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Beautiful Photoshop Illustrations By Artists Around The World
Photoshop is a magical tool for digital artists and photographers, and it rules the digital imaging world. It is not just a tool, though; Photoshop is a blank canvas that invites you to perform magic with your creativity. It gives you room to creatively manipulate photos and explore the artist in yourself.
To celebrate the upcoming holidays, in today’s post we decided to step away from technical design/coding-related topics and showcase some beautiful digital illustrations and their creators. Hopefully, the artwork will inspire you and stir your imagination.
As you know, so many more brilliant illustrations have been done by digital artists doing great work, but we cannot cover them all in a single post, so we will try to showcase them in our future posts (if you want to). If we forgot to mention the work of your favorite artist, please do share it with the other readers and let us know their name.
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Shadow Chen
Born in China, Shadow Chen did post-graduate work in product design. Upon graduating, he worked as a graphic designer in fashion and freelanced as an illustrator and graphic designer, doing packaging, branding, poster design, website design, fashion and more. He is working on his own brand and paints quite a lot in his spare time.
His work has been featured in websites, blogs, e-magazines and galleries in Europe.
Igor Scekic
Igor Scekic is 23-year-old graphic designer and digital artist who lives in Zagreb, Croatia. He is interested in digital art, graphic design, photography and other traditional art techniques. Art is his medium of choice for expressing his thoughts and feelings.
Tiago Hoisel
Tiago Hoisel is a young and talented artist from Brazil. He has his own brand of Photoshop manipulation and has created s lot of great artwork so far.
David Fuhrer
Self-taught artist David Fuhrer was born in 1985 in the capital of Switzerland, Bern. Focusing on illustration and specifically on intricate detailing, David has produced some of the most inspiring and exciting work in the digital art community.
Fuhrer’s work is a treat for the eyes and mind. The depth of his work is as mesmerizing as the emotions his pieces elicit.
Joshua M. Smith
“Hydro74″ is the Orlando-based designer otherwise known as Joshua M. Smith. “The sole purpose of my career,” he says, “is to push the boundaries in doing what I feel is relevant to the market as well as extract various elements and trends to be able to offer them up in my own personal work. But let’s be honest. I do what I love because I love it. Not because I have to do it, nor am forced to do it, but rather passionate about doing what I do. I firmly believe in having set style tones, yet a sense of diversity to make any various project unique to the demands that are set forth.”
Bobby Chiu
Bobby currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Bobby Chiu’s art career started at the age of two, with a box of crayons and his family’s white living room walls. He got his first professional art job at 17, designing for Disney, Warner Bros and Star Wars toys at Thinkway Toys in Toronto. Bobby has since won a number of awards for his independent work. He presently works as an illustrator for film and television, teaches digital painting online at Schoolism.com, publishes art books and works on some top-secret projects.
Jeff Huang
Jeff Huang is a graphic artist and illustrator residing in New York City. He specializes in digital illustration and photo manipulation and has knowledge of 3-D modeling and animation as well as motion graphics and compositing. Jeff has been freelancing professionally for almost five years now and has been featured in many publications such as Adobe’s Design Center, Digital Arts Magazine, Computer Arts Magazine and Advanced Photoshop Magazine. He is currently represented by Debut Art.
Erik Jonsson
Erik Jonsson, of Brooklyn, New York, freelances and studies digital media. He has a lot of mind-blowing artwork to his credit.
Maciej Hajnrich
Maciej was born in 1981 and works in Katowice, Poland. Self-taught, he is an established full-time freelance artist with five years of experience in print and Web design. In the last two years, his work has been commissioned by Back Row Productions, Platige Image, Weinsten Company, Warner Music Poland and Armada Skis, to name a few. He has designed illustrations for the musical “Pricilla, Queen of the Desert,” and he was a judge for iStockphoto’s Battle Royale, Widely published, Maciej is a member of the Keystone Design Union and Depthcore digital arts community.
James White
James White is a digital artist and graphic designer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. With 10 years of experience, James has worked on an array of personal art projects and clients, including Toyota, VH1, Armada Skis, Red Bulletin and Wired Magazine. He has been featured in Computer Arts, Computer Arts Projects and Advanced Photoshop magazines.
Jericó Santander
Jericó Santander was born in 1985 in the Canary Islands, Spain. His passion for art began as a child. He graduated with a BA in art and moved to Madrid. During his two years in Madrid, he studied at an illustration academy, while working as a full-time graphic designer at a small creative agency.
