Thursday, May 20, 2010

Add Rhyme and Mix


Just finished the album cover for Mr. Attic's new album, A.R.M. (Add Rhyme and Mix). Attic is a crazy talented hip-hop artist and Juno award-winning producer based in Toronto (Choice cut Records). The music is terrific, if you get a chance to check it out I highly recommend it.

The concept plays on how Attic creates his music: mashing up a bunch of records, taking the best bits, and mixing them into something original and fresh. The girl's pose is reminiscent of a DJ. There is a small portrait of the Attic on the poster in the background, and the other poster shows an Ensoniq EPS sampler, Attic's real tool of choice. In the cardboard box are some of the other albums that he's worked on. Lots of fun details!


Here's the initial sketch for the idea.


This is a further developed sketch. Very close to the final! I like doing a really tight sketch for a client because that way, everyone knows what they are looking at. Gives me a chance to change anything that needs changing before I get into the silkscreen printing. Although the magic of Photoshop can cure most ills! Composing in a square is always a challenge. I wanted to make a balanced composition that wasn't overly symmetrical.

juliaminamata.com

Friday, April 16, 2010

Going my way?


I love the Wizard of Oz books. The movie is classic, but for me the books will always win. John R. Neill's pen and ink illustrations made such an impression on me when I was a kid. I might even bust out some Glinda the Good and Ozma!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work


A few weeks ago I got my copy of Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work, and it is really terrific. The project started off quite a few years back when I was still in school - me and whiz-bang Sheridan Illustration instructor and pro illustrator Rick Sealock got approached to be contributors by Michael Fleishman. After numerous back and forths and revisions and a bit of waiting, it's now out and available on Amazon!

Congratulations to Mike for his perseverance and passion.

Click here to purchase online on Amazon.com.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Alice in Wonderland piece complete!


My Alice in Wonderland piece is complete! I'm really happy with it. It's my "Spring is here!" piece. Click on it to see it bigger n' better!

Happy Spring,

Julia Minamata

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Up next



My Alice in Wonderland piece is complete! I'll post it in a bit, but first I thought I'd get started on what my next illustration is going to be.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

mono-Alice



There's something kind of nice about this version of the piece, which has all the colour separations blackened and shown at the same time.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Macleans Obituary piece



Here's an illustration I did for the back page of Macleans, a frame for their weekly obituary. It was published in their March 29th issue. I've done a few of these, I ought to put them up sometime!