Fumi Nakamura

The illustrations of Fumi Nakamura incorporate humans with other animal and plant subjects, interacting in a way that shows the often tortured state of the figures. Compositionally, her works flow and draw the eye back into themselves, allowing the viewer to look closely at their remarkable detail. Several of her illustrations focus on stylized, cartoonish characters that are involved in their own quirky narratives.

Alberto Vazquez

Animator and illustrator Alberto Vazquez creates beautiful watercolor landscapes that have an acute sense of light and depth that make his characters seem even more realistic. These niches or environments that Vazquez invents often reflect the emotionality of the personified animals within them. Along with Pedro Rivero, Vazquez recently completed his animation"Birdboy", which received the GOYA Award for the best Spanish short animated film. This animation really is moving, click here to view!

Joao Ruas

The figurative work of Joao Ruas shows not only a fascination with the human body, but also with natural forms such as plants and feathers. His soft values and gradations cause the surface of each piece to appear creamy and sensual. His angular stylization of the female face portrays a sort of haunting beauty. His use of mixed media pays careful attention to the layering and opacity of media, allowing them to interact within a whole piece.

Stephen Campbell

These endearing embroidered illustrations by Stephen Campbell show not only the versatility of different stitches, but also of the fiber itself. Using mainly running stitch, back stitch, and french knots, Campbell achieves a multitude of textures with just a few simple techniques.

Autumn Whitehurst

Illustrator Autumn Whitehurst has a way of rendering the human face in a way that makes it luminous and smooth, as if you can feel it with your fingertips. Her portraits evoke sensory reactions from the viewer by including luscious human forms interacting either with one another, or with different food or drink items. Her more recent "Monaco" series also has an impressive graphic style worth checking out!

Sylvia Ji: Dia de los Muertos

In honor of the Day of the Dead, I thought I'd post some work by California-based illustrator Sylvia Ji, who largely uses Catrina-inspired motifs alongside beautifully rendered female forms. A combination of acrylic and mixed media allows her to achieve crisp lines, as well as the smooth gradients for which her work is known.

Caitlin Hackett

Brooklyn-based artist Caitlin Hackett explores the boundaries between humans and animals in her extremely detailed drawings and paintings. Her body of work comments on the idea that humans are an above, more evolved species than other animals, and aims to blur the line between species by superimposing natural and animalistic features onto human forms, and vise versa. As an artist, she questions the differences between humans and animals, and therefore questions the definition of humanity itself.