plastic designer toys

From "I am plastic- the designer toy explosion"

Some really fancy looking character designs from around the world.
My favourite is the rabbit octopus at the bottom.

http://les-calepins-de-lapin.blogspot.co.uk/

"graduate of an art school, lapin worked as an art director during 5 years in design agencies, in paris then in barcelona.

since 2008, lapin works has a freelance illustrator for edition, fashion, and advertising.
his style is some place between vintage and modernity.
his vibrant and intimate line is a transcription of his everyday life.

lapin founded with his friend niko the pa- collective, and published 6 reviews from 2004 to 2008, and organised exhibitions to promote young talents.

lapin carries a sketchbook all the time, collecting faces, objets and moments."

Magic Pencil 4

Quentin Blake
Ten Frogs 1998
It was while I was doing the magazine drawings that I came upon the possibilities of spontaneity- that you didn't have to be frightened. When I got into books I discovered that there were other aspects that also sustained my interest- trying to imagine the characters and the way they move and the kind of expressions they make.
When I was doing Sylvia Plath's The Bed Book, I started using a lightbox. I put a sheet of watercolour paper over a rough and then, because I can see where everything has to go, I can draw as if I was making it up for the first time- actually feeling the gestures and expressions with the pen.

I've liked Quentin Blake since I was little, so I might be influenced a lot by him anyway. Whenever I draw something off the top of my head, it usually looks a bit like one of Blake's figures, only he manages to make his look both childish and sophisticated. His drawings are free and expressive but also look like what they're meant to be.

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Patrick Benson- The Sea-Thing child by Russell Hoban 1999
The most important thing for an illustrator to do is the provide lots of visual clues- rather like snapshots- that will act as a sort of springboard for the imagination and help the child to visualise the surrounding in which the story is happening. Does a lot of preparatory drawings.
Usually starts with a pen and ink drawing and applies colour. Owl babies- wanted it very dark, but also with rick colours. Transferred black and white drawing onto clear film, lifted the film and coloured underneath.

 I really love how Benson uses colour. There's a definite mood to each image, especially in the sea-thing child.
In the picture opposite, the landscape is so big and golden, you almost don't notice the character washed up on the beach.
I kind of want to lick the page, to see if it tastes like butter...

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Angela Barrett
Illustrations from "Candide or Optimism" by Voltaire
1999

The top illustration is my favourite, maybe because of all the little bit of ink coming from the man's head after he's been shot.His jacket and hair are very nicely textured as well.

The bottom picture has an interesting sense of scale going on. The mountain must be huge because the man at the bottom of the image is so tiny.

Magic Pencil 1

Helen Oxenbury
Alice in Wonderland 1999

Looks like watercolour or ink. Found this in "Magic Pencil" from Carlisle Library, a collection of interviews with children's book illustrators.

There wasn't an interview with Helen Oxenbury, though I thought I'd include her work for the considered style in which she draws animals and figures, and the soft, gentle way she paints.
I'm a big fan of the expressions as well.