! ThxI You should add Luis Tinoco, is HOT!
      http://www.luistinoco.com/

    59. 59
      e11world
      May 21st, 2009 11:08 am

      How many years of design does it take to become like one of those guys??

    60. 60
      Mike
      May 21st, 2009 12:18 pm

      Where’s Von Glitschka?!?!? http://www.vonster.com

      Just go there – I promise you won’t regret it! Glitschka is one of the best true vector illustrators around.

    61. 61
      peter
      July 16th, 2009 1:10 pm

      This is a fad, just like it was the 70s airbrush work, which makes all this so second generation. Kinda reminds me of all those Punks you see handing around the West End, drinking cider and waiting for a tourist to pay them for a photo. I think I need to go drop the kids off at the pool now.

    62. 62
      Anton Agestam
      July 30th, 2009 7:00 am

      The link to Genar De Sio Coppola’s portfolio is broken!

    63. 63
      louis
      August 16th, 2009 1:27 am

      amazing piece of works!

    1. 00

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