Frieke Verle is an illustrator based in Bruges, Belgium. She creates some excellent editorial pieces, and I really admire her visual style and approach. It’s quite gritty, full of textures and various techniques. Do take a look at her Tumblr, or her blog which is packed with various projects and one-offs.

Ricardo is from Portugal and now lives in London. He works at D&AD, the famous creative hub home to the famous Yellow Pencil award. On Ricardo’s website you’ll find some excellent projects, both personal and professional. His Gallery of Mo portraits are fun, and I highly recommend taking a look at ‘Ever After’, his MA final project. I like the often whimsical and sometimes provocative nature of his work, so of course we were delighted to receive this suggestion. Now, wonder on over and gasp in delight at the rest of Ricardo’s portfolio…

Dasha Tolstikova lives and works in New York. She is a doodler extraordinaire, creating all sorts of interesting work, such as her ‘Book of Lonely Children’ and her work in progress titled ’12: A Year Without Mom’, which looks intriguing and I’m sure will be a great piece of work. I’m not sure if her works are autobiographical at all, but she does pick interesting subject matter and you can feel some real truth coming through. Her style carries a child-like innocence, which is perfect for the type of subjects she draws. Her handwriting is adorable (quite an achievement if you consider she uses only capital letters).

Stuart’s portfolio includes a variety of concept art, illustrations, caricatures, fantasy art and sketches. His colours are jaw-dropping, and it’s great to see the detail in his sketches. He currently works in the video games industry, having worked previously in web design. I had a tough time picking a few illustrations to display here on The Lounge; see more on his excellent website. 

“Like his ancestor, Davy Crockett, Tim was born on a mountaintop in Asheville, North Carolina. Picking up a crayon at the tender age of three – he never looked back.”

I am a big admirer of Timothy’s work. I love the sketchy, scribbly marks that magically look so polished and beautiful. His illustrations always capture the mood so well, whatever the subject may be.

His clients include Nike, Marvel and McGraw-Hill. He has a whole bunch of accolades too; find out more on his website.

Melissa’s work is so imaginative, I found myself lost in page after page of her blog. She has a really cute narrative going on in her ‘Um…Mum’ story, definitely worth looking at. But I just love the style; loose figures that can pull off all sorts of interesting shapes and that sketchy scribbley feel that suggests naivety, a beautiful style for children (but I like it, too!)

Visit Melissa’s blog here, or her website here.

I really like the sketches on Natalie Hall’s blog. Her loose lines are a real joy to the eyes. Her animal sketches are beautiful, full of brush textures and great outlines. There is a lot (and I mean a lot) of excellent work over on her blog. It was lovely to go through and see the progression; you can definitely see improvements in her latest work. It seems more fluid and natural, though her older work is still beautiful. I think I’ll head off and start drawing now…