His signature style is more of a doodle, with added witty remarks and comics-like speech bubbles. Some of his illustrated series include random facts and illustrated one-star reviews of well-known landmarks. According to Lowery, his very particular style has developed over time through daily practice.

“When I was little, I had a grandmother who was an artist and she encouraged my brother and me to keep sketchbooks,” he recalled in an interview with Travel Channel. “Later, I had a college professor who required we draw in one every single day. It really forced me to draw a lot. I used my sketchbooks as a place to experiment with how I draw, what I draw and what materials I use to draw.”

According to Lowery, he still keeps practicing daily in his sketchbooks. “Even when I’ve been drawing for clients all day, it’s that important to me,” he notes. “It was in these daily sketchbooks that I really found my voice.”

“My biggest bit of advice is to make a point to draw for at least 30 minutes a day,” he says. “For some, that seems really tough (it seemed impossible for me at first), but I think it’s incredibly important. You’ll find your voice and figure out how you like to work and draw. It’s also a great way of recording your progress as an artist.”

Take note!

The post This Illustrator Encourages You to Draw Every Day appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Based in Atlanta, GA, where she shares a home with her husband, child, and two cats, Wiehle has worked as a freelance illustrator for almost a decade now. She’s also a founding member of Paper Ghost Studio, a small illustration studio and gallery space in Candler Park, Atlanta, where she has been organizing art shows for the last two years.

“Even though Atlanta did seem alien to me in the beginning, I have grown to love it and am very thankful for all the creative people that I have met and become friends with,” she told Lake. “I still travel back to Germany as much as I can, so I can spend time with my family and friends and get my fill of the German breakfast and riding the train around Europe.”

Indeed, her work is very much inspired by her travels around the world. “I have a sketchbook in my bag that I take everywhere I go,” she notes. “I draw on flights, while sitting around at craft shows or at coffee shops. It relaxes my brain and reminds me why I like to draw. Drawing for jobs can get stressful, but drawing just for myself never does.”

With almost 10 books under her belt, as well as 125k followers on Instagram, Wiehle is clearly doing what she was destined to do. “I have always been drawing and ‘creating’ things and never really wanted to do anything else,” she admits. “I think I would be completely terrible at an office job.”

The post Katrin Wiehle’s Illustrations Appeal to Small Children appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My shop started when my daughter was born,” recalled Bream in an interview with the Etsy blog. “I had a desire to rid her room of anything that wasn’t natural (any polyester, plastic, etc.).  I was looking for something beautiful in its simplicity and innocence, and I wanted to accentuate that with colorful accessories. With that in mind, and with a nostalgic nod to my own childhood (perhaps in an attempt to bring old, faded memories back to life), Colette Bream was born.”

Nowadays Bream divides her energy between her business and her daughter. “Although she loves being around while I work, being a mom is my priority,” she notes. “Time goes by so fast and I consider myself lucky to be able to be home every day and watch her grow. I cherish taking our daily walks together and seeing the world through her eyes.”

Her daughter also provides an endless source of inspiration, when it comes to her artistic creations. “Imaginative play is such an important part of one’s childhood — that’s why I strive to create things that are inspiring to others,” she says. “For example: a cloud. A whole story can be created around a simple cloud. You can hang it up on your wall and start pretending, making up stories and imagining.”

Nature is also a huge source of inspiration for Bream, as well as her own childhood. “I was always a dreamer as a child and even now children’s aesthetics are very enticing to me as an adult,” she admits.

The post Colette Bream Makes Wonderful Wooly Friends appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in a small coastal town in Liguria, Italy, to a Filipina mother and Swiss father, Giordano describes himself as a tireless globetrotter (and a restless person), who now lives and works in Tokyo. After studying at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and at the European Institute of Design, he earned a Master in Animation in Turin. He now works for a number of magazines and publishing houses around the world, illustrating book covers, designing toys, and creating children’s books and animations.

“Tokyo is a box full of colorful things from all over the world, a concentrate of interesting selected stuff, which catch my attention,” reflected Giordano, describing his inspirational surroundings in an interview with Sense of Creativity. “When I need some inspiration I immerse myself in this rich minestrone soup. I like walking around the city and pick up some little treasures, like a vintage Japanese book from a second-hand market, a delicate ceramic from a hidden tiny shop,  or a little crazy character stored in a forgotten box.”

