Students in Dr. Eric S. Millers (@svisionary) Scottsdale Community College (CIS 120 – Spring 2012) Adobe Illustrator Class were required to search the web and locate an inspirational vector artist, to write a few paragraphs about the artist and to include their favorite image by the artist. Here are the amazing artist they selected.
Elias Galvan – Trevor Van Meter @tvmstudio.
When I asked some of my artist friends if they knew anyone who did vector art two of them came forward with the same person. Trevor Van Meter (as he goes by) is a vector artist who,though remaining largely anonymous, takes on wide array of projects. While there’s not a whole lot of his background I could discern he does display a fair amount of his work history on his website and portfolio www.tvmstudio.com.
What I find inspiring about his art is that he is multi-disciplined. He creates both pixel and vector art and produces the occasional flash animation. Using a combination of Flash,Illustrator and Photoshop between the three. And that he doesn’t do what a lot of artists I personally know do, which is bury their art from the previous year where nobody can find it. Which happens to be a pet peve of mine.
http://www.tvmstudio.com/ Is his current website, with subpages for his old work/portfolios at http://vanbeater.com/vb2006.html and http://trevorvanmeter.com/tvmOld.html respectively. His most popular flash can be found at http://www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/. His Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/theTVM and his Twitter is http://twitter.com/#!/tvmstudio.
Mara Zemicael – Nick La @nickla
Nick La is an illustrator and a web designer based in Toronto. He founded N.Design Studio, a graphic design company. His work has been showcased in multiple places on the Web and in print publications, such as WordPress themes and Computer Arts. In addition to his work for clients, Nick also creates Illustrator tutorials and stock icons.
I like Nick’s use of color. A lot of his work incorporates bright colors that also include realistic depictions of people. His work seems to have a dreamy and fun quality about it, which I like.
Nick’s work can be found on his website, http://ndesign-studio.com , www.ndesign-studio.com/flash and www.webdesginerwall.com. He also blogs and displays his work at Themify and IconDock. His twitter handle is @nickla.
Debbie Matzke – CRISTIANO SIQUEIRA @urbanartsbr
Website: CrisVector.com
Twitter: @urbanartsbr
Facebook: Cristiano Siqueira
On Facebook, Cristiano lists some of his activities and interests as science, fashion and writer. A favorite movie is 2001 A Space Odyssey and lists inspiration from Quentin Tarantino and Stanley Kubrick. I see all of these influences in his work. What I enjoy about his art, what makes me want to see more, is his versatility. From brilliant colors to simple, black and white.
Freelance designer, Cristiano Siqueira, A.K.A. Crisvector, is a mere 32 years old, lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil and has been a professional designer since 2005. This multi talented designer was trained in traditional arts and did not have any formal training with Illustrator or Photoshop. He learned by trial and error on the job, from friends and from software tutorials. One of his first responsibilities as a graphic designer was to redraw logotypes from scanned paper and make vector versions of them.
Like a classically trained dancer, his background in traditional art gave him the basic skills needed to develop his work in the digital environment. He envisions the concept first, plans the composition, lighting, shading and how everything will work in the whole picture and makes small sketches. He prepares with extensive research. “I try not to wait for inspiration to come to me, I go to meet the inspiration where it lives, in the research.”
On a technical side Cristiano’s favorite Illustrator tool is the blend too. He likes the mobility of the shapes, the editing possibilities and the precision. And then there is the master tool of tools, the Pen tool.
Other projects that Cristiano works on include editorial, print design, packaging, CD covers, advertising, magazines, food, toy packs. His work has been featured and published in numerous books and magazines including Advanced Photoshop, Illustration Now 3! and Digital Arts.
A few of his global clients include Microsoft, Nike, Mastercard Basil. In 2011 he received his first international prize from the Clio Awards in the category “Print: Public Services” for the comic pages done for AIDES.
Cherie Kirk – Bobby Chiu @bobbychiu
Bobby Chiu, (Born December 31, 1969) is an independent artist residing in Toronto, Canada where Imaginism Studios, founded by him, is located.
In Blogspot.com, Bobby explained how he started his career:
“I started my career at a company called Thinkway Toys when I was 17 years old, designing Disney, Pixar and Star Wars toys. With regards to schooling, I studied classical and computer animation at Sheridan College in Wyoming.”(2)
He now owns and operates Imaginism Studios, writes art books, and teaches workshops internationally. He has published a number of books, the most recent being The Perfect Bait, published in 2010.(1) Bobby Chiu and his Imaginism Studios associates were responsible for creating the characters in Alice In Wonderland (2010) movie, as well as other creative collaborations with Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. His latest work will be seen in Men In Black III, to be released in 2012.
After searching through a number of examples of talented AI artists, one individual stood out and away from the undercurrent of cynicism and pure artistic expression as different – there was depth, humor, irony, and for the most part, something positive in the work.
What makes Bobby Chiu’s work so riveting is how he is able to create these fantastical creatures and make them so believable, expressive, and convey so much meaning and feeling through their faces. You can easily fall in love or hate with his fictitious characters.
