‘Kolchoz & Sovchoz’ – The incredibly insane work of Sam Vanallemeersch

The work of Belgian artist and illustrator Sam Vanallemeersch is just incredible. Each of his images are filled with a crazy amount of energy and spontaneity. His work often leaves you dazed as you attempt to take in everything you’re looking at. After browsing through his portfolio(s) I was left feeling both overwhelmed and in awe.

The Antwerp-based artist also has an interesting approach to how he works – creating illustrations in two very different ways. Sometimes he works under the name of Kolchoz – working digitally and with gouache to create graphic-based illustrations with sharp lines and beautiful colors. Other times, he can be found working as Sovchoz – a looser and wilder version of himself, like an illustrator trapped in some coffee-soaked acid-trip. Both approaches to his work are amazing and envy-inducing. I’d thoroughly recommended you take the next half-hour off and simply gorge yourself on this mans incredible work.

Philip

Bats, Goblins and Creatures by Matthew Bromley

Last weekend I visited some friends in London and managed to catch the excellent Cut & Run show at Shoreditch’s Kemistry Gallery. The exhibition features work by British illustrators Jack Teagle, Ryan Chapman, Matthew Dent and Matthew Bromley. I’m a big fan of all their work so it was great to see the exhibition.

I thought I’d share these great paintings by Matthew Bromley that feature in the show. I love how fun and playful Bromley’s crude and quirky style is – and his portfolio is filled with weird looking illustrations of strange creatures, goblins and bat-like creatures. They’re just plain fun to look at.

Folk in London should definitely try and catch Cut & Run before it closes this Saturday.

Philip

Colouroid, vibrant illustrations of everyday things by Kevin Dart

While digging around Kevin Dart’s new Tumblr to get more info on the Persol video he recently did, I found this new minor project he’s working on called Colouroid. It’s a simple idea where he illustrates an everyday something from his life, be it food or scenery. He’s only done seven so far, but the results are pretty great. I love that each of these are made up of pretty simple shapes. They’re kind of like high level sketches, but I doubt most of us could make our sketches look so great. Here’s his description of the project.

“I am starting a new exercise which I hope to do at least once a week. My plan is to take photos of little scenes whenever I am out around the city, and then bring them home to do small color study paintings. I’m hoping it will improve my sense of light and color. They will all be done in a square format to limit the number of things I have to worry about.”

You can see the full selection of images by clicking here.

Bobby

The imaginary organs of athletes by Katie Scott

The illustrations above are from the talented hands of Katie Scott. You can find a few recurring themes in her work: plants, crystals, plants inside crystals, and a novel approach to human/marine biology. The illustrations above were commissioned by the New York Times, and I love imagining how the insides of these athletes would work. Maybe if my inner giblets looked like this, I would be a better athlete and not worry every time I pass a ball game that the ball will go out-of-bounds and everyone will watch me try to throw or kick it back.

Alex

A Year of Sun with Mr. Persol (Video)

When I started watching the video above, I immediately thought to myself, “This is like a cartoon version of Monocle.” Well sure enough, I wasn’t too far off. This new spot for Persol sunglasses was put together by an A-list team put together by Winkreative, with Tyler Brûlé heading things up as creative director alongside the boys of Fleet Street Scandal, Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham, for direction and design. The color, light and sound of this pot is perfect and idyllic, making the brand seem like the perfect sunglasses for an extraordinary life. Kevin Dart did fantastic job at directing the spot, you can see some of the behind-the-scenes work he did over on his blog, and the backgrounds created by Chris Turnham are also quite spectacular to see. To see a full list of everyone who worked on the spot, click here.

Bobby