“Since my childhood, I  had the dream of traveling and drawing animals and plants as an explorer of the nineteenth century, with the aim to become an illustrator for magazines such as National Geographic,” he admits. “For me, illustrations meant the naturalistic ones, born from a close observation of nature. That is why I have never drawn the human figure, avoiding it for years from my works. Only by participating in a tour organized by my school to the Bologna Book Fair, I discovered the world of picture books. I was surprised by the idea of expressing something I had inside, telling a world of pure imagination. I thought: ‘Let’s try to make a book!'”

Take a look at some of his colorful observations in the gallery below:

The post This Illustrator is a Tireless Globetrotter appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The author of various children’s books, Coppo uses a mixed technique combining tempera, pastels, and digital collage. “I began studying illustration from zero,” she relayed in an interview with The Picture Book Review. “I didn’t know much about the world of picture books. Let’s say it was a bit of a gamble. Fortunately, when I opened the door to this world, I fell in love with it.”

Coppo says that the form and structure of picture books are unique and extremely stimulating. “I love reading them and the idea to give this form to my stories came quite naturally,” she admits, adding that making picture books is a hybrid between writing and drawing: two worlds in which she feels at home.

“Creating a book is an incredibly exciting and terribly frustrating experience,” she adds. “The aha-insight moment is amazing. I’m not a very methodical person and I tend to scribble down stories. When I first come up with a story, it seems perfect (it never is). Then comes the part that I have to make concrete all of the things that I have in my head and that’s when the trouble begins.” According to Coppo, working on a book can be a taxing exercise. “Often I fall in love with the idea and lose sight of the bigger picture,” she notes. “In practical terms, it comes down to making compromises.”

A fan of irreverent stories, free camping, mountains, and tenderloin with green pepper, this is one illustrator you’ll want to follow on Instagram, if nothing else.

The post Marianna Coppo Has Mastered the Art of the Picture Book appeared first on PlayJunkie.

A fashion designer for more than 20 years, she also needed a creative outlet after the massive change of being a stay at home Mum. “Luckily she did a 3-hour nap a day, which gave me the chance to draw and experiment,” she says. “My first illustrations were mainly colorful animals, personalized name prints and cartoons.”

Four years and one child later, her brand serves as a joyous celebration of childhood and the spirit of playfulness. Though simple, van der Meer’s designs and illustrations are precise in their composition and choice of color, with her work ranging from prints and cards to custom made birth announcements, party invites, and portraits.

A proud mother of two, she admits she finds inspiration in her children. “They inspire me every day with their curious outlook on life and all the funny things they say,” she gushed in an interview with the Printed blog. “Their colorful toys and books give me so much inspiration too,” she adds. “Dick Bruna is one of my favorites, as well as all the bold colors and patterns from the 70s.” 

Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post These Playful Designs Remind Us of the Joys of Being a Child appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she writes on her website. “I decided to learn how to embroider so I could make her a set of three owl dolls to play with.” She soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

After several years of improving her embroidery skills – and a ton of design work – Kiriki Press was born. “It was developed in the hopes of giving others the chance to make something precious with their own hands,” writes Galletta. As such the company produces D.I.Y. embroidery kits, screenprints, and other goods, meant to pass onwards her nifty designs.

Aside from making a small splash on social media (Kiriki Press’s Instagram page alone has thousands of followers), the company has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, Homespun, as well as many other print publications and craft blogs.

Here are some of our favorite designs:

The post Michelle Galletta Will Teach You How to Embroider the Cutest Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in 1964, she lives and works in Paris, where she produces children’s books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs, and jewels in limited editions (both for herself and for commissions).

Inspired by her travels around the world, Lete admits she’s also fond of vintage toys and old engravings, as well as the natural world. “I feel glad and happy to be able to inspire kids,” she once remarked in an interview with the Little Citizens Boutique blog. “I was myself very inspired by a couple of women I knew when I was a kid, and I wanted to be like them… so it is very important to be inspired by someone and to have a goal.”

Indeed, her work has a naive quality to it that appeals to both children and adults, and amongst her clients, you can even find some celebrities. “I don’t really know who my buyers are, because I sell only some few products by myself,” she says, “but I know that Tim Burton bought one of my rugs, also the boss of Laduree has one in his office and Charlotte Gainsbourg has also one rug.”

But though her work is playful, Lete admits she doesn’t actually design for kids. “I design and some products suit kids, but it is not my first goal,” she explains. According to her, her way of working is exactly the same if the product is meant for a kid or an adult.