The idea of mixing digital painting, photography and 3-D in one work excites him and helps him to develop his ideas. Jericó recently moved back to the Canary Islands, working as a freelance illustrator, but always finding time for his personal art.
Marco Escobedo
Ever since he was very small, Marco Escobedo, who hails from Lima, Peru, has been interested in anything to do with drawing and painting. More than a hobby, drawing became a passion for him, as he observed the work of other artists and realized that illustrations should be his career. His study of it in several workshops helped him penetrate the depths of the field.
Suliman Almawash
Based in Kuwait, Suliman Almawash is a dynamic digital artist and master of surreal and conceptual art. He has created a lot of amazingly creative digital artwork.
Kerem Beyit
Kerem was born in Ankara, Turkey, and started drawing from early childhood through the influence of comic books. At Gazi University, he studied graphic design for four years. He subsequently worked in various places doing graphic and illustration studies, book covers, local comics, as well as magazines and books for children. He has been working in the digital space for four years now and has honored with awards from CGSociety, CgChannel, Gfxartist, Cggallery, 3DTotal and CGArena. His work has been published in several magazines and selected for inclusion in Ballistic Publishing albums, Expose and Exotique.
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm Cover
LEGENDS OF NORRATH (SONY ONLINE ENT.)
Kode Logic
Kode Logic is a graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia. He first started drawing when he was six years old and still hasn’t let the pen out of his hand. He transferred to the digital platform and has been working on it for the past four years. He is continually learning new skills and different styles along the way. He has been striving to create his own style, and his thirst for knowledge is never quenched.
Justin Maller
Justin Maller is a freelance illustrator and art director based in Melbourne, Australia. He has been creating digital art for over eight years and has worked professionally in a studio and privately for the last three. He is represented by Jeremy Wortsman of the Jacky Winter Group.
THE ELDER PRIESTESS – WITH HOLLY BYNOE
Archan Nair
Archann.net is the creative showcase of 26-year-old self-taught artist, multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator Archan Nair. Based out of New Delhi, India, Archan is co-founder and creative head of the design and art agency Cropped Circles.
Specializing in art direction, illustration and digital art, he has produced quality illustrations and design projects for many brands, including Pepsi, Tiger Beer and GQ. He has been featured in publications such as Advanced Photoshop, Flair, Vanity Fair and Juxtapoz and has been featured by music artists such as Kanye West.
Jason Engle
Jason has been creating art for the publishing and entertainment markets for the past 10 years. His work has been featured on some of the most prominent websites devoted to science fiction and fantasy art, and he has been included in several notable books of collected art, including both the Spectrum and Expose series, as well as his own book, titled “Infernum: The Art of Jason Engle,” which showcases the first five years of his career. He has had hundreds of clients over the years, including Sony Online Entertainment, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade.
Maciej Mizer
Maciej Mizer is a graphic designer based in Lodz, Poland, and specializing in illustration, 3-D graphics, Web design and photography. His work has been featured in loads of major publications, including HIRO Magazine, Computer Arts Magazine, Web Design Index 8.
Rado Javor
Rado Javor is a digital painter from Slovakia. He has his own style of digital art and has done a lot of great work so far.
David Waters
David is a freelance illustrator based out of Moscow, Idaho, USA. He is currently in his senior year at the University of Idaho studying graphic design. You have probably seen the work of this very creative artist a number of times without knowing it. David loves swimming and finding new movies and music to occupy his time.
Mario Wibisono
This dark-luminous guy offers some of the brightest eye candy around. He focuses on drawing girls and women, “a most wonderful subject that everyone (but mostly boys) loves to discuss (and fantasize about).” Whether it’s a hyper-realistic portrait or a fantasy-realism style, he is sure to dedicate all his expertise to producing the finest work.
Andreas Fernhede Dagman
The Super Awesome is the online portfolio of 25-year-old aspiring graphic designer and illustrator Andreas Fernhede Dagman. A student in his second year of digital media studies at Hyper Island in Karlskrona, Sweden, he recently completed a seven-month internship as an interactive designer at Sid Lee in Montreal, Canada.
Cynthia Sheppardt
Cynthia is 25-year-old digital illustrator with a extensive background in traditional art media and a passion for the fantastic. She hails from Fairfax, USA.
Alex Ruiz
The visions of Alex Ruiz range from dark and disturbing to vomit-inducing cuteness and hilarity. In his paintings, the creatures of his mind crawl off the page and transplant themselves into the unsuspecting viewer’s brain, even taking up residence there. Alex is a freelance concept artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles, California. He lends his talents to the film, television and interactive games industries.
