Exploring the Void

Local Toronto-based, Japanese-born illustrator Yuta Onoda, has some beautiful illustrations in his portfolio. He plays with proportion, animals as symbols and has a sense of space, or emptiness in his work, which I find appealing. His colour palette is restrained and lovely.


The Mask She Wears. Mixed media and digital.


Hope Leaves. Mixed media and digital.


Exploring the Void. Mixed media and digital.


Shadowed by Coyotes. Mixed media and digital.


The Tiger Mom. Mixed media and digital.

Check out his portfolio here and blog here.

Wind, Tea and Faraway Places

Anna Emilia Laitinen is an illustrator from in Leppävirta, a small town in Finland. Her work is full of nature, movement, contemplation and magic. You should check out her portfolio. I appreciate how she comments on each of her pieces.


Parlor, 2009, 22 x 20 cm.
"A tiger with two different eye colors reads in his parlor. An album illustration for Lars Ludvig Löfgren."



Brewing Tea, 2009, 36 x 34 cm.
"Making tea is a delicate process. It needs warmth, fresh water and the right timing. Today it is jasmine tea."


Spring Is Coming, 2009, 25 x 18 cm.
Ink on paper. "Spring comes always like it was first hiding somewhere."



Wolves Carry A Village, 2008, 27 x 58 cm.
"The landscape is changing at every wolve´s [sic] step. A poster illustration for Holmes."

There are some themes I've remarked upon in other contemporary illustration; nature, nostalgia, quilts, birch trees, wolves, tigers, villages and magic. She reminds me of Julie Morstad, but has her own unique style. I am particularly taken with the empty spaces, which seem to allow the view an entry to place the scenes in their own imagination.

{via creature comforts}

Tea time

Though never far from public consciousness since it conquered the British Empire, this commodity cum comfort beverage seems to be popping up all over the place of late. Perhaps the zeitgeist is one which suggests things would be better if we would just curl up with a cuppa.

German illustrator seasprayblue (flickr, etsy) has too many teacups.

Genius paper engineer/collage artist Roadside Projects (flickr, etsy) made this paper sculpture, "The Tea":

The Tea
Originally uploaded by Roadside Projects


I love the retro illustration feel of Rabbit sandwiches with fancy mustard by missbrigette:


This is "Magic Tea" by Toronto illustrator Sarah McNeil (aka Hello! from the nice places, blog, etsy):


This is from the previously mentioned British illustrator Adrian Johnson:


Magpie & Whiskeyjack favorite, the ever-magical Princesse Camcam designed this notebook cover for crazy and absurd ideas:


The incomparable Swedish artist Camilla Engman (who has an incredible eye for beauty, as evinced by her blog... which has the side effect of making one develop a fondness for her JRT, Morran) has tea on the brain, and perhaps the floor:




This is provocative and fabulously absurd illustrator Michael C. Hsiung's Steer in a Teacup:


South African illustrator Alex Latimer did an entire, delightful series of animals enjoying tea, like this jellyfish:


My own thoughts on tea seem to run to the magical, when I consider these two minouette illustrations:

Turtles in a Teatree (an Artist Trading Card)

and Darjeeling;


Relax, enjoy and explore some portfolios with your favorite blend. It's Friday.