I stumbled upon Justin’s blog today (and I think I looked through every page). He is currently working at Disney Studios, and he also creates a lot of fun illustrated work in his spare time. I really like his background art, which is simple, yet beautiful. You’ll also find on his blog some comic strips, character design, illustrated skateboards and the list goes on. Super talent, and extremely inspiring.

Note: Interestingly, we previously featured Justin’s brother Josh on The Lounge.

Noah Bradley is a professional environment artist who is also tutoring. You can join Noah’s Art Camp for 12 weeks of intensive art study by following this link. Noah’s clients include Wizards of the Coast, Deep Silver and Triptych Games.

Todd Harris has created a lot of artwork for the gaming industry and is the talented illustrator behind the hilarious ‘Heroes Guide to…’ books. You have to admire his super-rich colours, fun-filled fantasy characters and his great compositions. His backgrounds are almost dream-like. Find more stuff of dreams on his blog.

Hugues Mahoas is from France and works in the animation industry, with his background art standing out as a real strength along with his character design. I love the eerie quality in his work, and he has a special talent for picking colour combinations that are unusually brilliant. Visit his blog for more.

Esther Diana hails from Spain. Character design, background art, conceptual art, graphic design and traditional editorial illustration are all among her many talents. From vector to watercolours, she demonstrates what a powerhouse of a talent she is. As always, we have a small selection for you to glance over here at The Lounge, so please do click through to her website and see a lot more excellent work.

Leighton Hickman currently works at Dreamworks Animation as a visual development artist. But he also teaches, mentors and is a dab-hand at landscapes. He worked on ‘The Croods’, Dreamworks’ latest animated movie on show. If you visit his website, you’ll see his excellent paintings, which full of rough brush marks yet still feel true to life. You can see the 50’s animation influence in his striking character designs, which are superb. Pop over to his website and have a look at the incredible versatility and top-drawer talent Leighton has on display.

Peter Oedekoven is from Germany, but he studied at the California Institute of the Arts where he earned his BFA in Film/Animation. For the past decade he has been working in both the film and game industries for companies such as Disney Feature Animation and Columbia Tri Star. His game backgrounds are wonderful, as are his concept art pieces.

Visit Peter’s website for more, or alternatively his excellent blog.