Name: Francesca D’Ottavi

Country:

Job: Illustrator / Painter

Url: http://www.francescadottavi.com

About: Freelance Illustrator since 1991. MacIntosh user since 1995. I was born when the first man left his first footprint on the Moon. Few years later I left my first mark on a piece of paper. Finding out that it coud be a profession was the next step. Then Mac arrived and it was a little bit like starting from zero again. Today I love to use modern techniques searching for pictorial effect, and vice versa. I am curious about any kind of illustration genres accepting any kind of challenge because my fun is all in the searching of composition, the sign, color, the right technique and to finding what the publisher is looking for. Using an oxymoron, I feel like a “modern traditional illustrator”.

Get Inspired by: I am inspired by everything that has vibrant colours and strong tints, arts ,music, cinema, nature. I love extremes, and the people who have a huge sense of humor.

Name: Bastien Grivet

Country:

Job: Concept Artist – Matte Painter

Url: http://grivetart.com

About: I am a Concept Artist – Matte Painter, and Music Composer too. I come from Geneva in Switzerland. I started to work in game industry at Ubisoft, just after my studies in a Swiss art school. I worked for a few game productions actually in development: DontNod Entertainment (2009) and Ubisoft (2008-2010). I use Adobe Photoshop and Maxon Cinema 4D for a lot of my works. My future project (and my greatest hope) is to work in the cinema for a great society like Pixar, ILM or else, and continue to meet very good people!

Get Inspired by: Nature, classical music, cinema, reading some books of Stephen King, dreaming on Alfred Bierstadt and Alexandre Calame paintings, and always on the net to discover the works of other artists!

Name: Chris Versteeg

Country:

Job: Graphic designer and part time illustrator/painter

Url: http://www.cversteeg.nl

About: Studied graphic design at both the Grafisch Lyceum and the Willem de Kooning Academie, did internship at ARA/BDDP, Design Republic and Works and knew from the beginning that this is the kind of work I want to do until my eyes get to old to see the difference between a light serif and a black caps. I’ve almost always worked alone, but in the future I wouldn’t mind getting a studio started with some like-minded people.

Get Inspired by: I’ve always been insired by the style of the 1920′s, ’30′s and early ’40′s. Everything was still done manually and therefore designers had to really think before they went into the process of printing or reproducing. Also people then felt that the world was changing in so many ways, that it gave them some sort of freedom to experimentate in both design as well as with art in general. Other main inspiration comes from travelling, I can spend hours in foreign supermarkets just looking at the package designs etc. Next to that, I couldn’t do without my dose of Lastplak. Some days I’m in a suit doing a presentation one moment, and a few hours later, I’m somewhere on a rooftop in the city, wearing old clothes and painting like horse!

Oke, back to work!

Name: Sophie Varela

Country:

Job: Illustrator / Painter

Url: http://www.sophievarela.com

About: I’m a Freelance Illustrator based in Paris (France). I have been working as an independant illustrator for 5 years for the Press, the Edition, Fashion, Luxury and Music Industries. My personal Art is translated into paintings for international exhibitions.

Get Inspired by: Captivated by the beauty of the women I use as an inspiration source, I ‘m also very attached to the traditional technics (watercolour, acrylic, oil, pencil…) and with classic construction I conceive my creations as the “Rebirth” period’s artists used to. Symbols, golden section, doors of harmony, are my favourite tools.

Name: Seth Mulcahey Banks

Country:

Job: Illustrator, Animator, Painter

Url: http://www.behance.net/sethmbanks

About: I graduated from Cambridge School of Art in 2008 with a BA (Hons) in Illustration and now i live in Brixton. Since then i have had several shows in and around London most recently in the Foundry on Old Street, and last year at the New Designers Selection part of London Design Week in September. I have a strong interest in colour and pattern and consequently my work is vibrant and colour rich. I am inspired by many things in the world but nature, fashion and music are the most prominent, so i guess raving in a field with some RayBan’s and a grizzly bear would be my perfect incubator for an Illustration concept. I use many mediums including photography, collage and many types of pen and ink. I love to combine both hand rendered and digital techniques in both illustration and animation. Most recently geometric shapes and obsessive line drawings have been frequent in my Illustration but last year i was desperate to use my art to con vet my feelings about climate change and the state of the planet where this is concerned, the quantity of 4×4′s in London causes me great anger and i used animation to express these feelings. The Envrion-mental project will show you the body of work and animation for this which will also be in The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration out in the Autumn this year. I am currently seeking work in Illustration and Design both Freelance and full time.

Get Inspired by: I get inspired by a night with my friends listening to the music i love as much as walking through nature in a forrest somewhere or from the Observation of shapes within architecture or even a pair of trainers, I take inspiration from all i come into contact with, people, animals, objects. Many of my ideas come directly from my mind influenced by my dreams and the things around me but often I put pen to paper not knowing what will come and just let shapes and obsessive lines be the driving force, letting the images evolve and grow around that.