Stunning Ink Illustrations by JungShan

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Michael

Wonderful paintings by Taipei-based illustrator JungShan. Combining Eastern style with Western techniques to produce her expressive images, JungShan works primarily with Chinese ink, accentuating certain aspects with digital pens and brushes in Photoshop. Her strong portraits often feature warriors and samurais in motion, while employing a style similar to calligraphy painting.

Visit JungShan’s Blog to discover more illustrations, learn about her creative process as well as download free ink textures.

Via Looks like good design.

A Map of a Woman’s Heart – Nineteenth-Century Ideas about Womanhood

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Michael

This illuminating vintage illustration was created between 1833–1842 – reportedly by “A Lady” – and tells us much about what the artist and his society believed about women.

The map is titled “The Open Country of Woman’s Heart, Exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travellers therein” and is part of the exhibit “Beauty, Virtue and Vice: Images of Women in Nineteenth-Century American Prints“.

According to this map, Love is at the center of a woman’s heart, and Sentimentality and Sentiment (including Good Sense, Discrimination, Hope, Enthusiasm, and Platonic Affection) take up a sizeable portion of the entire territory. This region of Sentiment and Sentimentality is separated from the larger, treacherous areas of a woman’s heart: Selfishness and Coquetry pose dangers, especially to gentleman travelers, and these attributes suggest that all women are basically untrustworthy. The largest regions, Love of Admiration, Love of Dress, and Love of Display, all suggest that women are also essentially shallow and frivolous

You can get more background information about this illustration and age at the exhibit’s website.

Also check out this nice collection of similar illustrations that are “Mapping the Human Condition“.

Via Brain Pickings

The World Map of Useless Stereotypes

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Michael

Another brilliant illustration by Christoph Niemann for Abstract Sunday.

How Yoga will destroy your Design Career: Christoph Niemann on Happiness, Work and Creativity

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Michael

In this inspiring, charming and funny talk from the Creative Mornings monthly breakfast lecture series, illustrator Christoph Niemann dances across everything from finding happiness at work to what it takes to have a good idea to the myth of “talent” to how to overcome writer’s block.

See more of Christoph’s brilliant work on his site or his NYT blog Abstract City.

Via Brain Pickings

Say it on a Post-it

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Michael

Vancouver-based graphic artist Nick Routley lets his imagination run wild on post-its inspired by things that are in the news or that he is doing at the time. I’ve included some with Nick’s explanations.

There’s been much discussion about “crowdsourcing” over the past few days as a result of Twitter personality and author Guy Kawasaki’s latest book cover design competition. While I’m not a fan of crowdsourcing in the design industry, I do appreciate it in other areas of the creative world. This piece was created using materials I’ve been crowdsourcing over the past couple of weeks.
[ Made using: Various crowdsourced paper products ]

After the volcanic eruption in Iceland shut down all of the UK’s airspace, I was curious just how much CO2 volcanic eruptions release into the atmosphere each year. I did some calculation based on information from the USGS website and found that the United States emits 44 times more CO2 annually than all volcanic eruptions during the same period. Wow.

The protests over the G20 Summit in Toronto turned violent over the weekend as many businesses were vandalised and police cars burned in the heart of the financial district. Most of the people causing problems were wearing bandannas and masks which, to me, seems very cowardly. If you believe strongly enough in your cause, you should be willing to face the consequences of your actions.

Everybody needs a few hours of thoughtful alone time once in awhile. No electronic devices, maybe a beer though…

Sadly, I have no hand-writing skill whatsoever. Somewhere along the way my cap lock key got stuck and I forgot the magic that is cursive writing. I think it was grade 3 when I got nailed in the head with a dodgeball.