After learning more about this artist, three words best describe him: Talent, passion, and enthusiasm. The passion Bobby possesses is what makes him so successful. He is constantly searching for ways to learn, improve and grow as an artist, and share what he learns with others.
His company’s website: www.imaginismstudios.com.
He imparts some great gems of wisdom on Twitter – Bobby Chiu
He is also on Facebook – Bobby Chiu and The Perfect Bait
He and his staff teach online courses at http://schoolism.com
Examples of Bobby Chiu’s work are easily found on websites that cite top Adobe Illustrator artists as well as Google searches in his name, or citing Alice In Wonderland or MIB III and his name.
Alexandra Phelps – Ryan Putnam @RypeArts
An illustrator artist that I found has extraordinary work is Colorado native, Ryan Putnam. He is an illustrator artist, graphic and web designer who is fluent in several programming technologies. Based out of Colorado Springs, his education includes a fine arts degree with a concentration in graphic design awarded from Colorado State University. He has been freehand drawing and experimenting with illustrations, painting, crocheting and wheel-throwing pottery his whole life. In addition, Ryan runs his own company, Rype Arts, and also maintains a blog called Vectips, which is dedicated to vector illustrations. Another thing that attracted me to Ryan is he is a contributing writer for “the Adobe IIIustrator CS4 Wow! Book.” His style is organic artistic expression.
Ryan Putnam’s work is inspiring to me because it is creative, playful, and original. The colors, details, and symmetry are the styles he uses in his work that stood out to me. Every detail in his art is accounted for. He does a fantastic job of making the main object in the picture the focal point while not losing any detail in the background of the illustration. This is important since mostly people only look at a picture for a few seconds. His works makes me want to do better in my illustrations, and it gives me ideas on how to be more creative.
There are several websites and social media outlets on which Ryan Putnam’s portfolio can be found. His own personal website can be located at http://ryanputnam.net/, his company website can be located at http://rypearts.com/branding-portfolio.html, his blog is located at http://vectips.com/, and his twitter handle is @RypeArts. In addition to these he is also located on facebook, linkedIn, and dribble.
Jason Wenk – Stephen Bliss
Website: http://www.stephenbliss.com/
Stephen Bliss is currently the Senior Artist at Rockstar Games NYC and is best known for his work on Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto videogame series. He has been working as a designer and illustrator since 1986, so he started out painting by hand. Now, he primarily uses Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Stephen began his career as an in-house artist for a fashion house in Tokyo before returning to his native England to work as a freelance illustrator. Since then, his work has been featured in numerous magazines including GQ, Time, I.D., Arena, and Vogue. He has created illustrations for Burton Snowboards, Absolut Vodka, Mountain Dew, MTV, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, and many other high-profile companies. He also started a t-shirt company called Steroid with his brother that sold shirts throughout Japan and the UK. He collaborates frequently with fellow Rockstar artist Anthony Macbain.
I have been a fan of the artwork in the Grand Theft Auto series since Stephen took over on GTA 3. His style looked fairly simple and generally consisted of very clean lines and gradients in a traditional comic book style. What impressed me, however, was the way that these seemingly simple images were able to capture and portray each character’s personality in just one image. Most of the characters from the games appear only in a single image, but that image manages to tell a lot about them through their pose, expression, clothing, and background setting. I was always impressed with the urban backgrounds and cityscapes that were often created using only two or three levels of monochromatic value. As the series has progressed over the course of four main games and several spinoffs, Stephen has altered his style slightly with each new title. As the technology behind the games themselves has progressed and allowed the graphics to improve, Stephen’s illustrations have taken on more depth and detail to match, but have also maintained the series’ recognizable style.
Due to Rockstar’s massive marketing campaigns for the popular GTA series, Stephen’s work has been seen on TV, billboards, posters, magazines, stickers, t-shirts, and of course video games. It is not difficult to find his artwork online either. Examples can be found at his website, www.stephenbliss.com, the website of the artist management company that represents him, http://www.ba-reps.com/artists/stephen-bliss#image_291790, on the site for Rockstar’s most recent GTA game, http://www.gta4.net/artwork/, as well as various other sites online.
Josh Mirto – Chris Leavens @chrisleavens
Chris Leavens is a talented illustrator that caught my attention. He went to school at Penn State University for film and video. He then moved to Los Angeles to make it in the film industry. He then found his true career calling as an illustrator, graphic designer, and web designer which still continues today.
My favorite aspect of Chris Leavens artwork is the attention to detail in the outrageous landscapes he illustrates. I also like the bizarre characters created in his work. When put together they make highly imaginative images.
His work is showcased online at his personal website which is www.chrisleavens.com. On the website there are links to Chris around the web at twitter, facebook, and flickr.
Diana Huber - Cristiano Siqueira @chrisvector
! Cristiano Siqueira is a Brazilian born professional illustrator. He has been working professionally since 2005. His work can be found in many various books and magazines as well as in some editorials and comics. He states “Digital art and vector illustration are my passion and all my work is created in these formats.” In 2011 he received his first international clio award for his work on a public service comic done for AIDES, in partnership with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
! To pick just one artist to talk about from the scores of amazing individuals is difficult. To find one whose work speaks to you – this is a daunting task. As for Cristiano’s work, what I like is his variety. He works in 2D as well as 3D and he also goes from the real to the surreal. His work is both simple and very complex presenting an astounding representation of what can be done in the digital and vector genres.