Sakke Soini
Right now, Sakke freelances and balances his time between Web design, illustration, event management and promotion, DJ’ing and VJ’ing. He has worked with international acts such as Fred Falke, Busy P, The Toxic Avenger, Kris Menace and Anoraak (all from France); The Big Pink (UK), The Proxy (Russia), Handsome Furs (Canada) and Moulinex (Poland).
Pete Harrison
Ever since he was young, Pete was creative and wanted to pursue this creativity in life, By the age of 10, he knew he wanted to be a graphic designer and so tailored his education around this goal. At school and in his A-levels, he studied art and design. He went on to university and studied MediaLab Arts. These four years of his life can be best described as a metaphor.
Aaron Sikstrom
Aaron Sikstrom is a traditional artist whose work is quite modern. Influenced by pop art and surrealism, he has developed a style that blends fantasy and pop surrealism. Each image tells a story and shows his dedication to the craft.
Aaron’s work have been exhibited in publications such as “Ballistic Digital Painting 2″ and galleries such as Compound Gallery (USA). He is confident that his art will continue to attract new fans and bring him closer to a professional career in the arts.
Goro Fujita
Goro was born in Japan and moved with his family to Germany when he was two years old. He have been fascinated by drawing ever since he was a child.
He graduated from German Film School in 2005 and then specialized on 3-D character animation. Since then, he has worked as a freelance character animator and visual development artist on feature films and TV commercials in Germany. He currently works as a visual development artist at PDI/DreamWorks in Redwood City, California.
Would you like to see more similar showcases on SM?
(al)
Aquil Akhter is a web graphic designer and has been working in this field for 8 years. He also runs the blog webdesigncore.com, which focuses on free web resources and inspiration for designers and developers.
(24 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)
Loading ...- 86 Comments
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November 26th, 2009 12:42 amamazing collection!
- 3November 26th, 2009 12:44 am
This is awesome! All these artists are very talented.
- 4November 26th, 2009 1:07 am
BIG!
- 5November 26th, 2009 1:19 am
An AWESOME collection!
Was going to pick a favourite but I can’t :-) Each artist has their own unique style and are brilliant in their own manner.
- 6November 26th, 2009 1:29 am
Excellent!
- 7November 26th, 2009 1:42 am
I dont see the hapiness. All drawings are dark and non positive.
- 8November 26th, 2009 1:46 am
i love it! very inspiring thank u so much!!
- 9November 26th, 2009 1:54 am
Awesome! Big COOLlection!
- 10November 26th, 2009 1:55 am
Beautiful collection. One small thing… the Architects illustration was done by Dan Mumford, not James White.
- 11November 26th, 2009 2:09 am
This is amazing !!!
- 12November 26th, 2009 2:10 am
Some very nice examples. Some definite Salvador Dali influence in some of them which is nice to see. Good work
- 13November 26th, 2009 2:29 am
Some of them are really great looking with ideas from great artists. Others just playing around in PS “i use this, then this, then that…” – about nothing.
- 14November 26th, 2009 2:49 am
It’s WONDERFUL!
I love all them, anyone has got talent. They got me inspiring! :) - 15November 26th, 2009 3:20 am
Really cool collection
Someone who has an idea how to learn to make thoose kind og illustrations. Some tutorials or some pointers in the right direction?
I cant imagine how to start if I should make one of thoose?! :)
- 16November 26th, 2009 3:27 am
Very very cool collection. Really.
- 17November 26th, 2009 3:28 am
i especially love the work of david fuhrer. apace is one of the most amazing illustrations i’ve ever seen.
all in one good compilation!
- 18
- 19November 26th, 2009 3:50 am
Stunning collection..Thank you Aquil
- 20November 26th, 2009 3:52 am
Thanks for the great collection. Some of them I’ve seen before, still it was interesting to see more works from those authors. Jerico Santander and David Fuhrer are my favorites.
- 21November 26th, 2009 4:19 am
Saying beautiful would be an understatement. Thanks
- 22November 26th, 2009 4:41 am
This images are beautiful, but the most are very depressing…
- 23November 26th, 2009 5:22 am
So much talent out there! I don’t know whether to give up or try harder!
I will be bookmarking this for when I’m in need of inspiration.
- 24November 26th, 2009 5:44 am
Try harder of course! :)
- 24
- 25November 26th, 2009 5:27 am
In my opinion the showcase is too big, making for a boring ride along the post.
