Just finished up a new avatar for some of my online accounts this evening. Felt I should take a break from the client work and mess with this. I’ve really been getting more and more into heavy textures and utilizing them for implied shading. These textures are from some cool brush sets I’ve found but I’m starting to make my own from various materials such as a toothbrush with ink, a spraypaint can, and my airbrush gun.

On a side note, I’ll be in a poster show this Saturday at Artlink, a local art gallery here in Fort Wayne, IN. I’ll be posting some pictures of the work I did for the show. Stay tuned!

Lovely illustrations by designer and animator Rexbox. Found these as a result of looking at the new 2012 Olympic mascots. I think Rexbox’s little characters would have been a fantastic visual to accompany and carry the enthusiasm of the Olympics. These guys are incredibly cute and have so much emotion. Too bad the mascots used are nothing like these. But check out Rexbox’s other cool works.

Former co-worker, Adam Sidwell, has started a rad project for 2010. He calls it 52 Bad Dudes. Every Friday he’ll simply illustrate a new bad dude. Pretty simple. He even has some for sale on his Etsy account. Check it.

BTW. Shadow of the Colossus (the first illustrated bad dude) is one amazing game. If you like things that are cool then you should probably buy that game.

Love the simplistic black and white animation created for the spot of BBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. The spot was done by Jon Klassen (co-designer) and Marc Craste (director) of Studio AKA. Both guys create some stunningly beautiful work. Be sure to check them out.

via: Drawn

My neighbor and good friend Aaron Minier just finished up some new illustrations. I figured it’s about time I post some of his stuff. Aaron is an amazingly talented artist and has done work for Volkswagen and most recently the Push comics (prequel to the movie “Push”). His work brings back that old school vibe with large halftones and his rockin’ color schemes. Check out more of his work at his website and also keep up to date on his projects at his blog.

A very adorable and simple video for Dutch children’s education charity, Kinderpostzegels. The simple innocent character design along with the quirky music will bring a smile to anyone’s face. Partnered with the Dutch postal service, the charity project involves selling stamps branded with these cute guys. Christian Borstlap is responsible for this great project.

via: Swiss Miss

SSimon Cook posted some work of Skwirrol awhile ago but I just recently had a chance to look at it. Her illustrations just make you smile. They have such whimsy. Take a look at more of Skwirrol’s work at her website.

via: Made in England

Gorgeous illustrations by Matthew Lyons. The kicker is he’s only a 21 year old student in the final year of an illustration and animation course at Loughborough University in England. Makes me want to kick it in to overdrive when I see great stuff like this.

via: Matthew Buchanan