Jared Muralt's sketchbook

Every now and then you come across an artist whose work just flaws you. And not just one incredible piece of artistry, but every picture of theirs you see. This is true of the Swiss illustrator, Jared Muralt, founder of the illustration and graphic design studio, BlackYard.

Jared attended art school for a year in his native Bern, Switzerland. He is largely self-taught, receiving much of his study through books regarding art history, anatomy and comics. All of which are explored in his work and clearly visible in his sketchbook drawings below. There are so many of these drawings that it was damn hard trying to pick only a few.

For more of his work check out his website or his instagram feed. Seriously, every post is unbelievably good.

Tim Doyle

Illustrator and print-maker Tim Doyle hails from Austin, Texas and runs Nakatomi Inc, a site geared for the self-proclaimed nerd folk. I know him more as the guy who draws "real life" locations from The Simpsons and other TV shows. All of which make for extremely pleasant viewing.

His visual style reminds me of the legendary comic artist and Ghost World creator, Dan Clowes with its minimal colour palette and shading technique. Tim also has one of the best artist's bios I've ever read. He has lots of cats.

 

The pulp fiction of Francesco Francavilla

There are two things you need to know about Italian comic book artist, Francesco Francavilla: Firstly, he produces some of the best pulp and retro-styled pictures you're ever likely to come across and, secondly, he has created possibly the most perfect minimalist posters for the hit TV show, Breaking Bad; the latter project purely as a hobby.

In 2009 he created The Black Beetle, a comic series he originally made for his Pulp Sunday blog, which has since been picked up by Dark Horse Comics, gaining him much critical acclaim. And he has also produced a long line of fantastic covers for many publications (including Dark Shadows, The Spider, Hellboy, Sherlock Homes and The Shadow to name but a few), earning him an Eisner award in 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

Sketches by Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola is easily one of my all time favourite artists. His utterly unique style not only perfectly complements the horror genre he writes about but has also influenced countless other artists across the world.

Everyone knows Hellboy. Especially since the movies came out and hit the box office. And every comic fan knows Mignola's work. But what I wanted to show here is a selection of his cool little sketches and studies of the beasts and demons that inhabit his world. I think these illustrate just how loose Mignola is naturally when not having to ink for a finished publication.

His website is here...