Follow her Instagram page for more:

The post The Playful Art of Nathalie Lete appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“Last year around the spring, it was the first months of my pregnancy,” she shared on her website. “I was thinking of making something particular for these days of my life. Then, I came up with an idea of a baby ultrasound embroidery and announcing my pregnancy this way. I was imaging from her ultrasounds how my little one will look like, and thinking of a keepsake of these beautiful days. Now, this is a piece is a part of our nursery.”

Since then, her inbox has been bursting at the seams with inquiries regarding custom embroideries of ultrasound scans. “I have got many inquiries after my announcement, and after I while, I started to accept custom orders,” she wrote. “There become shortly a long backlog, more than I can handle especially as a new mom, hundred of emails at some days, I could not reply one by one, felt really upset about it. Embroidering is a slow process at all, and most of my current time is obviously dedicated to my little one for the moment.”

“I am more than grateful for all your lovely feedback, but this is the best I can do for the moment,” she explained. “I need to balance the number of orders and the time for my creativity flow, and creating free time, recharging, and having rest.”

In the meantime, check out some of her remarkable embroidery work in the gallery below.

The post This Artist Announced Her Pregnancy Through Embroidery appeared first on PlayJunkie.

They just can’t help it. They want to make sure that they capture every second of their little one’s life, especially during their first few months and as they grow old.

But, the thing is, most parents could use a few instructions when it comes to taking appropriate photos, or at least, ones that their children won’t be embarrassed about when they grow up.

For the children of Yota (yota7454 on Instagram), that’s not going to be a problem. Using his creative talent, Yota draws on his children’s family albums to add even more life to their precious little moments.

From taking his children to incredible adventures to transforming them into pop culture characters, this Japanese father’s creativity is equal parts amazing and adorable.

The post Japanese Dad Draws On His Toddlers’ Photos appeared first on PlayJunkie.

His signature style is more of a doodle, with added witty remarks and comics-like speech bubbles. Some of his illustrated series include random facts and illustrated one-star reviews of well-known landmarks. According to Lowery, his very particular style has developed over time through daily practice.

“When I was little, I had a grandmother who was an artist and she encouraged my brother and me to keep sketchbooks,” he recalled in an interview with Travel Channel. “Later, I had a college professor who required we draw in one every single day. It really forced me to draw a lot. I used my sketchbooks as a place to experiment with how I draw, what I draw and what materials I use to draw.”

According to Lowery, he still keeps practicing daily in his sketchbooks. “Even when I’ve been drawing for clients all day, it’s that important to me,” he notes. “It was in these daily sketchbooks that I really found my voice.”

“My biggest bit of advice is to make a point to draw for at least 30 minutes a day,” he says. “For some, that seems really tough (it seemed impossible for me at first), but I think it’s incredibly important. You’ll find your voice and figure out how you like to work and draw. It’s also a great way of recording your progress as an artist.”

Take note!

The post This Illustrator Encourages You to Draw Every Day appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Based in Atlanta, GA, where she shares a home with her husband, child, and two cats, Wiehle has worked as a freelance illustrator for almost a decade now. She’s also a founding member of Paper Ghost Studio, a small illustration studio and gallery space in Candler Park, Atlanta, where she has been organizing art shows for the last two years.

“Even though Atlanta did seem alien to me in the beginning, I have grown to love it and am very thankful for all the creative people that I have met and become friends with,” she told Lake. “I still travel back to Germany as much as I can, so I can spend time with my family and friends and get my fill of the German breakfast and riding the train around Europe.”

Indeed, her work is very much inspired by her travels around the world. “I have a sketchbook in my bag that I take everywhere I go,” she notes. “I draw on flights, while sitting around at craft shows or at coffee shops. It relaxes my brain and reminds me why I like to draw. Drawing for jobs can get stressful, but drawing just for myself never does.”

With almost 10 books under her belt, as well as 125k followers on Instagram, Wiehle is clearly doing what she was destined to do. “I have always been drawing and ‘creating’ things and never really wanted to do anything else,” she admits. “I think I would be completely terrible at an office job.”

