Charming pastel portraits

These may look like the scribbles of a child, but Damien Florébert Cuypers is a master in my eyes. His deliberate heavy handedness brings so much character to his portraits and I love how he can say so much with so little. 

And I'm not dissapointed when he puts a little more on the paper. The results are just as charming.   

Check out more of his drawings on his tumbler site.

Watercolour fashion illustration

I got a new watercolour set recently and this is the result of my first experiment with them. 

Feel really inspired, so am on the hunt for new subjects. I'd love for you to send me your fashion portraits for me to work on. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Watercolour by me, Rhi Hill

Silke Werzinger - Fashion illustrator, Berlin

I'm a great fan of the gritty, simplicity of Silke Werzinger's work. Her combination of precise line detail and loose expressive marks tell wonderful stories on paper. Check out her impressive portfolio on her website.

Egon Shiele inspired life drawing

Here's the fruit of a nice little life-drawing session I went to at The Islington Mill last week. A lot of the class was organised around quick one or two minute poses, to mix things up a bit. The drawing below however, was from a 30 minute pose. As my first class for over a year, I was pretty happy with the results. 

Vintage Communication Design

I recently came across the Austin based creative firm Helms Workshop. They've an eclectic portfolio that clearly harks back to bygone era's. Despite this, their work is far from dated and their collaborative projects create some distinctive brand identities, websites and packaging. Their use of vintage typography is refreshingly bold and their reference to iconic visuals in their illustrations are bang on.

Full Steam Brewery brand identity project 

Promo poster for The Hold Steady’s 2006-7 tour supporting their new release, Boys and Girls in America.

Lovely little animation for Wolf & Wolf Optometrist's

Stunning music video with puppets

The timing of the creative direction in the new Small Hands video is just perfect. 

See more of Blinkink's work here. 

I could look at this stuff all day...

I love the simplicity of Jelle Martens' collages. Especially the series 'In the quivering forest' below. His use of colour is spot on and I like the vintage, stained feeling of the landscapes. They remind me a bit of my dads old discoloured maps (thats a good thing).

(Images above: from Jelle Martens series 

'in the quivering forest')

For me, his seemingly very simple works are as rhythmic and as energetic on the paper as the likes of Hans Neuberg or Josef Muller Brockmann. 

(Image above. Zurcher Kunstler in der Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland- c1966)

While Mertens has tipped his hat to "the minimal graphic design of the 1960's and early 1970's" his more abstract works 'tussendoor' and 'vormenklus' (below) reflect influences that reach further back than to Mondrian and Malevich. 

(images above: Jelle Martens from series 'tussendoor')

Finally, I can't look at Jelle's work with out contemplating the work of Helio Oiticica(below) who, while largely unknown in the design world, refreshingly reflects the principals of visual communication that I hold so high; structure, use of space and colour.

It's nice to see new work rediscovering and developing these themes, as when they were first pulled apart by the constructivist artists of the Russian avant-garde before them (El Lissisky, Presner and Gabo). 

So, much more than just appreciating Martens 'vintagey' style or however much his work reminds me of my dad's old book collection, it's the principals that he explores that facinate me, as much as the pleasure of looking at them. This is also why I think graphic artists like Martens are relevant to the conversation and can contribute so much to 'every day' design.