The Young Illustrators Worth Discovering

I don't know quite what got me interested in illustration considering that  I am myself an average drawer.  One could assume the obvious reason may have been the fact that I was lucky enough to be made into a fantastic illustration myself by a talented artist like Diglee a few years back, however I believe my passion for it may have started even earlier. I remember flicking through a thick book of fashion illustrations in a little German book shop when I was perhaps 8 years old and being immediately enchanted with the way the drawings, adorning the glossy pages, managed to fuse the essence of art and fashion on a piece of paper whilst showing off the illustrator's sheer skill and distinctive style.

Since then I have always been fascinated by illustration and on the constant look out for new talent able to, at least to me, excite and show creativity hard to find in a pure form nowadays. Yes, of course illustrator's work has become inevitably sleeker with the help of photoshop and the like but these drawings still require years of practise, an eye for detail and ultimately a talent that one can't help but be born with. They are as successful in my eyes in conveying emotion- from sadness to desperation to love- as they are in creating something beautiful to look at and I will always take joy in discovering a new talent in their midst, able to, in this day and age, add a unique twist with a stroke of their pen ( or for the cynics with their skill in adobe). Below are 5 recent favourites which  I hope you will take the time to look a little closer at or at least let serve as brief visual stimulation to brighten up a dull day.

Natalie Foss

Bold, colourful and modern yet feminine and volatile, Natalie Foss's illustrations have a hypnotic and captivating aura that make each girl she illustrates appear almost magical.

Laura Callaghan

Portraying 80's teen girls, hanging out and facing life, one can't help but want to be one of Laura Callaghan's bright and vivacious illustrations. Full of details of everyday adolescence, from posters on the wall to ash trays on the floor and always with a hint of boredom and fear of the future adorning the girl's faces, her illustration show girl power and the mixed emotions of being a teenager like no other. 

Yoko Honda

Mix David Hockney with an 80's album cover and the atmosphere of Drive and you get pretty close to the super charged and slightly surrealist aesthetic Yoko Honda creates in her illustrations that so successfully mix pop art with an almost Barbi-esque sickly sweet mix of colours to create completely unique illustrations I love looking at each time.

Sara Herranz

Sara Herranz may only use black, white and red ( the red for the lip's of the female heroines she portrays) in her illustrations yet they like no other manage to capture a plethora of emotion, be it  love, sadness, loneliness or desperation. For me she is one of the best examples of how much of a story an illustrator can tell with a few brilliant strokes, enabling us at an instant to identify ourselves with them. 

Carine Brancowitz

Drawn predominantly in blue biro, Carine Brankowitz's illustrations have a surprising air of fragility and humanity about them, the characters and situations she captures always a little chaotic, always perhaps a little lost but with detail that makes them at times appear almost as real as a photo.