ANOTHER SIDE OF SHAW NIELSEN

Shaw Nielsen was recently hired by BUPA, a UK based healthcare provider, to illustrate the cover of a booklet given to children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer. Titled, “I Know Someone with Cancer,” it contains  FAQ’s about what cancer is and how it is treated, along with simple advice for helping out your parent with cancer. Shaw, who typically works in the editorial market, exhibits his versatility as an artist as well as his ability to gently handle sensitive subject matter.
 

“This series of illustrations have been some of the toughest I’ve had to tackle to date, as the weight of the audience inspired me to invest a little extra. I also illustrated loads of spot illustrations for this client, and you can see a small sampling of what I did below. “

-Shaw Nielsen

JOHN S. DYKES HITS IT OUT OF THE BALLPARK!

In March 2011, John S. Dykes was assigned to illustrate a book of poems called F is for Fenway, a tribute to the nation's oldest major league ballpark, home to the Boston Red Sox, as it reaches its 100 year anniversary. For inspiration, John used the book's poems, reference from the library, magazine clippings, and photographs he'd taken of the baseball park. Using his own unique style, a mix of pencil & ink on paper, then coloring digitally, John captures the essence of Fenway Park in the heat of a Red Sox game. Once John's finals were in, the book quickly went to print in the United States so that it could be on shelves before opening day in April.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORK FROM JOHN S. DYKES' PORTFOLIO
CLICK HERE TO BUY A COPY!

SHAW NIELSEN TEACHES US HOW TO FEED A HUNGRY GIANT!

Workman Publishing recently asked Shaw Nielsen to illustrate a pop-up book called How Do You Feed a Hungry Giant? by Caitlin Friedman. A very versatile artist, Shaw can illustrate a heartwarming 30-page narrative, and also think quickly and conceptually for editorial jobs. No matter what the assignment, you can always count on Shaw for his big sense of humor and vivid imagination.

"My process for illustrating children's characters is a well kept secret - until now! I often put myself in the mindset of the character and pose myself in the mirror, making the noises I imagine the character would make if he/she could jump off the page and speak. In the case of the Hungry Giant I would find myself hunched over in front of the mirror repeating "nom nom nom!" My dog found the whole thing a little confusing and her expressions made for great inspiration for the dog, Cowgirl, in the book.

I think my favorite part of the book was working with the graphic designer to develop all of the pop-up and paper engineered elements."

-Shaw Nielsen

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORK FROM SHAW NIELSEN'S PORTFOLIO

NIGEL BUCHANAN ANIMATES THE JUNGLE BOOK FOR THE IPAD

 

 

 

"The process took around 4 months, in between servicing regular clients. Drew Frist from Electric-Type, the creative director on the project, broke down the areas to be illustrated and described how he had imagined them to be. In conjunction with Dino, the interactive company, he would give me a list of 'assets' which are all the bits needed in separate layers for the animations. After the first few we got to the stage where he would leave me to produce the final image without having to approve the sketches, which sped up the whole process.

It was a lot of work, but the whole exercise was relatively seamless. Drew and Dino where great to work with. We used a central work base called Basecamp which held all the correspondence between all parties and all the files in one place.

I was very keen to take this on, as I can see that this area of getting our illustrations animated is only going to get bigger and I was excited to see what was involved."

-Nigel Buchanan

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE WORK FROM NIGEL BUCHANAN'S PORTFOLIO

10 RAPP ARTISTS SELECTED FOR THE COMMUNICATION ARTS ILLUSTRATION ANNUAL!

In our humble opinion, the Communication Arts illustration annual is the most prestigious of the juried competitions. The readership and jurors represent all the facets of the communication community, and actual assignments are a frequent result. With that in mind, we are extremely proud to announce that ten of our artists were selected for this year's annual, in virtually every category except animation. While each illustrator has a decidedly unique style, they all share a commitment to quality and originality. It is a true honor to be associated with such an extraordinarily talented group. Below we have listed the artists by category, with links to the artists' portfolios. When you have a few moments, please take a look. Enjoy!

CATEGORY: EDITORIAL

DAN PAGE, ILLUSTRATOR | RANDY WATSON, ART DIRECTOR | VANCOUVER, CLIENT

CLICK HERE TO VIEW DAN PAGE'S PORTFOLIO 

ASAF HANUKA, ILLUSTRATOR | AMIR ZIV, ART DIRECTOR | CALCALIST WEEKEND EDITION, CLIENT

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ASAF HANUKA'S PORTFOLIO 

HARRY CAMPBELL, ILLUSTRATOR | SOOJIN BUZELLI, ART DIRECTOR | PLANSPONSOR, CLIENT

 CLICK HERE TO VIEW HARRY CAMPBELL'S PORTFOLIO

CATEGORY:  ADVERTISING

ANTHONY FREDA & DANIEL J. ZOLLINGER, ILLUSTRATORS | CHRIS VON ENDE, ART DIRECTOR | MIKE WARD, WRITER | DAVE LOEW/ JOHN WYVILLE, CREATIVE DIRECTORS | SUSAN CREDLE. CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER | LEO BURNETT CHICAGO, AD AGENCY | GIRL SCOUTS OF AMERICA, CLIENT


CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANTHONY FREDA'S PORTFOLIO 

CATEGORY: INSTITUTIONAL

JON REINFURT, ILLUSTRATOR | TRIPP UNDERWOOD, ART DIRECTOR | CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL BOSTON, CLIENT

CLICK HERE TO VIEW JON REINFURT'S PORTFOLIO 

CATEGORY: BOOKS

JEFFREY SMITH, ILLUSTRATOR | NORMA TENNIS, DESIGNER | KAREN CROFT, CREATIVE DIRECTOR | DAVID TALBOT, CHIEF CREATIVE DIRECTOR  | THE TALBOT PLAYERS, DESIGN FIRM | SIMON & SCHUSTER, PUBLISHERS.


CLICK HERE TO VIEW JEFFREY SMITH'S PORTFOLIO 

CATEGORY: UNPUBLISHED

MARC ROSENTHAL, ILLUSTRATOR | CHRIS CURRY, ART DIRECTOR

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MARC ROSENTHAL'S PORTFOLIO 

CATEGORY:  SELF PROMO

SHAW NIELSEN, ILLUSTRATOR | ELYSIA SYRIAC, ART DIRECTOR | AIGA COLORADO, CLIENT

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SHAW NIELSEN'S PORTFOLIO 

CATEGORY: FOR SALE

SCOTTY REIFSNYDER, ILLUSTRATOR | THE HEROES OF FOLK, SERIES

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCOTTY REIFSNYDER'S PORTFOLIO 

MARTIN ANSIN ILLUSTRATES THE IMPORTANCE OF LIBRARIES TODAY

This piece was assigned to Martin by Kevin Henegan of Library Journal, who wrote:
   

"The author being depicted on our cover is John Scalzi, a popular sci-fi writer. His new book is called Fuzzy Nation, with a sci-fi character Fuzzy that’s been retooled from a 1960s book that was in the public domain. We want to get in the sci-fi genre vibe, but not go so heavy duty painterly to ape sci-fi book cover art too much.

Ansin’s work is a good blend of graphic novel realism with a simpler punchy energy. He’s also adept at rendering real-life people—and  we’ve got to present Scalzi and his character Fuzzy with enough similarity to what they really look like. Getting a sense of the sci-fi realm in without being too specific will also come into play in an interesting way."

Ansin adds: 

"This was a difficult job to approach at first, as there were many things that the editors of the magazine wanted to express in the cover. We needed most of all to spotlight Scalzi  and work with the idea of his writing transforming an existing character that may not be known to many people. We also wanted to show the debate in his "appropriation" of this character and the book that inspired him to write his version, along with the author's opinion on ebooks and the importance of libraries."


Click on the link below to view more of Martin Ansin's work:
MARTIN ANSIN'S PORTFOLIO 

JEFF SMITH GOES PULP FICTION IN "SHADOW KNIGHTS"

Book Cover

Noor Inayat Khan, butterfly, at 98 Rue de la Faisanderie, Paris, France

Harry Ree decides to join the fight.

Churchill tells Dalton to set Europe ablaze!

Noor eluding the Gestapo in Paris.

"Liberte!"

Notes From Jeff Smith:

          In January 2009, I got a call from David Talbot. David asked me if I might be interested in a new project; a book titled, Shadow Knights. Well, actually, it didn’t have a title when we first met at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles.  But the idea of the book would be to tell the story of the courageous men and women who fought a secret war against the Nazi’s and Adolf Hitler. All of these brave souls volunteered to serve as members of Winston Churchill’s SOE (an acronym for Special Operations Executive.) Some were well suited for the job, some were reluctant, and others were as unlikely as a butterfly.  But all of these courageous individuals risked life and limb to undermine Adolf Hitler’s fascist regime, and some paid the ultimate price.
       The scope of this project was important enough to travel, so I decided to take a trip to Paris. I left on June 15^th, 2009.  I wanted to see some of the real places where Noor Inayat Khan lived, fought and died for freedom.  Gary Kamiya, the writer for Shadow Knights, gave me addresses; places like 40 rue Erlanger in Auteuil, where Noor first arrived, No. 3 Boulevard Richard Wallace, mostly occupied by SS officers, 98 Rue de la Faisanderie, where Noor was arrested, Avenue Foch, 82 and 84, where the Gestapo headquarters were, and finally, Fazal Manzil, the house in Suresnes where Noor grew up as a child. Visiting these places gave me the grit to stay focused on a project that would take seven and a half months to complete, to research thousands of photographs from the internet, books, and magazines, to shoot 567 photographs of models and myself, produce 22 photographic comps, many more sketches, 22 full page paintings, and 2 covers for this wonderfully exhausting project.
       I perused the first chapter for this project on October 12^th, 2009, and sent the last illustration on May 28^th, 2010.  Shadow Knights hit the book stands in the first week of October, 2010.

-Jeff Smith

For more on this work click here: http://drawger.com/jeffdraw/