Biker Doodle: Felix

Felix was growing a beard but shaved it off recently. He decided it probably didn't look that great. Every once and awhile, Felix thinks he needs a fashion update, even though he's not that into fashion.

Biker Doodle: Andrew

Andrew has a collection of strange collections: a collection of bottles manufactured before 1980, a collection of patches that are at least 70% yellow, a collection of cheap plastic dollar store toys…




I like the concept sketches for Andrew, so I thought I'd share those, too!

Illustration Bootcamp with Meg Hunt!

So, for the last couple weeks, the amazing Meg Hunt and I have been chatting back and forth trying to get something together for Light Grey Art Lab's travel sessions!

I am SUPER excited to announce that Meg is coming to Minneapolis to teach a two day intensive art workshop called Illustration Bootcamp with Meg Hunt.

Shes got two amazing days planned to help get people inspired, share advice on the business side and the creative side of being a working illustrator, she'll lead some in-studio creative sessions, and we'll be headed to some awesome off-site locations for meet & greets with other professional individuals in the arts as well as a great fieldtrip to Minneapolis's Kerlin Collection - a vault of children's book art that will blow your mind.

This workshop is open to anyone that can make it to Minneapolis! It's $160 for locals, and we have a workshop + hotel package for people coming from far away lands!
I hope you guys can make it! I can't believe it! It should be awesome!

Help us spread the word if you can!

Sweet Love

It's easy to fall in love with a pretty face, but it's even easier to fall in love with a face that's attached to a person that's attached to a passion.

Click for a printable version!

Daily Pattern: Lamp

Playing with bitmaps some more. One of these days I'll figure it out...

Francesca Buchko

Daily Pattern: Fishing

I had idea turmoil for the first time on this one. The agony! Gotta not be picky like that! This one is graphite and Illustrator.


Francesca Buchko

Daily Pattern: Mirrors

Mirrors, as literal as one can possibly be. I enjoyed using Corel Painter's watercolor tools on this one. I may still be up for converting my attitude about digital watercolor!


Francesca Buchko

Daily Pattern: Bones

Bones! I toggled with bitmapping in this one. I like the texture it adds to this topic + linework.


Francesca Buchko

NEW PROJECT!!

We're starting a brand new project over here at Paper Bicycle! Thus far, it's being called the Daily Pattern. The deal is this: we've created a giant list of varied topics, wrote them on little slips of paper and put them in a bag. Every day, we will draw a topic from the bag and make pattern icons inspired by that theme.
Lindsay and I kicked it off last night with "Gym Class":

Lindsay Nohl

Francesca Buchko

Stay tuned for more patterns!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! I wish I could say it was bright and sunny outside, but right now it's pretty dark and rainy in Minneapolis! That's cool, Earth! Don't sweat it, I still love you!

I know everyone is probably celebrating, but if you hurry you can still grab one of the the Earth Day t-shirts I designed for I'm Organic. They're a limited time deal, so this week might be the last chance to grab one!





They're printed on organic shirts with ecologically friendly water-based inks. AND entirely made in USA!

You can grab the shirt here, if you hurry.

Gary Kelley

I'm pretty familiar with Gary Kelley's name and work, but I haven't thought about him in ages.

When I saw the beautiful pastel images in Dark Fiddler, they looked familiar. I didn't put two and two together until I tracked them back to his behance page. I love the texture of his work...

Carter Goodrich

I feel like it's been a while since we've posted some good old-fashioned illustration on the blog. Since it's Friday I think we can all use some comfort art (it's been a long week here at PB Studios).

You're probably aware of Carter Goodrich's work, he's done lots of editorial illustrations, including a ton of New Yorker covers, as well contributing characters and designs to a load of Pixar and Dreamworks animations.

He's got a load of art to check out on his new site; gorgeous, lush illustrations and piles of excellent sketches and concepts.









Definitely worth spending some time drooling over these...

