Tro-Bro Léon

ADIOS JACQUES Y RAYMOND

Mads Berg

Annie Hall poster

Lurve this poster. (Also, I watched Something's Gotta Give this week; Diane Keaton is so charming.)

(Via Carina)

Mantra

Remember this hilarious little dude? When I saw the illustration last year, I made it my mantra for whenever people left salty blog comments. (It's such a smart thing to keep in mind, so you don't take things too personally.) Well, now there's a letterpress print! Genius.

(Via For Me, For You)

Tattoo love

How fun are these color system tattoos? So cute for a couple.

P.S. The New York Times should write an article about how adorable and creative tattoos are becoming.

(Photo by Chris Glass, via Design Crush)

Map Illustration

Jerome Daksiewicz

Martha Hesse, a Lady on the Tourmalet

Via 100 ans d´amour !

Guest Post: Woodsy treats

A reminder for dad

something sweet for mom

and something sweeter for baby.

-- By Melanie from You Are My Fave

Guest Post: Summer Camping Trip

An inspiration board for a summer camping trip. Left to right, top to bottom: 1. Vintage postcard; 2. A Field Guide to Weeds book; 3. address book; 4. botanical chart card; 5. Billykirk overnight bag; 6. Roger Miller album; 7. Cole Haan boots; 8. field sketches by William Berry; 9. striped bathing suit; 10. vintage Minolta camera.

-- By Anna from Rifle Paper Co.

Commercial Sniping - In a few steps

This is my newest contribution for The Circuit Magazine to accompany part 3 of 3 articles on the history of sniping. After staying relatively loyal to the concept for the first 2 articles I got slightly more adventurous for this one, as you can see. Although the weapon is the British Army's L96A1 sniper rifle!

Anyhow, I just thought I'd post a few shots in progress of my process for creating this piece to accompany the ScreenCast I recorded of the illustration (which you can see on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPjantpr5Q )

Step 1 - Initial concept thumbnail.

After playing around with a few poses I decided to keep as much relevance to the subject and article as possible (considering the lack of it in the character) I went with the traditional prone position but still wanted to emphasise the characters seductive curves, which brings the focus directly onto the buttocks!

Step 2 - Defining the Character

Next I decided I wanted an exotic looking female and used photo reference of beautiful curvy women of Caribbean origin. and penciled out my idea and scanned it into photoshop at 600dpi before reducing it to 300 at the painting stage. Notice, I don't really go over board on the sketch and prefer to build it up as I progress through the painting stage.

Step 3 - Colour Flats

Using the pen tool to create selections of anatomy and accessories I fill them all with the paint bucket tool and keep th

em on independent layers to give me greatest flexibility later on.

In addition I paint in a rough background to link it together and in preparation for choice of light direction.

Step 4 - Airbrushing

Using the selections I'd made earlier by keeping all opposing areas on separate layers I use a large, soft edged brush at a low opacity to first apply shadows and then highlights to pinpoint light direction and start to brin

g depth to the illustration.

Step 5 - Background

I now decide its time to build up the background and I virtually spin it around and paint it in reverse to the original concept. Again using the pen tool to build the basic structures and then an airbrush to lay colour and light direction down fast before using a more hard edged brush to add some texture. I also work in some accessories such as the goggles on the helmet, the drink, dossier, bino's and ammo tin.

Step 6 - Fine details/finishing touches

I finish off the painting by adding a few layers of a deep bronzing, orangey colour to the flesh areas. I paint in shadows, foreground foliage, slightly alter the expression and finally add some highly effective camouflage paint to her skin. Now she's hot and ready for action.

Acquire, Aim, Squeeze, Kill, Mojito to go!

Thomas Paul plates

Loving these Thomas Paul plates (along with everything else in the great Maine-based shop Daytrip Society).

STEPHEN COLLINS ILLUSTRATION

Father's Day card

Cute Father's Day card by Rifle Paper Co. (It's on June 20th this year.) xo

Sammy the Seagull

I loved this seagull bag, and now there's a print! Apparently, the dapper dude is named Sammy.

(Via Design is Mine)

Eddy Merckx Stamp

© Karl Meersman

City prints

How cute are these city prints by Spanish artist Blanca Gomez? I love the type on each one, as well as the dudes' rosy cheeks. Fingers crossed she'll sell them in her shop soon!

(Via Black Eiffel)

Thank you cards

My baby shower is coming up this weekend (I'm excited), so I've been looking for thank-you cards in advance. Love this bright number!

P.S. I also have a box of these, but they're so pretty, I can't bear to send them away, which pretty much defeats the purpose.

Daydreaming

At the start of this beautiful weekend, I hurt my foot, and the doctor ordered me to sit inside with my leg up for both days. It was such a bummer! On the bright side, I finally had time to read the entire Domino book, and a couple friends came over on Saturday night to play games. (I had to wear a giant orthopedic sandal. Nothing cooler than a limping pregnant woman, let me tell you.) Anyway, hope you all had great weekends, and, to kick off a new week, here are a few images I thought you might like...
Lovely San Francisco.
Lavender lemonade.
Julia Rothman's amazing New York subway poster.
This gorgeous bedroom is actually in an English hotel. I adore the black-and-white photograph in a white frame. It makes me want to shop for a fine-art photo (or frame pages of a book).

P.S. Past inspiration photos.

Wednesday Giveaway!

Today's giveaway is from Portland artist Lisa Golightly of Kiki and Polly. She's offering a large print of the Girl in the Yellow Suit. How sweet is that? The print would add a pop of cheery color to any room, from a foyer to a living room to a nursery. (I'd love to hang it above my desk.)

For a chance to win, please visit Kiki and Polly's etsy shop and leave a comment below. Good luck! xo

Update: Parker is our lucky winner. Thanks for playing.