I just can’t get enough of the work by illustrator Xavier Ramonède. His blog, sushixav, is filled with splendid illustrations, animation and a great step-by-step tutorial too! I really enjoy ogling his simple shapes and limited flat colours with a just a hint of tone. You can also see more of his work on his deviantArt page.

Another top Capcom artist for today’s Manga Mondays, Kinu Nishimura. She was hired by Capcom way back in 1991, and is best known for her work on Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Street Fighter III. Her work is very distinctive, often using a soft watercolour-painted style. You can find out a little more about Nishimura on the Capcom Wiki website.

Gobelins’ graduate and ex-intern at Dreamworks SKG, Aurelie Blard-Quintard is a freelance illustrator/animator based in Paris. Her style is loose and full of charm. To see more of her work hop over to her brilliantly titled blog, “Tea time isn’t it?“.

Louis Thomas is based in Paris, France. He has a great knack for character design, using shapes interestingly to create expressive forms. There are a couple of really nice book jacket designs on his blog too. His colours are intelligent and sophisticated. Often he uses colours that are not particularly attractive in their own right; but together with other colours and in the right context become attractive. To see more of Louis’ excellent work, visit his blog.

I really enjoyed looking through Florent Remize’s blog. A great sense of humour and an amazing talent for character design is there in abundance. I think I like looking at the sketches just as much as the polished images…they are incredible! Look back through some of the older posts if you have time. It’s all great work and very inspiring.

Ben Steers is based in Bristol, south-west England. In his portfolio, you’ll find an impressive array of works including character design, t-shirts, Mac skins, jigsaw puzzles, editorial illustration and much more. Ben seems to have a great sense of design which comes through in a lot of his work. The various 2D and 3D canvasses he applied his illustrations to are a testament to the adaptability and versatility of both him and his illustration style.

His clients include Channel 4, The Sunday Times, The Carbon Trust, NHS AND Spunky clothing label.

Charles Santoso lives and works in Sydney, Australia as a concept artist and illustrator. He is currently at Animal Logic, where he has worked on animated feature films and commercials. His soft style often incorporates monsters and creepy looking animals, so the contrast is always interesting. The tones and lighting are always carefully considered and beautiful. Visit his website here for a really nice selection of work.