The post Katrin Wiehle’s Illustrations Appeal to Small Children appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My shop started when my daughter was born,” recalled Bream in an interview with the Etsy blog. “I had a desire to rid her room of anything that wasn’t natural (any polyester, plastic, etc.).  I was looking for something beautiful in its simplicity and innocence, and I wanted to accentuate that with colorful accessories. With that in mind, and with a nostalgic nod to my own childhood (perhaps in an attempt to bring old, faded memories back to life), Colette Bream was born.”

Nowadays Bream divides her energy between her business and her daughter. “Although she loves being around while I work, being a mom is my priority,” she notes. “Time goes by so fast and I consider myself lucky to be able to be home every day and watch her grow. I cherish taking our daily walks together and seeing the world through her eyes.”

Her daughter also provides an endless source of inspiration, when it comes to her artistic creations. “Imaginative play is such an important part of one’s childhood — that’s why I strive to create things that are inspiring to others,” she says. “For example: a cloud. A whole story can be created around a simple cloud. You can hang it up on your wall and start pretending, making up stories and imagining.”

Nature is also a huge source of inspiration for Bream, as well as her own childhood. “I was always a dreamer as a child and even now children’s aesthetics are very enticing to me as an adult,” she admits.

The post Colette Bream Makes Wonderful Wooly Friends appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in a small coastal town in Liguria, Italy, to a Filipina mother and Swiss father, Giordano describes himself as a tireless globetrotter (and a restless person), who now lives and works in Tokyo. After studying at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and at the European Institute of Design, he earned a Master in Animation in Turin. He now works for a number of magazines and publishing houses around the world, illustrating book covers, designing toys, and creating children’s books and animations.

“Tokyo is a box full of colorful things from all over the world, a concentrate of interesting selected stuff, which catch my attention,” reflected Giordano, describing his inspirational surroundings in an interview with Sense of Creativity. “When I need some inspiration I immerse myself in this rich minestrone soup. I like walking around the city and pick up some little treasures, like a vintage Japanese book from a second-hand market, a delicate ceramic from a hidden tiny shop,  or a little crazy character stored in a forgotten box.”

“Since my childhood, I  had the dream of traveling and drawing animals and plants as an explorer of the nineteenth century, with the aim to become an illustrator for magazines such as National Geographic,” he admits. “For me, illustrations meant the naturalistic ones, born from a close observation of nature. That is why I have never drawn the human figure, avoiding it for years from my works. Only by participating in a tour organized by my school to the Bologna Book Fair, I discovered the world of picture books. I was surprised by the idea of expressing something I had inside, telling a world of pure imagination. I thought: ‘Let’s try to make a book!'”

Take a look at some of his colorful observations in the gallery below:

The post This Illustrator is a Tireless Globetrotter appeared first on PlayJunkie.

The author of various children’s books, Coppo uses a mixed technique combining tempera, pastels, and digital collage. “I began studying illustration from zero,” she relayed in an interview with The Picture Book Review. “I didn’t know much about the world of picture books. Let’s say it was a bit of a gamble. Fortunately, when I opened the door to this world, I fell in love with it.”

Coppo says that the form and structure of picture books are unique and extremely stimulating. “I love reading them and the idea to give this form to my stories came quite naturally,” she admits, adding that making picture books is a hybrid between writing and drawing: two worlds in which she feels at home.

“Creating a book is an incredibly exciting and terribly frustrating experience,” she adds. “The aha-insight moment is amazing. I’m not a very methodical person and I tend to scribble down stories. When I first come up with a story, it seems perfect (it never is). Then comes the part that I have to make concrete all of the things that I have in my head and that’s when the trouble begins.” According to Coppo, working on a book can be a taxing exercise. “Often I fall in love with the idea and lose sight of the bigger picture,” she notes. “In practical terms, it comes down to making compromises.”

A fan of irreverent stories, free camping, mountains, and tenderloin with green pepper, this is one illustrator you’ll want to follow on Instagram, if nothing else.

The post Marianna Coppo Has Mastered the Art of the Picture Book appeared first on PlayJunkie.

A fashion designer for more than 20 years, she also needed a creative outlet after the massive change of being a stay at home Mum. “Luckily she did a 3-hour nap a day, which gave me the chance to draw and experiment,” she says. “My first illustrations were mainly colorful animals, personalized name prints and cartoons.”

Four years and one child later, her brand serves as a joyous celebration of childhood and the spirit of playfulness. Though simple, van der Meer’s designs and illustrations are precise in their composition and choice of color, with her work ranging from prints and cards to custom made birth announcements, party invites, and portraits.