It’s nice to see good works and unknow artists but it would be better to divide this into series then making a gigantic scrolling post where 90% of people will not see half of the artworks.
- 26November 26th, 2009 4:30 pm
I completely agree. I was going to say the same thing. Sometimes when I read a Smashing post I get bored of scrolling down…
- 26
- 27November 26th, 2009 5:36 am
Sorry. All of them may be done very well but I don’t see a single one that I really like. None of them are stunning. They are really well done. But not great.
- 28November 26th, 2009 5:40 am
WOW !
- 29November 26th, 2009 5:44 am
You’ve put together a really nice collection Aquil. Checked your blog and you have some great articles, and unseen pieces of inspiration there. Congrats and keep it up!
- 30November 26th, 2009 6:08 am
Quite stunned by the talent displayed here, thanks SM.
- 31November 26th, 2009 6:09 am
Great!
- 32November 26th, 2009 6:14 am
my brain has gone into an overload. simply astounding collection. keep up the good work.
- 33November 26th, 2009 6:20 am
More crap then good … Oh wait, did I happen to mistake this comment list for the beginners Art 101 column ? Smashing your really losing your touch..
- 34November 26th, 2009 6:26 am
If you’re going to be so blunt as that you have to leave a link to your own site of works to see what it is a “professional” illustrators work looks like.
- 34
- 35November 26th, 2009 6:22 am
These are beautiful. I know I’ve been a critic in the (recent) past of “lists”, but this is quite the diverse set of professional illustrations — something for everyone I’d say.
The only thing I’d be interested in seeing on top of this would be short artist interviews (even a paragraph) concerning what inspired their pieces, how they learned to do what they do, etc.
I really enjoyed this piece Aquil!
- 36November 26th, 2009 6:35 am
Thank you, Aquil Akhter, very much!
- 37November 26th, 2009 6:37 am
nice…its great and very creative…like this post;
- 38November 26th, 2009 6:37 am
Good PS techniques, but somehow most of them say nothing to me, they transmit nothing…
- 39November 26th, 2009 6:39 am
Hey guys,
Superb showcase.There is an illustrator friend of mine, he recently won the silver medal on NYC Illustrators Society. His name is Leo Espinosa. His illustrations are not that complex but genius in simplicity. I realized that many of the work exposed here has one trend and it would cool if other kind of developments.
Keep in mind.
- 40November 26th, 2009 6:39 am
crrrrrrrrrrrrap!
- 41November 30th, 2009 11:53 am
My thoughts exactly.
- 41
- 42November 26th, 2009 7:00 am
Interesting!
So when are we going to see a showcase of GIMP and/or Inkscape illustrations? ^.^ Throw open-source a bone, it’s where WordPress comes from!
- 43November 26th, 2009 7:13 am
Knowhow excellent.
Beautifull? No way!! - 44November 26th, 2009 8:30 am
Great showcase. Tiago Hoisel is extremely talented. I would love to be able to create characters like his.
- 45November 26th, 2009 8:30 am
Awesome collection, great inspirational stuff. A lot of artists I haven’t heard of.
- 46November 26th, 2009 8:36 am
thanx u so much From Mexico for this post
it’s really amazing - 47November 26th, 2009 8:42 am
around the world? oh my , this article is going to be difficult to handle. Like other said showcasing people around the globe, thats too big .IMO
. but quite cool man, this is good inspiration still great article btw….
- 48November 26th, 2009 9:31 am
thank you for this showcase
- 49November 26th, 2009 10:21 am
Some talented photoshop users and illustrators but no really amazing pieces and a stretch to call a lot of it art, its just random imagery thrown together in photoshop. Maybe the selection of work it just too broad.
- 50November 26th, 2009 2:20 pm
Great Artworks i have ever seen, specially like illustrations of Bobby Chiu and Tiago…
- 51November 26th, 2009 3:57 pm
The artists featured here are all amazing and inspiring, but it would have been nice if you’d featured more female artists.
- 52November 26th, 2009 6:45 pm
I agree … surely there are more talented female artists than the one that you included (though Cynthia’s work is amazing).
- 52
- 53November 26th, 2009 4:29 pm
These images are just amazing, I wish I had talent like these guys and girls …
- 54November 26th, 2009 7:47 pm
Sooo good works!!!
GREAT INSPIRATION …. if i dont get discouraged.. - 55November 26th, 2009 8:45 pm
Wow, someone has a deviant art account. A well earned 100$ or whatever sir.
