Illustration Inspiration: Natalie Ferstendik, Rene Gruau, Panik & Martin Wollerstam

I stopped collecting stuffed animals, books and other large items in middle school because my family moved a lot, almost every year, and my mom was a moving nazi, trying to keep our personal possessions to a minimum.  This may be the reason why a lot of the things I keep are pieces of paper, pictures, postcards, letters, birthday cards--things that take up very little space.  Ironically, my closet at home is stuffed with boxes, large folders, albums and binders full of these flat things I can't get myself to get rid of (and banned my mom from touching).

This habit of collecting paper things followed me to London when I studied abroad and became worse--I was collecting everything: museum tickets, free magazines, club and gig postcards, vinyl covers, neighborhood maps, etc. as a source of creative inspiration.  Simple in idea, a sheet of paper can be a million things, look like anything and serve many purposes.  Here are a few artists I discovered--from collecting a few cards in London when I visited recently--whose illustrations are really inspiring:

1) Natalie Ferstendik - I bought this greeting card (first image) from a small store on Columbia Road because I thought the girl in the card reminded me a lot of myself.  The detail in her hair and flowers and the colors are absolutely beautiful (my scanner doesn't do the glossy card justice)

2) Rene Gruau - I picked up this exhibition reminder (first image) at the Somerset House where the Dior Illustrated Rene Gruau exhibit recently opened on November 10th

3) Panik - I found this postcard (first image) for Street Artist Panik's collection at the Pure Evil Gallery in East London

4) Martin Wollerstam - Club promoters were passing out flyers (first image, excuse the shitty scanner job) for WetYourSelf night at ultraclub Fabric

All images besides my postcards were taken from Google