Category: Animals

10 Best Illustrators of 2015

Illustration encompasses many areas of our visual culture. It’s the picture on your coffee cup and a clever advertisement you see while going to work. Illustration is in books, magazines, and accompanies articles online. With so much illustration in the world, there’s a lot of mediocre images out there. But, the cream rises to the […]

10 Tattoo Artists That Create Stunning Animal Portraits

Nature is a powerful force. It’s awe-inspiring in its beauty and wondrous in its diversity. Throughout centuries, its animals of all kinds have intrigued humans, becoming the subject of artistic expression, fables, and of course, tattoos. Animals offer a lot of rich material for tattoo artists: they can be personified, completing human-like activities; a favorite […]

Blank William’s New Helmet Series Fuses Stormtroopers with Wildlife

Some of us at Illusion are getting ready for the long-awaited premiere of “Star Wars: Episode VII–The Force Awakens” on December 17, 2015. Will it succeed as one of the best movies of the year? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime let’s take a look at the artistic helmets by Blank William […]

Halloween Lighting and Black Cats: The Fashion Photography of Elizaveta Porodina

We see model Alexander Wolf and Mathilda (the cat) elegantly posing for one of the many fashion shoots by Elizaveta Porodina, a Russian photographer living and working in Munich, Germany. Her other pictures are a bit darker with the appearance of female devils and goths with red eyelids and elongated bodies. There is a Halloween […]

Naturalistic Tattoos Resemble Vintage Etchings

Artist Pony Reinhardt transports us to the woods with her naturalistic tattoos. The monochromatic line drawings feature animals, flowers, and even fungi, stitched together in sprawling scenes that highlight the Earth’s beauty. Their detailed style showcases all of the outdoors, from meticulously-etched veins in leaves to roughly-textured bird beaks to the grain of wood on […]

The Elegantly Photographed Origami Animals of Ross Symons

It isn’t every day that one gets to meet a full-time origamist. Get acquainted with Ross Symons, a South African artist known for making his own paper creations and also beautifully folding single-sheet models of other designers, like Quentin Trollip and Jo Nakashima. Elephant Hide paper is something Symons loves to use; a sturdy material […]

Painted Ceramic Greyhounds by Evelyn Tannus

Artist Evelyn Tannus reimagines the elegant greyhound dog breed with vibrant coats in her series of illustrative, painted ceramics. Depicted as both sitting and laying down, the canine figurines have colorful decorations that meander across their legs, backs, and onto their necks and heads. The varied imagery highlights her wide-ranging inspirations—from geometric patterns to tattoos to scientific […]

Twisted Taxidermy by Emi Slade

Warning: Contains images that may be considered graphic and disturbing to some readers. Emi Slade is a Michigan-based artist who creates beautifully grotesque hybrids made from taxidermied animal parts* and surrealist sculptural elements. Part nightmare, part fairy tale, Slade’s creations terrify and ignite the imagination with their gleaming eyes, spilled viscera, and rows of razor-sharp […]

The Smoky Photographic Paintings of Elicia Edijanto

It is all about the soft grey background and delicate overlay of black paint that makes Edijanto’s work look photographic. It fooled me at first, but kids riding wild animals and whales lifted almost to the sky were clear hints these were not photojournalistic attempts. Her foam-brushed paintings are kind-hearted tales of children and animals […]

Detailed Illustrations of War by Mu Pan

Mu Pan has created an impressive body of work, detailed masterpieces where we witness bloody battle scenes orchestrated between human and non-human creatures. The brutality and gore on display can be quite shocking when you first see them. But his illustrations are more then this though and they touch on important themes to do with ecology, animal extinction […]