- 56November 26th, 2009 10:29 pm
That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Deviant art is one of the biggest collection of art on the internet, of course he’s going to find a wonderful collection of art from there.
- 56
- 57November 26th, 2009 8:52 pm
Amazing collections….
- 58November 26th, 2009 9:42 pm
I think it was said before, but some of these are excellent and others are just… eh. I think perhaps you should showcase fewer artists at a time and be a little more exclusive.
- 59November 26th, 2009 10:16 pm
superb collections
- 60November 26th, 2009 11:09 pm
Nice article
- 61November 27th, 2009 12:41 am
nice BUT It would’ve been nice to see some more female artists aswell…
- 62November 27th, 2009 3:18 am
Amazing works but not all of them were designed purely in photoshop but retouched in Photoshop.
Many of them where developed in 3ds max, maya and zbrush. - 63November 27th, 2009 4:07 am
awesome…
- 64November 27th, 2009 4:44 am
you should also check out a great Digital Painter artist: Randis: randis.deviantart.com
- 65November 27th, 2009 5:29 am
Nice post. Not my style but I think it’s very hard to make suchs illustrations.
by the way… still cant get used to the new smashing layout..
- 66November 27th, 2009 8:13 am
Awesome
- 67November 27th, 2009 9:21 am
Nice works. Scekic and Mizer are good
- 68November 27th, 2009 1:56 pm
Hi my name is Jessica Fortner and I myself am a illustrator (www.jessicafortner.com). It’s interesting to see different approaches and styles and even similarities among artists. Of course, not all styles are for everyone, but I’m sure amongst the huge list there is something for everyone to enjoy. I would have however, liked to see more women artists represented.
Still, a good post and I would definitely like to see more.
Jes. - 69November 27th, 2009 3:59 pm
Hey – where are the LADIES??
- 70November 27th, 2009 6:28 pm
very creative…
- 71November 28th, 2009 12:11 am
Wonderful!
I’m a designer but i’m wondering how they do such things with photoshop! - 72November 28th, 2009 3:19 am
Nice list of artists and some beautiful artwork. Bút, like it was mencioned before I would prefer to have this divided to several posts during a period of time. With a list like this, I like to take some time to visit the artist´s website or portfolio, but with so many to look at, the time needed would be so great that I´ll never get around to do it….
- 73November 28th, 2009 10:35 am
sin imaginación no seriamos nada… excellent job
- 74November 29th, 2009 6:22 am
Only one woman, and she’s stuck way at the end?
- 75November 29th, 2009 7:13 am
Some really nice work here. The Joshua M. Smith work is our favorite.
Good stuff.
- 76November 30th, 2009 1:26 am
HORRIBLE
- 77November 30th, 2009 6:03 am
these are all brilliant works of art.. i’m inspired by some of the artists and they have opened my eyes to some of the possibilities in PhotoShop.. Thank you
- 78November 30th, 2009 7:36 am
Only one female artist? Seriously?
Stephane Pui-Mun Law: http://www.shadowscapes.com
Jill Johansen: http://www.bronzepig.ca/
Ursula Vernon: http://ursula.elfwood.com/
Jessica Peffer: http://www.elfwood.com/~jesspeffFor starters.
- 79November 30th, 2009 9:51 am
Wow. One woman artist? Way to throw us a bone there, boys.
- 80November 30th, 2009 1:02 pm
I just liked Tiago Hoisel’s work. Everything else is… ok.
- 81December 17th, 2009 12:53 am
fantastic work awesome ideas……………!!!!!!!
- 82January 1st, 2010 11:45 pm
Sometimes the line between art that’s inspiring and art that’s so good it’s defeating, gets crossed.
The line has been crossed, damn.
- 83January 12th, 2010 3:57 am
No doubt, almost all designs are very beautiful. I wanna mention my designs as well. Please have a look & share your feedback:
http://emarketinguide.com/2010/01/10-beautiful-artwork-designs/ - 84February 2nd, 2010 3:01 am
One female??? You go worldwide to seek out talent and you come up with one female and the rest guys? Come on…. get with the times.
- 85February 2nd, 2010 3:06 am
No really, whomever put this piece together, did the compiling and researching should:
a) be fired or find another job;
b) go back to school and read your history on gender equality
c) open your fucking mind and close your fucking pants as women are not pieces of meat for your pleasure, but incredible and talented artists that should get the recognition we deserve. - 86February 8th, 2010 3:44 am
amazing works…….
- 00
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Enjoyed every bit of it. Makes me feel like goin back to my drawing board. Inspiration overload! Thanks.