! Cristiano’s work can be found at crisvector.com. He can also be found on twitter at twitter.com/crisvector and on facebook at www.facebook.com/crisvector.
Kimberly Harris – Charles Harker
I chose Charles Harker as an artist of interest because he creates imaginary landscapes in his work. I am a painter and some of my work is about imaginary landscapes but my medium is watercolor instead of vector graphics. Our work has some similarities in the use of color, graphics and pattern.
Charles Harker is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and grew up here. He went to the Bay Area to study fine art at The University of California Berkley. He then taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Now he divides his time now between Phoenix and Mexico City. He travels freely with is computer creating vector landscapes. You can see the influence of both places in his work.
The works are influenced by the landscape of the southwest and also Mexico. They are whimsical and the use lots of patterning in the detail of the work. I find them pleasing and amusing. They have a lyrical sense about them. Much of the vector art I saw online is more cartoons oriented or futuristic. Mr. Harker’s work has a lighthearted sense about the subject matter. It is vibrant, colorful and visually appealing.
His work part of a public art installation in Chandler, Arizona called “Art in Transit”. He has 6 large backlit pieces located in different areas throughout downtown Chandler.
He recently published a book with 44 of his imaginary landscapes. It is called “The Imaginary Landscapes of Charles Harker: Recent Work Utilizing Vector Graphics”. He started creating these landscapes in Photoshop and now has progressed to Illustrator to achieve the graphic qualities he is looking to develop.
You can find his work on his website: www.charlesharker.com. You can email him at charker@hotmail.com. His prints are on line at imagekind.com.
Dakota Postal – Glenn Jones
He is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Auckland, New Zealand.. He started of working a few years designing tees at Threadless.com. He later joined some US based friends to create my own range of T-shirts, Laptop Skins, Calendars and Free iphone Wallpaper illustrations. His art work can vary from 5$ for a simple greeting card to $1500 for complex designs and logos.
His Art Work is very well done and 100% professional. His work is very fun and his colors he uses are very good and complement each other. I like how a lot of his art work is out of the ordinary yet very well constructed, simple yet complicated. Overall I like his design aspects and think he is very good.
Glenn Jones and all of his art work can be found at http://www.behance.net/Glennz/frame
Steve Drum – Yukio Miyamoto
The Adobe Illustrator artist that caught my eye is Yukio Miyamoto. He has been using Adobe Illustrator since the late 1980s. Yukio has trained thousands of people in all areas of graphics for both Mac and Windows.
His art is stunning; I did not relies the level of detail that Illustrator allows an artist to get to. The first time I saw his work, I thought they were pictures. It seems like a blending of AutoCAD and an artists drawing. He uses Illustrators “Gradient Mesh tool”, it is similar to an airbrush. Yukio uses a combination of Blends, Gradients and the Gradient Mesh Tool to achieve a photorealism.
The website linked with this artist is http://venus.oracchi.com/Illustrator/index.html. Yukio has a book out called “Masters of Adobe Illustrator”. He also has a site on YouTube with some graphic videos (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=IllustratorMAESTRO).
Michelle Decker – Michael Heald
Michael Heald is an inspiring illustrator and has managed to work his way up to success. He is originally from the United Kingdom but has found himself working for companies all across the globe. His first big break in came while working at the company Dragonphly. This company was able to give him core skills needed to be successful within the industry. His creative genius was hard at work over the next few years developing his style and passion for illustrating. In the year 2005 Michael was challenged with his first big task as the Head Creative for the company Lightmaker.com. His goal was to create a team of people who could be as award-winning as the rest of the company at that time. He was able to build his own team for the ground. He was able to lead his team to many awards in the industry such as Big Chips, CWA and Dope. With his creative abilities and knowledge of the industry Michael was able to break free into his own company Fully Illustrated. Michael has been awfully successful as his own boss and finds love in the work that his is commissioned to complete. He does a variety of work within the industry including character branding, web design and animation. He has been able to attract the attention from big named companies such as Nintendo and Pepsi. Michael continues to leave his mark in his field as creative friendly and affordable.
Michael’s art and creative mind is inspiring to see someone who has joy, passion and utter success. I find his line of work challenging but fun at the same time. As an illustrator Michael has freedom within bounds that a commissioner might set but the overall outcome is satisfying to the producer and the commissioner. Michael is a great example of a person who was able to find a career which allows for one’s mind to be creative and also marketable at the same time. I have great respects for those who are able to find a career which makes them feel fulfilled and happy.
Michael’s artwork can be found on the internet in his portfolio page at the Web address http://www.fullyillustrated.com/portfolio. His Web page is extremely well done as he had been awarded for his web design as well as his illustration. He is famous for video game art which can be found on the internet for download onto a smart phone. The Stone Skipper is a video game which has received awards like “Most Inspired” and “Devine CSS”. Michael is also on Twitter where he can be followed and one can be kept recent on his new projects. With all of his desired works of commission and activities you never know what Michael Heald will be up to next.