Aesthetic Apparatus

Aesthetic Apparatus has always been an inspiration to me. Formed 12 years ago in Madison, Wisconsin (where I grew up), they started a kick-but studio and moved to Minneapolis around the same time I came for school. I was very into printmaking, and their constant stream of screenprints for rock shows blew me away. It seems like they've always made a point of making cool things for cool people.

Recently they hit the 500 Poster milestone and put together this little montage to celebrate.



Congratulations!

Jillian Tamaki's book covers

Illustrating classic literature is a pleasurable illustration challenge: it's always interesting to see a reinterpretation of a popular subject. It's frequently done, though, so making a fresh spin is difficult. Jillian Tamaki does a beautiful job with her embroidered book cover creations.

She's also made a cover for Black Beauty and The Secret Garden; if you go to her blog you can see those as well!

Gary Baseman at MCAD!

MCAD was super lucky to have Gary Baseman come to Minneapolis to give a lecture on Friday. After months of anticipation, MCAD gathered in the large auditorium (all seats filled, the floor and standing room were packed) and overflowed into the small auditorium. He gave an inspiring, witty talk about life, art and inspiration to several hundred of us and flipped through some of his most recent works.



I had the pleasure of meeting him Thursday night with a couple of other professors from MCAD. I have only great things to say! Gary Baseman is an articulate, down to earth guy. One of the biggest things I got from our conversation on Thursday - AND - the lecture on Friday is that he cares a lot about making a personal connection with his work. A lot of his themes hold bits and pieces of his past and many of the stories and the way he presents his themes are fun, a little edgy, but still super relate-able.

It's always nice to hear about someone's process as well as their inspirations!
The work he showed was really fun and inspiring to all of us.



Here is a 6 minute snippit of his hour and a half talk at MCAD. You'll have to pardon my sideways camera holding for a moment. It straightens out in a couple seconds.
All in all - all three of us were very impressed and quite entertained!

I taught class after the lecture and all of my students were raving about the talk. It seems he's made quite the mark on the MCAD community.
Good show!

2011 Artcrank Poster

Hey! This year we were selected to participate in the Minneapolis Artcrank. We totally love the show and we are super excited!

We decided to do a collaborative piece that the three of us could work on together. We put our heads together to come up with the concept, then took turns until it was complete. Then we sent it off to be screenprinted by Steady Print Shop Co.

The show is tomorrow night, April 2nd from 5pm - midnight! Here is our piece!


(And here's a slighter bigger version.)



Our studio is littered with prints right now! Some of the detail fell out when we printed, but Lindsay went back in with a brush and some gouache and touched up every print for the show by hand! Now that's dedication!



So if you're in the Minneapolis area, make sure to head out to Artcrank tomorrow night! There will be screenprints by over 40 artists, are they're all only 30(!) dollars! Plus it's a huge party! Be there!

Peter Crawley

Peter Crawley is a product designer who also happens to create stitched illustrations. Each piece is produced by hand piercing paper and stitching linework in with a needle and thread.

What at first blush looks like a clean, almost vector-like drawing turns into something much more delicate and unique under close scrutiny.







That's patience.

Earth Day 2011

I know Earth Day isn't until April 22, but that's just one month away! I wanted to give you the chance to prepare by buying this t-shirt I designed for I'm Organic.

Not only are they Organic and Made-in-the-US of A, but they will only be around until Earth Day! Limited edition!





You can grab the shirt here, and do it quick! Because when it's gone, it's gone!

(P.S. Keep you eyes on I'm Organic. They're under new ownership and they want to improve the art and design of their products! I've already done another 6 designs that will be arriving soon, with more to come!)

A Graphic Cosmogony

A Graphic Cosmogony is a comics compendium by the ever-amazing publisher NoBrow. It features comics by 24 artists, each telling their version of a tale about the formation of the universe. Or something.







Some of my favorite artists are represented, like Stuart Kolakovic and Mikkel Sommer (previously posted). The whole package is a beautiful thing...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRANCESCA!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GREAT FRIEND, Francesca!
May you be forever young!

We know you love cats and pictures of yourself! ;)
XOXO from Lindsay & Chris!