Mike says, “The city I chose for Scarlet Cheek issue 2, is ChongQing. It is a capital city for Sichuan province. On 12th of May a powerful earthquake that struck Sichuan province at about 14:30 , thousands of people have been killed and many injured and some of them are still missing. I decided to donate the earning from the selling of Scarlet Cheek issue 2 to the victims of earthquake, help them to rebuild their hometown.”

Hey, may I be so bold as to ask the following: Will some art director please take the risk and commission something in this style from Sarajo? It’s crazy, it’s cool, it’s beautiful. It’s not like anything else.

Readers: what do you think would be a great illustration job for Sarajo in this style? Help me out here.

Here’s Marco‘s new work: Illustration as fine art. Marco is a fine artist and an illustrator. I took him on in part due to the resemblance to Jean-Michel Basquiat, yet it’s a bit less sad.

Yes, I still do illustration and I love it. This is a piece I did on how both he and she eat, and yet he stays skinny and she gets round. I wanted to draw a pretty round woman. So it’s not a bad thing. Maybe it’s a bad thing that he’s skinny. Of course that’s not what the article says and they didn’t pay me to edit the article. They paid me to illustrate it. It’s a good thing, because I always have some soapbox or another to stand on. Anyway, they are a nice client to work with.

Susy just completed these magazine illustrations. They’re wonderful and a great mix of her textile sensibility and her illustrative style. Hope you like them.

Jillian Phillips is a fantastic discovery! We found her at Surtex, and immediately fell in love with her charming work. Jillian has lots of work for licensing, but I think she’d be a fresh take for editorial and advertising, too. Tell me what you think.

A little about Jillian: She stays inspired by going to Tokyo once a year. Currently she lives in Brighton, UK. Her dream job would be to design her own range of stationery and gift products. Jillian says, “I love to spend Sundays looking around vintage shops, visiting Spitalfields Market for crafty treats and where they sell the most amazing brownies I’ve ever eaten.” Read her Bio and find out what her favorite fonts are, what movie she’s seen 30 times, and who she would be in the UK version of “the Office”.

Jillian has an amazing body of work of over 100 fully-available, charming-cool images including all-occasion, everyday, floral, birthday, new home, and many with coordinating patterns. Contact us for a more information or a CD of her collection.

Great new work, loose and masterful with watercolor. Watercolor colors can be garish, or overly primary, or just passe. Rebecca brings her British sensibility and the British watercolor tradition to her graceful use of watercolor. Her color palettes are always a surprise.

You know, I’m thinking, too, that her work is very observed. It doesn’t have a glib, formulaic quality like an I’ve-drawn-this-face-a-billion-times look. Check out the very succinct, minimal two pink lines to make those pretty, sexy, sad lips.

A book cover that sadly wasn’t used. But we love it, and I bet she’ll get work from it.

Diversity of work is Diane: fine art collage, hip editorial people, a map, and a tender watercolor of radishes I’m assuming are from her garden.

Our artist, Carolyn Gavin of Ecojot, says:
“Whole Foods Market Oakville hosted a “Women in Business; a celebration of local women entrepreneurs” event last week. I participated in this, in between driving to London, Ontario, 2 hrs there, 2 hrs back for a press approval. aaah I’m so beat today I just feel like going back to bed! … but I’m a walking, talking woman in business right?… juggling kid, dog, partner, bills, headaches, yoga, sleep, work, eat, shop… No time to daydream kind of life.”

See more at Carolyn’s blog or right here.

Here’s the finished tie I showed you that I started on recently. I’m fairly happy with it but I have more ideas for the next.. Plus, I want to make the brown line (which is a resist) much darker. it’s quite fun. Thank you to our own Julia Parker for modeling it for me. Neither of us have any idea whatsoever how to tie a tie.