I LOVE this designer's work!

So I was just scrolling through some blog links on the Grain Edit website, and under 'Illustration' I came across this designer's blog: Ward Jenkins.

From his blog I see that he is mainly an illustrator for children's books; a career which I have wanted ever since I can remember. This is one reason why his work particularly stood out for me. What I like about his blogs is that he mainly posts his own ideas for his projects whereas most bloggers post about their influences. I found this as an interesting approach.

What I find really interesting about the 'Ward-O-Matic' blog is that the designer posts step-by-step images of the process of sketching characters as well as stating which materials were used. An example of this is below. Jenkins posted that he used "final pencil lines using a regular graphite pencil and a Prismacolor black pencil".











This could be useful and inspirational for students as it allows them to see good ways of developing their sketches. (It has definitely been useful for me!)

Here is an example of Jenkin's work. He is an inspiration to me because his style is unique but at the same time it seems realistic. His unique style comes from his angular outlines to the figures, which brings a cartoon-ish and therefore child-friendly style of drawing. I like how he uses bold colours in his work and easily gives the characters personality via exaggerated expressions.

He posts images from other illustrators as well which is useful for people interested in this field as well. I also like how he posts his ideas on a blog where people can comment. This is a good way of getting feedback before allowing ideas to be published. I will use a blog for this purpose in the future!

These are reasons why I am following his blog, and why he inspires me to achieve this career in the future.

Visit the blog here! : http://wardomatic.blogspot.co.uk