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10 Illustrators Which You Could Research

  • laurenjadesmith
  • Aug 16, 2022
  • 8 min read

Updated: Oct 30, 2022

As you may already know, one of the most important factors within developing a personal project or project brief is finding inspiration, whether that is through existing brands or current artists and designers. This is because we can get inspired through specific aspects of their work and use it to influence our choices in our own work. These aspects could include line thickness, line positioning, sharp or curved corners, colour combination, the amount of colours, shape, space and plenty more. Here are a list of 10 Illustrators which have personally influenced my own design processes throughout the year and what I believe could help influence your design, particularly if you are looking to take the Illustration route.


I will give you a brief overview of who these artists are, as well as a quick summary of the visual aspects within their work. If you would like more help into HOW to analyse an artist, look back at my previous blog post digesting other artists work, such as Thomas Hedger.



1) Eden Clifton

Clifton is a 23 year old Brighton based Illustrator, stating that she has always had a passion to draw on anything she could get her hands on. Clifton experiments with multiple mediums (recommended highly!).

"The style of my work reflects the way I’m feeling physically and emotionally. Not all my pieces have an explanation or context and I mostly draw from my own inspiration. This being from vivid dreams, thoughts, imagination or observations out in day to day life. Illustration is my form of self-care. Keeping creative helps me process and relax my mind, body and spirit."

The line work in Clifton's work is precise and clean, giving the design a professional feel. She is a multimedia artist, meaning her work has a lot of variety, which helps maintain her spontaneity within her work and herself as an artist. This is pretty evident when viewing her Instagram page. The bright colours used within her pieces allows them to give off more of a positive, happy atmosphere, intended to spread love and good vibes to her customers and loyal consumer base. The faces of her characters are pretty unique too!




2) Vincent Mahé

Mahé is an Illustrator born in Paris. Mahé is an explorer, which is evident to see through his work as all of his reference images are in a picturesque environment. (Including your own interests within your work is a great way to grow as a designer. Making it personal will make it more unique and naturally give you more strive and determination to create.)

"I always start with very tiny, thumbnail sketches in a big note nook. With this scanned, I start sketching on top with cintiq and photoshop, line and colour. When the result is satisfactory, I clean it either on computer or on paper. I sketch a lot, particularly when I travel."

The shape work within Mahé's work is very sharp and strong, adding some conviction and confidence towards the atmosphere of the design. The bright contrasting colours pushes a positive and happy atmosphere, as well as increasing the visual enticement towards the design. The two contrasting colours which I can see Mahé using here is red & blue (due to the hot & cold combination) and orange & blue, due to them being complementary colours, meaning they are opposite each other on the colours wheel.




3) Flora Lenart

Lenart is a Hungarian Illustrator. She learnt all of her skills through skill share so she did not attend any art schools. Lenart is now a FreeLancer, blooming on sites such as Instagram, Etsy and ArtBridge.

"Her feminine themes are liberating because one can easily relate to them, and the everyday rush and objects of use are put in fine order in her still life graphics."

The use of space in her design is intriguing; the image is placed centrally in the design, making it appear more structured. Centralising the image also allows the design to be the centre of attention, which is important within design, particularly when it is the only content on the page. The line work is particulate, meaning it is only placed in certain areas for effect. The shapes are very sharp and obvious, which is clear to see in the image above with the woman sitting in the cup. The colours used and the content within the design leads me to believe that these designs are designed for a female demographic.




4) Sibel Balac

Balac is a freelance illustrator based in Germany. Since graduating her diploma degree, she's since been working on illustrative projects which she shares with creative friends. Balac's work holds a playful style with bold lines and trendy colours.

"She loves to focus on different shapes and proportions, especially with her characters. Her illustrations are used for various fields such as editorial, advertising and animation."

Balac is one of my personal favourites. The thick lines adds a sense of individuality and strength to her designs. The colours used are often contrasting, focusing on the common use of blue and red. The frequent use of the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) further allows Balac's designs to "pop". Balac's design involves limited shading, which works well for this style of illustration. Balac does use bold lines to create shading where appropriate, which is evident within the light orange lines on the skirt above.


Website: https://sibelbalac.com/work



5) Haley Tippmann

Tippmann is an American illustrator from New York, currently working in Germany. Tippman is an extremely successful designer, working with huge names such as The New York Times, BBC & Apple.

“The most exciting aspect of illustration, I think, is that there are so many different directions to take it, there are so many different perspectives and ways of drawing an idea or a feeling, that it feels limitless.”

The sketchy texture added to the design helps create an artistic, genuine atmosphere within the design. When looking at other illustrators such as Balac and Mahé, their design is heavily digital based meaning there is no texture, which is common within current illustration trends (comparing artist's techniques is great for showing awareness within your project!). The quick, free style of lines strokes links well with the texture, allowing Tippmann's work to appear professional and structured.




