Josh Cochran
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|Josh Cochran’s illustrated world is full of hard-edged shapes, coarse textures and clashing colors that somehow seem to fall into place. Just. We asked him in what ways his illustration style has evolved over the years: ‘My style really came from a general frustration I had towards painting while I was in school. I started drawing early on and have always felt fairly comfortable about it. Teachers at Art Center would constantly encourage me to make my work look more like my sketchbooks, which got me thinking of ways to produce finished looking artwork, using a more linear style. I took a printmaking class fairly late in my education, which really changed everything for me. Silkscreen and flat color provided a much needed contrast to my obsessive line work’.
‘I wasn’t confused by having an infinite amount of colors, and had to make the best out of three or four colors. I started looking at older printing techniques found in turn of the century children’s books and cheap reproduction materials like propaganda leaflets and posters. My family has been a big influence as well. My Grandmother is an accomplished Chinese watercolorist and calligrapher, and my Mom’s been working in graphic design since the early nineties. I have to also put this in: my wife Jenny has a crazy critical eye, with way better taste, and is a major influence on what I put into my portfolio’.
Tagged: colourful illustrations, line drawings
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We checked in recently with illustrator Josh Cochran and asked him how he kept the creative process fresh and stimulating, despite producing so much new work: ‘I try hard to keep pushing new ideas in my work. Of course, there are often times when I feel tired and stale and produce work that isn’t that isn’t challenging. Generally, though, I try to keep building on things I’ve accomplished in my work. To me, that’s what keeps my work consistent as well gives me room to grow. After a while a certain direction will feel boring to me and I’ll start pushing out to try something different’. Read more
Rod Hunt’s colourful cityscapes
I love the vitality of Rod Hunt’s illustration work. The London-based illustrator has ‘built a reputation for retro tinged work and detailed character filled landscapes with UK and international clients in publishing, design, advertising and new media’. Most notably, he illustrated the cover of Change The World 9 To 5, the best selling environmental book by We Are What We Do. Read more
Color heaven! Perusing UK illustrator Ben O’Brien’s portfolio feels a lot like wandering the aisles of a giant candy store. I could buy one of everything in sight. Read more
Also by ILANA KOHN
Sixth Pommery Exhibition Sons & Lumieres
How much better can it get than little dollops of contemporary art interspersed throughout the breathtaking setting of Champagne Pommery’s Domaine in Reims, France. The most interesting part here is that this is an ongoing tradition at Champagne Pommery, going all the way back to the 19th century ‘when Madame Pommery commissioned sculptor Gustav Navlet to carve four bas reliefs for the estate and later had the famous cabinet maker and glass artist Emile Gallé create a solid oak Pommery barrel that holds up to 19,816 gallons (100,000 bottles). This barrel was displayed at the 1904 Worlds’ Fair in St. Louis’. The upcoming Sixth Pommery Exhibition, Sons & Lumieres, will be curated by French artist Bertrand Lavier and will include ‘everyday objects often set in difficult spaces’. Read more
Color heaven! Perusing UK illustrator Ben O’Brien’s portfolio feels a lot like wandering the aisles of a giant candy store. I could buy one of everything in sight. Read more
I love it! With the CD now being eclipsed by the MP3, I find myself feeling even more nostalgic for the simple charm of the cassette. Australian artists Andrew Smart and Jared Schmidt create ‘large scale hand-made wooden cassette tapes, routed, sanded, bogged, primed, and painted with a high quality paint finish’. Aha! The perfect way to memorialize my old mix tapes. Read more
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Ashley Wood is my favorite illustrator. You can’t go wrong with sexy women and robots! He’s from Australia and is extremely prolific, putting out several books a year including his magazine Swallow. Read more
Athens, Georgia art rockers Circulatory System have delivered an extraordinary 46-minute album sculpted from five years worth of accumulated sonic experimentation. Signal Morning ricochets across every raw nerve from the poppiest of impulses to the edge of ostensible sanity, without revealing a single cut corner or uninspired change.
Israeli computer scientists recently created a computer program that changes photographs of people’s faces into more attractive images based on an algorithm that determines ideal distances between lips and chins, foreheads and eyes, and distances between eyes.
In Los Angeles, in the gas guzzling centre of the Universe, BP has enlisted Office dA to embrace the paradoxical task of creating a green petrol station. Read more
Australian group Pivot have recently signed with the mighty Warp label and — even better (well, for us anyway) — have written a fun Secret Playlist for us. You can see where the many disparate influences have seeped into their latest recording, the beautiful and colourful, O Soundtrack My Heart.
From this artist selection of t-shirts comes this Mydeadpony illustrated t-shirt, silkscreened on a limited edition tee, and distributed in a vinyl sleeve, with a biography of the artist on the back of the sleeve. Every t-shirt is numbered and signed by the artist, and comes in organic cotton.
A Paper Tiger is a new venture that launched in January of this year selling exclusive prints by some of my favorite artists such as Jack Long [shown above]. Read more
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There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
Illustrator Timothy Karpinski sews painted paper together to create his images, giving them a classic look. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Almanac Market in Philadelphia is slightly pricey, but you definitely get what you pay for. Offering fantastic bread, cheeses, produce, and cured meats such as sopressata and pepperoni, it was a great pit stop when my band played in town, and definitely more economical and tasty than hitting a greasy spoon for road snacks.
Wolfmother. Rock n roll. Mystical lyrics. Heavy riffs. They have a new album out, Cosmic Egg, and we have five copies to giveaway, along with their debut album. To enter, tell us your favorite Wolfmother song and the city you live in. Yo! Two fingered salute. Read more
Warning at Work is a silkscreen mini-print from Sussex based illustrator Andy Smith which comes in a limited edition of just 50. Dimensions are 20cm x 15cm. We have them available through the Lost At E Minor store.
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