Brown Paper Bag is an arts, illustration and design blog that wants you be your best creative self.
Cari Vander Yacht writes, growing up in Oregon, she developed as a “loud nerd that drew dragons,” later entering the advertising field as a graphic designer. Like a super hero, Cari has a double life. She designs and art directs by day and paints at night.
She takes on some commercial jobs and commissions, and also shows as a gallery artist. In that setting, she’s made masks, bling, and silk prints.
All images via her website.
Image via Cotton and Flax.
Last week, Lisa and I were the villains of the post office. We had over 50 parcels to mail for our Kickstarter campaign, and were at the front counter for the better part of an hour putting stamps on envelopes with prints. There was only one person working while the line was out the door. Though tedious and stressful, it really got me thinking about how much I enjoy stamps and the possibilities that this tiny canvas allows for design and illustration.
I’ve really enjoyed looking at collections of vintage stamps on the interwebs. Some depict famous leaders, others birds and architecture. Either way, it is interesting to see the different executions of the same thing.
Image via Grain Edit.
Image via Cotton and Flax.
Image via Present & Correct. (One of my favorite sites!)
Image via August Empress.
I had the pleasure of working with Yehteh (AKA Philipp Dornbierer) on the Píccolo Print Project earlier this year. I’ve admired his illustrations for a long time.
He is able to translate the human form into stylized and well-designed illustrations. For a really long time I painted and drew realistically, because to me, that was a successful work of art. Now, I realize that stripping an image down to its essence is really difficult. You have to understand what makes your subject make sense using just a few elements. The details you include have to make sense. It’s something that Yehteh has mastered.
All images via his Flickr.
Nanae Kawahara is a Japanese illustrator whose website is full of dogs. This is appropriate, as her first solo show, DOOOOOGS !! was in 2012. She depicts dogs like humans, standing on two legs, throwing a baseball, drinking from a cup. She’s very good at character design, creating simple yet memorable characters that don’t take themselves too seriously.
All images via her website/Tumblr.
Since I’ve been on ceramics watch the past 6 months, my interest was piqued when I saw that Buy Some Damn Art was featuring Sarah Burwash’s ceramic hands, spoons, and necklaces. I bought the last of her White Hands, and much of her stock is already gone!
Sarah also draws and illustrates, creating intimate, quiet drawings. She said she enjoys walking in the woods, something that you can gather by looking through her images. Nature, both its splendor and appetite for destruction are present in much of what Sarah creates.
In a Q&A with Buy Some Damn Art’s Kate Singleton, Sarah says that she thinks of her ceramics being more of a hobby, but she’s planning on combining 2D and 3D works that bring aspects of her drawings into her ceramic pieces. I’d personally like to see that!
All images via her website and ceramics Tumblr.
Expo ‘85, 1982 — Takenobu Igarashi
Brown Paper Bag began as a way to feature works on paper (and more, of course). I recently discovered a Tumblr that shares this same love - Super Paper Queen. Its tagline is similar to this blog, “passion for paper ephemera,” and the Tumblr collects a myriad of types of images and printed matter.
In the spirit of Time Travel Tuesday, I’ve selected some favorites from Super Paper Queen, including book covers and illustrations from the middle of the 20th century. But, really, this Tumblr does an excellent job at range, mixing the contemporary and provocative with the classic and conservative.
All images via Super Paper Queen.
Wim Crouwel — boekenweek (1962)
Omar Rayo
Alexander Calder
The House That is Not There, 1972 — Nanda Vigo
I was eating brunch at my friends’ house yesterday and saw an illustrated map of Baltimore on their wall. It’s difficult to accurately represent this map in a mere 500 pixels because of its complexity, but the illustrator, Caleb Luke Lin captured some small, notable parts of Baltimore; things like the kids poppin’ wheelies on their bikes when it’s warm and the arabbers with their horses and carts of fruit.
Later, I checked out Caleb’s website and saw the rest of his illustrations, which seem to include and celebrate nearly-extinct (or extinct) species of animals, artifacts, and a general reverence for things not of our time.
All images via his website. Caleb also sells things in his online store.
Sarah Andreacchio is an illustrator based in France. Her bright, shape-driven works appear in the children’s market, as patterns, as posters, and as editorial illustrations.
Her style is one that doesn’t have to have an overly-complicated analysis of it — they are simply delightful images that make people happy.
All images via her website.
Thanks to Helen Dardik’s Pinterest, I discovered the illustrations of Aleksandra Niepsuj. They are generally minimal in color with use of some photographic elements in digital collage.
Flat yet energetic, chaotic yet ordered, I find these illustrations nicely designed, well considered, and exciting to look at!
All images via her blog.
Image via.
It’s pretty much a given at this point that you’ve seen Picasso’s paintings, but did you know that he also crafted ceramic works? I didn’t! And, you know I’ve been on my ceramic kick as of late.
It’s not so much that these are unusually-shaped vases or objects, but Picasso employs his hand at surface design, giving these objects a personality and a life of their own.
Image via.
Image via.
Image via.
Image via.
Image via.