Hey, may I be so bold as to ask the following: Will some art director please take the risk and commission something in this style from Sarajo? It’s crazy, it’s cool, it’s beautiful. It’s not like anything else.

Readers: what do you think would be a great illustration job for Sarajo in this style? Help me out here.

Here’s Marco‘s new work: Illustration as fine art. Marco is a fine artist and an illustrator. I took him on in part due to the resemblance to Jean-Michel Basquiat, yet it’s a bit less sad.

Yes, I still do illustration and I love it. This is a piece I did on how both he and she eat, and yet he stays skinny and she gets round. I wanted to draw a pretty round woman. So it’s not a bad thing. Maybe it’s a bad thing that he’s skinny. Of course that’s not what the article says and they didn’t pay me to edit the article. They paid me to illustrate it. It’s a good thing, because I always have some soapbox or another to stand on. Anyway, they are a nice client to work with.

Susy just completed these magazine illustrations. They’re wonderful and a great mix of her textile sensibility and her illustrative style. Hope you like them.

Jillian Phillips is a fantastic discovery! We found her at Surtex, and immediately fell in love with her charming work. Jillian has lots of work for licensing, but I think she’d be a fresh take for editorial and advertising, too. Tell me what you think.

A little about Jillian: She stays inspired by going to Tokyo once a year. Currently she lives in Brighton, UK. Her dream job would be to design her own range of stationery and gift products. Jillian says, “I love to spend Sundays looking around vintage shops, visiting Spitalfields Market for crafty treats and where they sell the most amazing brownies I’ve ever eaten.” Read her Bio and find out what her favorite fonts are, what movie she’s seen 30 times, and who she would be in the UK version of “the Office”.

Jillian has an amazing body of work of over 100 fully-available, charming-cool images including all-occasion, everyday, floral, birthday, new home, and many with coordinating patterns. Contact us for a more information or a CD of her collection.

Great new work, loose and masterful with watercolor. Watercolor colors can be garish, or overly primary, or just passe. Rebecca brings her British sensibility and the British watercolor tradition to her graceful use of watercolor. Her color palettes are always a surprise.

You know, I’m thinking, too, that her work is very observed. It doesn’t have a glib, formulaic quality like an I’ve-drawn-this-face-a-billion-times look. Check out the very succinct, minimal two pink lines to make those pretty, sexy, sad lips.

A book cover that sadly wasn’t used. But we love it, and I bet she’ll get work from it.

Diversity of work is Diane: fine art collage, hip editorial people, a map, and a tender watercolor of radishes I’m assuming are from her garden.

Many of you already know Carolyn Gavin, the art-brains behind Ecojot. I’m sure you’ve seen her fab journals at your favorite boutiques. The journals are 100% recycled paper, and Carolyn does all the art for her company while her brother, Mark, oversees production. Carolyn and Mark emigrated from Johannesburg during apartheid and made their way to Canada some years ago. They are lovely and visionary.

We are thrilled to be the exclusive licensor of her work. Most of Carolyn’s art you’ll see on our site is, at this moment, available for lots of categories. In the short time we’ve signed her, she’s been picked up or garnered interest by a number of great manufacturers and retailers. Contact us to license.

This brand-new piece is one of the first editorial jobs we got for Matte. I was thrilled to see what he did. It’s pure Matte.

If an artist tightens up quite a bit for their commissioned jobs, and looses what makes them special, that’s a serious problem. This will clearly not be a problem for Matte. Some artists that are primarily fine artists and surface design artists (that is, they do paintings and art for products) have a difficult time transitioning to the very lucrative, yet completely different world of editorial (books, magazines). So (I’m repeating myself now) I’m happy that Matte was able to stay delightful. Prognosis: a great editorial career in addition to his existing great other work.

Why is editorial great for artists? It such an amazing discipline; it forces you to draw and design a myriad of images, stuff you would never draw, or think you can’t draw. Therefore, your repertoire is increased and your imagery does not get tired.

Art directors: give him a try! Plus, he’s the world’s most charming and polite Southern gentleman (now living in Portland, OR).

Janell was asked to do a piece on summer travel with kids on a budget for the Boston Globe. It’s a full-page, lead illustration for the Sunday Magazine. You can see why it’s such a great read for a full page: graphically strong, and a dynamic page. Wonderful work.