A proud mother of two, she admits she finds inspiration in her children. “They inspire me every day with their curious outlook on life and all the funny things they say,” she gushed in an interview with the Printed blog. “Their colorful toys and books give me so much inspiration too,” she adds. “Dick Bruna is one of my favorites, as well as all the bold colors and patterns from the 70s.” 

Here are some of our favorite creations by her:

The post These Playful Designs Remind Us of the Joys of Being a Child appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I couldn’t afford to buy her anything, but I hoped to make up for it with my time,” she writes on her website. “I decided to learn how to embroider so I could make her a set of three owl dolls to play with.” She soon found out that it was difficult to find contemporary embroidery patterns that weren’t overly simplistic, let alone embroidered doll patterns. And so, she ended up designing her own. “As I was making Madeleine’s owls, I became fascinated with embroidery: the vibrant colors, the countless variety of stitches, the calming effect it had on me,” she writes.

After several years of improving her embroidery skills – and a ton of design work – Kiriki Press was born. “It was developed in the hopes of giving others the chance to make something precious with their own hands,” writes Galletta. As such the company produces D.I.Y. embroidery kits, screenprints, and other goods, meant to pass onwards her nifty designs.

Aside from making a small splash on social media (Kiriki Press’s Instagram page alone has thousands of followers), the company has been featured in publications like Canadian Living, Chatelaine, Bust Magazine, Homespun, as well as many other print publications and craft blogs.

Here are some of our favorite designs:

The post Michelle Galletta Will Teach You How to Embroider the Cutest Designs appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born in 1964, she lives and works in Paris, where she produces children’s books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs, and jewels in limited editions (both for herself and for commissions).

Inspired by her travels around the world, Lete admits she’s also fond of vintage toys and old engravings, as well as the natural world. “I feel glad and happy to be able to inspire kids,” she once remarked in an interview with the Little Citizens Boutique blog. “I was myself very inspired by a couple of women I knew when I was a kid, and I wanted to be like them… so it is very important to be inspired by someone and to have a goal.”

Indeed, her work has a naive quality to it that appeals to both children and adults, and amongst her clients, you can even find some celebrities. “I don’t really know who my buyers are, because I sell only some few products by myself,” she says, “but I know that Tim Burton bought one of my rugs, also the boss of Laduree has one in his office and Charlotte Gainsbourg has also one rug.”

But though her work is playful, Lete admits she doesn’t actually design for kids. “I design and some products suit kids, but it is not my first goal,” she explains. According to her, her way of working is exactly the same if the product is meant for a kid or an adult.

Follow her Instagram page for more:

The post The Playful Art of Nathalie Lete appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“Last year around the spring, it was the first months of my pregnancy,” she shared on her website. “I was thinking of making something particular for these days of my life. Then, I came up with an idea of a baby ultrasound embroidery and announcing my pregnancy this way. I was imaging from her ultrasounds how my little one will look like, and thinking of a keepsake of these beautiful days. Now, this is a piece is a part of our nursery.”

Since then, her inbox has been bursting at the seams with inquiries regarding custom embroideries of ultrasound scans. “I have got many inquiries after my announcement, and after I while, I started to accept custom orders,” she wrote. “There become shortly a long backlog, more than I can handle especially as a new mom, hundred of emails at some days, I could not reply one by one, felt really upset about it. Embroidering is a slow process at all, and most of my current time is obviously dedicated to my little one for the moment.”

“I am more than grateful for all your lovely feedback, but this is the best I can do for the moment,” she explained. “I need to balance the number of orders and the time for my creativity flow, and creating free time, recharging, and having rest.”

In the meantime, check out some of her remarkable embroidery work in the gallery below.

The post This Artist Announced Her Pregnancy Through Embroidery appeared first on PlayJunkie.

They just can’t help it. They want to make sure that they capture every second of their little one’s life, especially during their first few months and as they grow old.

But, the thing is, most parents could use a few instructions when it comes to taking appropriate photos, or at least, ones that their children won’t be embarrassed about when they grow up.

For the children of Yota (yota7454 on Instagram), that’s not going to be a problem. Using his creative talent, Yota draws on his children’s family albums to add even more life to their precious little moments.

From taking his children to incredible adventures to transforming them into pop culture characters, this Japanese father’s creativity is equal parts amazing and adorable.

The post Japanese Dad Draws On His Toddlers’ Photos appeared first on PlayJunkie.