Ready to recharge your artistic practice? You’ve already got everything you need in the palm of your hand. Instagram might be best known for as the platform that launched a thousand selfies, but it’s also a great place for artists and creators to learn more about one another, check out new work and key into visual trends. Want to fill up your feed with more than friends’ photos? Check out the digital illustrators and their work below for some instant “Insta inspiration.”
1. Bert Dries aka Musketon (@musketon)
Musketon, née Bert Dries, is well-known for his work with major brands like Nike and Mazda, but his personal digital art has a sense of satirical humor that can wield a socio-political wallop. Prolific and passionate, Musketon has achieved more in his decade as a digital artist than many do in a lifetime. Instagram: @musketon
Why we love this piece: It’s as bright and glossy as the product it’s satirizing.
2. Pernille Ørum (@Pernilleoe)
Pernille Ørum is a Danish character designer who is breaking new ground as a female artist in the traditionally male-dominated comic book industry. A graduate of the Animation Workshop with a BA in Character Animation, she achieved fame after creating Warner Bros.’ DC Superhero Girls, and debuted a new comic book series Hit-Girl last February. Her feed is filled with original characters who act with self-determination in contemporary situations. Instagram: @Pernilleoe
Why we love this piece: The pops of color and gorgeous rendering makes this low-key scene dazzlingly dynamic.
3. Charlene Chua (@charlenedraws)
As a teenager, illustrator Charlene Chua wanted to make airbrush art but had difficulties, she says, with creating “perfect gradients.” Then she was introduced to Macromedia Freehand (now Adobe FreeHand MX) and it was love at first draw. Today, she works as a children’s book illustrator, using movement, strong color, and forced perspective (with an additional layer of whimsical humor) to infuse her pages with spirit and personality. Instagram: @charlenedraws
Why we love this piece: This little tiger is feeling the love and so are we!
4. Adrian Cain (@draincain)
Some artists find beauty in harmony; others, in chaos. Experimental “glitch art” is named for the latter–what artist Adrian Cain describes as “sometimes harsh, sometimes gentle, digital corruption.” In the early days, glitch art was created by physically interfering with the chemical development of photographs. Now, artists like Cain use computer programs like Blender, Audacity, Notepad+ and Processing to create surreal digital collage portraits, patterned landscapes, and geometric backgrounds. The result? A wild technicolor style that is as unsettling as it is cool. Instagram: @draincain
Why we love this piece: It’s the perfect representation of what we believe must be inside the mind of a master chess player–or maybe their not-so-masterful opponent.
5. Carolyn Roro aka Seeroro (@seeroro_)
Carolyn Roro aka“Seeroro,” graduated from the Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts in Toronto and worked for seven years in in education before immersing herself in digital art. She uses Clip Studio Paint and Procreate to make her pieces dynamic, playful, and expressive, and paints live in multiple mediums like traditional oils or watercolor on Twitch.tv. Seeroro’s illustrations infuse accessible food with a lucent, quality that makes them vividly mouthwatering and vaguely otherworldly. Instagram: @seeroro_
Why we love this work: You can’t eat these waffles, but you sure want to try.
Want to make your own digital illustrations? Check out Musketon’s new class on how to create vector textures with Adobe Illustrator, now on Skillshare!
Thumbnail/Banner image by Musketon
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