6) Nina Dzyvulska

Dzyvulska is an independent illustrator from Ukraine, who is greatly passionate about merging the two worlds of motherhood with her work. This is another example of a successful designer using their personal life stories and personal interests to impact their work! This is because there is more clear passion going into their work and people likewise can relate.

"Her brightly coloured, fun loving illustrations portray a sense of joy and youthfulness."

The cute, adorable look to Dzyvulska's illustrations is what mostly draws me to her work. Her work recently is mainly themed around raising awareness towards the tragic events which are occurring in Ukraine, which is particularly relevant because Dzyvulska is from Ukraine. The bright, bold colours match well with the cute aesthetic. The use of space by leaving limited area blank, particularly in the top design is very inspiring. If you like Nina Dzyvulska, you would also like Jon Burgerman, who experiments with an extremely similar art style.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dzyvulska



7) Odile Ferraille

Ferraille is a small Illustrator whose work I found on Instagram, when trying to gain inspiration for my own projects. Within my brief scan of the internet, I could not find any information about Ferraille as an Illustrator, but feel free to prove me wrong!


Ferraille's use of minimalistic techniques is a perfect example of the phrase, "sometimes less is more". Their work is primarily centralised around the line work of the design, which is sketchy and free, allowing the design to appear more natural and genuine. The small scaled faces exaggerates the cute atmosphere radiating from the design. The background is completely plain with a light beige tone, further adding to the minimalistic nature of the foreground illustration.




8) YUK FUN Illustration & Design

YUK FUN is a independent label, featuring Lucy Cheung and Patrick Gildersleeves, based in the UK. Cheung & Gildersleeves met at Leeds Metropolitan University whilst studying art and design. YUK FUN hold lots of different exhibitions such as Grafik, Year of the Dog and Dream Safari.

"YUK FUN IS AN INDEPENDENT LABEL MAKING ILLUSTRATED STUFF FOR AWESOME PEOPLE WHO LOVE COLOUR, ANIMALS AND FUN! (∩˃O˂∩)"

YUK FUN's work is currently one of my favourites within the illustration world. The bright colour palette further pushes the playful, positive atmosphere of the design. YUK FUN mainly experiments with screen printing, which is a media I personally highly recommend you experiment with. After lots of different attempts and experimentations, it usually results in a few extremely successful designs which you will be proud of! You can get creative with it. Once you create some interesting poster designs, you could delve into more exciting touchpoint such as tote bags, which YUK FUN also have created a fair share of! Tote bags are very on trend right now with the younger generation, so this would be a relevant route to take.


Website: https://www.yukfun.co.uk



9) Alfonso de Ande

De Ande is an illustrator based in México City working with a range of different mediums, including 2D print, 3D wood carvings and publishing zines. De And has taken part in many projects, including editorial illustration, animated series development and advertising campaigns to mural painting and gallery exhibitions. De Ande has a strong inclination for communication and story telling, which is evident to see in his work.

"At the end of the day I feel happier when I sit in front of pieces of paper for hours as opposed to sitting in front of a screen. Also, it’s nice to have drawings on pieces of paper that I can look at and touch, sort of like tangible documentation of what I worked on."

The colour involved in de Ande's work is very vibrant and eye catching, which is common through out illustration. The unique colour combination of pink, yellow and green is very interesting and is something you could challenge yourself to experiment with if you find it interesting too! The background of the design has a rustic texture, allowing the overall feel of de Ande's work to be natural and homemade.


Website: https://aldeanda.com


and last but not least,

10) Tom Haugomat

Haugomat is an illustrator based in Paris, France. Haugomat started his design journey with animation, then moved over to illustration. His work has featured in popular publications such as Air France Magazine, Revue XXI, and Le Monde.

"At the age of 7, My father and I spent a month in the Alpes. We did some hiking and mountain climbing quite intensely and it actually changed the way I was seeing the world until then. I think it’s the feeling of being lost in the wild surrounded by gigantic mountains is the base of my illustration style."
"It’s certainly my desire to find back that feeling and it keeps me drawing tiny people in wide landscapes!"

An example of yet another illustrator who links their personal life experiences to their work and has been successful because of it.



The amount of detail which has been implemented into Haugomat's work is admirable. The natural environment in the design with lots of greenery and mountains allows the design to appear much more therapeutic and calming, which inspires me. I can imagine this type of design being fitting on a magazine cover. The colour palette in the very top image is particularly inspiring with the combination of red and blue. Red and blue contrast against each other significantly well, due to red being a warm colour and blue being a cool colour.



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