When Anna put out the call for guest bloggers to cover for her while she’s away in New York this week doing things far more exciting than blogging, I thought it’d be an interesting challenge to see if I was able to put down on blog a guest post worthy of The Yellow Umbrella. I harbor no illusions of being as creative or knowledgeable about the art world as your regular blog hostess, but I do really love (and spend a lot of time looking at) photography. And since this blog often features all these really great illustrations, I came up with the brilliant idea of digging through my digital photo archives and sharing with you a few of my favorite examples of artists who combine their illustrations with photography. I even managed to sneak in a video at the end (it’s one of photography, though). Enjoy!
KAWS
First up, KAWS is a New York-based artist who started out as a graffiti artist and, for a short time, even worked as a Disney animator. That background comes through in his work, which is probably why I really love his extremely colorful designs. Often including his signature “X” eyes, Mickey Mouse-like gloves and weirdly shaped ears, you may have seen his creations on the album artwork for Kanye West’s “808’s and Heartbreaks” or Clipse’s “Til the Casket Drops” (which, by the way, are both great albums you already should own) or in pictures of Pharrell Williams’ insane Miami house where I totally want to live. If you ask me, KAWS can make just about any magazine cover or editorial better and apparently magazine editors agree with me, because he’s been asked to do a ton of them. With the editorial ”Graffi-couture” his illustrations have even made it into the fashion Bible itself, French Vogue. And by pairing KAWS with model Raquel Zimmerman and the always outstanding photographer Mario Sorrenti, they pretty much ensured from the start that I would’ve liked it.
Links: Blog | ShopDEANNE CHEUK
Another New York-based artist, Deanne Cheuk is an incredibly talented graphic designer who, besides being a great illustrator, also creates the most amazing typography, patterns and collages. Her designs have been commissioned by just about every company and magazine you’ve ever heard of, including this nifty laptop design for the suddenly very plain and boring looking Dell computer I’m typing this on right now.What I really like about the images below is that they feature the same thin lines, nature themes and watercolors you see in a lot of Cheuk’s work, but they still perfectly compliment and add to the photos underneath her illustrations. I can definitely recommend checking out the rest of the illustrations on her website as well.
Links: Website | Shop | TwitterTOMEK SADURSKI
Tomek Sadurski is an illustrator I don’t know a whole lot about, except that he’s a Polish and based in Berlin. What I do know though, is that the man is able to get some amazing results when he combines his drawings with a good-looking fashion photo. Somewhere between collage, illustration and photograph, the below images (from the editorial “Defragmentation of Beauty” from 25 Magazine) are something I could pretty much look at all day.
Link: WebsiteJO RATCLIFFE
An illustrator working out of London, Jo Ratcliffe is someone who’s typography and illustrations you may have seen in Vogue, on the cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” (not an album you should own), or on the H&M bag that’s currently sitting in my kitchen, holding my plastic recyclables. While those are all well and good, the main reason I’m featuring her here is because she also provided the illustrations for the wonderful short film “Everglade”. Showing us a photo shoot with Kate Moss, the video was shot by Dutch duo of photographers Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin for fashion house Balmain. Aided by the ever haunting voice of Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), Ratcliffe’s illustrations have that really great Tim Burton-esque quality of somehow managing to be creepy, fantastical and beautiful, all at the same time. Required viewing.Links: Website | Blog | Twitter
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Links: Blog | Flickr | Twitter
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