Are you searching for fresh ideas for your next projects? Do you enjoy quirky illustrations that will make you smile? Today, we will share with you five great illustrators to inspire you to become a better artist. They have their own unique ways of telling stories and solving visual problems. One thing they have in common is that they allow themselves to play in their images without being afraid to let their imagination run wild. That is what makes their artwork so appealing and authentic. We hope these 5 illustrators will spark your imagination and inspire you to experiment with other ways of picture making!
Let’s get started!
Jana Glatt is a Brazil-based illustrator. She has worked with several clients and has illustrated books, children’s wear, and wrapping papers for different brands. You can click here to see more of her art collaboration projects. Jana’s licensing illustrations are gorgeous. You should check them out!
The artist has a great design sense, and you can see she’s constantly playing with the positive and negative space in the composition. Every shape in her paintings is very graphic-driven and you can see the artist is aiming for clear silhouettes for all of the objects and characters. Her pictures are composed of almost child-like playfulness, yet the design itself is carefully planned and well thought-out. Everything that is placed in her pictures intends to enhance the visual balance of the composition.
You can also see how the artist uses bright and vivid colors to grab the viewers’ eyes, but the colors still stay harmonious at the same time. In addition, there’s something so appealing yet unusual in Jana’s work. You can tell it’s her work right away from thousands of illustrations. The quirkiness and playfulness of her characters and composition are what make her illustrations stand out. The children’s publishing industry is so lucky to have her as their artist.
Natalia Shaloshvili is a Russia-based children’s book author and illustrator. She started as a fashion illustrator and worked with different editorials, such as Woman’s Health & Gala and Grazia and also did advertising illustrations for various brands and agencies. She later found her passion in doing drawings and paintings for books. In addition, she has worked with several different publishers, such as Miles Kelly, Lerner Publishing Group, Nigma, Egmont, and Polyandry. She is a big fan of Harry Potter, Beatrix Potter, English crime stories, and weather. Acrylic and watercolor pencils are the mediums she used for her artwork.
The animal characters in Natalia’s paintings have strong personalities and emotions within them. They are calm, amusing, and strange all at once. The sense of serenity and whimsy of the artist’s paintings make them really appealing and soothing.
Check out Natalia’s Instagram to view more of her recent work. You can also check out her affordable prints and original paintings on her website!
TLACUILOA (David Álvarez) is a Mexican artist. His conceptual body of work was rendered with slow and soft tones. There is a strong sense of tranquility, softness, and meditative quality in his artwork. Unfortunately, there is not much information about him on the internet, so his paintings seemed to be the only place to learn more about him. His images were drawn and painted with a solid understanding of light and shadows, and you can see how he always plays with s strong light source in his pictures. What makes his work stand out the most is his poetic imageries. They are almost dreamlike and have a literary quality attached to them. The paintings are soft yet have a strong sense of aliveness. There are some things so appealing and unusual in his work, and it’s hard to be emulated. The artist’s meditative thoughts strongly reflect on his paintings.
Yann Kebbi is a Paris-based artist. He received his art degrees from Decorative Arts in Paris after a DMA Illustration degree at the Ecole Estienne and exchange at the Parsons School in New York. He has illustrated for several book publishers and magazines, including Le Tugre, XXI, the New York Times and the New Yorker. He usually works with engravings, monotypes, and drawings with colored pencils in his paintings.
Yann Kebbi is among our favorite illustrators. You can see that the artist is constantly challenging himself and experiencing with different techniques in his work. He avoids using one single formula to solve the visual problems of his paintings. Sometimes doing that could be very daunting, especially if you are doing a commissioned piece. However, that’s what makes his work stay so fresh and unique. It’s hard to achieve the same effect if the artist planned everything out carefully before making a piece of art. It could never be this fresh. You can view more of his recent work on Instagram and read more about him here.
Conclusion
These 5 great illustrators are among our favorite illustrators in the current illustration industry. It’s fascinating to see that all of them have one thing in common: their great passion for art reflected in their artwork. Passion is what motivates them to strive for an excellent body of work. Besides, they all have a great sense of design, craftsmanship, and the most important of all: imagination!
We hope these 5 illustrators will inspire you to become a better artist. Did you enjoy our special selection today, and which artist is your favorite? Let us know in a comment, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog and follow these fabulous illustrators. Keep painting and happy creating!
