I don't know if I envy Eric Olmstead more for his insane talent or his extensive travels. His work is so vivid in color and detail, so powerful in narrative, and so pop art and animated, I almost expected a few onomatopoeias: POW! CRRACK! WHAM! KER-SPLASH! From being drugged and robbed in Ecuador to finding himself in Sydney to backpacking in the Philippines, Eric's artwork brings you with, so you can imagine hiking the Inca trail alongside. For anyone bitten by the travel bug, you know that Wanderlust always calls. Eric Olmstead answered.

Aitch, an illustrator from Bucharest (suddenly I realize that I've recently only been talking about female artists)… describes her work as "ranges from pink, cute, elegant, to sometimes creepy, semi religious, bizarre characters, mixed in surrealistic sets" and I can't agree more. It's amazing how she moves from the "cute & pink" to the "surreal & semi-religious".



She normally works on paper, toys, urban objects, and many shops around Europe. She's one of my latest discoveries (and one of my favourites!).

I follow her on Facebook where the talks about her illustrated life.

I discovered Delphine Durand (and her entourage of weird animals) when she was teaching a workshop at Ilustratour. I couldn't go and was left with the desire. Since then, I follow her work from the distance.

I love her magic and bizarre animated monsters that walk around her drawings and on her books and travel journals.



And thanks to her, I know about "Les Cahiers de L'Articho", a French illustration magazine that's got me blown away. She also has an amazing pinterest page where she uploads everything she likes.

Miguel Herranz (aka freehand) is an Urban Sketcher with an incredibly detailed hand and a complementary story to go along with each sketch. The stories range from memories to the people, places and things he comes across. Below is a snippet of his text for the drawing above:

"…I keep on drawing... I wonder what happens behind the third window of the second floor on that brick building... I imagine a filter that tells me with some color the places where people laugh joyfully, with some other color where they shout angrily, with other where they make love, where someone just died... I know I'm drawing all this."

It's a must that you take the time to read the captions behind each drawing. You will fall in love not only with his skilled hand, but how he describes what he sees.

I recently found out that Kitty Crowther is from Belgium with a British father and Swedish mother. In fact, it was in Brussels where I first discovered one of her books, the one that shocked me most, "Petite home et dieu" (Little man and God).

What I like most from her is the lack of digital retouching, the spontaneous drawings, the feeling that she has done them very quickly (non-stop), and the way in which she uses colour, lights and blacks above all. I also like the fact that she uses colour pencils, it makes me think that someday when I get older, I could be like her.

Some issues or themes can be difficult for a kid to understand, but her subtlety makes it all very easy.

I hate that she doesn't have a website, because I couldn't find all the images that I wanted, but here are some.

These images will make you look twice, and maybe two more times after that. Joseph Martinez paints inside matchbooks with such precision and patience you wont believe it until you watch the video for yourself. The art is often times smaller than the size of a dime.

I can't imagine anything more fascinating than seeing these matchbook paintings in person. Fortunately, those of you in San Francisco will have the opportunity at his upcoming show, A Little Piece of the Bay.

Scroll down, and you'll be asking yourself again and again how he's achieving such depth, shadows and detail.

I love these story-driven artworks by Dave Zackin. Of course it's the colors and bold lines that first catch my attention, but then I quickly get caught up in the hand-lettering and drawn narratives. I'd gamble to say that even the most humdrum day in my life would look fascinating if documented like this.