Art and language, Artist research - Thomas Flintham

Thomas Flintham first studied fine art at university but then went on to get a masters in illustration, he has illustrated many book covers since getting his masters in 2009. In 2010 he was commissioned to illustrate the front cover for the book "The Cardturner" whose author also wrote the book "Holes".
The Cardturner has a beautifully illustrated front cover which came in either blue or red.

Flintham normally draws straight onto the computer using his graphics tablet, he also works traditionally with ink and pens! 
i could really relate to this artist because of our similar use of tools to create our images. i was getting really stressed out with trying to draw a detailed book cover and then i came across this guy, his work is busy but the content is simple, so i took on his style for a bit to allow myself to chill out.

His image making is busy and well thought out, but it's the way that he fills his image with lines and texture that really does it for me. the image itself is but a shell holding in all of his beautiful linework.

Reminds me of the ice king from Adventure Time. Here the empty space is used to fill in a large part of this character. white on black always looks good. 

I read that he takes a lot of influence from comic books, graphic novels and Japanese cartoons  which is now clearly noticeable. The random characters which just pop into the scene appear to have no relevance but they mimic the Japanese spirits that always seem to pop up in cartoons and films such as Spirited away and Ponyo.      

I like the simple trees and the little accent lines really make them pop, i can easily see myself drawing some trees in this way, both of these images are published books and they work really well as both an image and a cover, though the simplicity of the image does make the image appear slightly cute, even with rabid bears lurking in the trees the soft shapes don't allow much to the violent imagination. could be a problem when trying to make a cover for the hunger games. 

Love the white accents on this little bear! i want to experiment with colouring some trees this way, the lines could make my dull silhouettes very interesting to look at, the lines could also be foil? maybe.