Illusive 3, the third volume of the Illusive series is out! I would really like to thank everybody at Die Gestalten Verlag, specially Henni Hellige and Julian Sorge, for letting me be part of it. For all illustrations lovers, the Illusive series is a MUST and here's a brief information about this third volume:

Illusive. Contemporary Illustration Part 3

Editors: R. Klanten, H. Hellige
Language: English

Release: August 2009  
Price: € 44,00 / $ 65,00 / £ 40,00
Format: 24 x 30 cm
Features: 340 pages, full colour, linen hardcover, reading ribbon
ISBN: 978-3-89955-250-8

"Illusive 3 is a survey of current illustration from around the world; unlike other titles on this subject, all of the work was selected for inclusion based solely on its artistic merit. In it, a trend toward Neo-Realism can be discerned that is demonstrated by the willingness of today’s magazines to use illustration in almost the same way as they do photography. In general, the illustrations featured in Illusive 3 have become more differentiated and complex – the spontaneous-looking scribbles of years past have given way to elaborate, multi-layered collages. The variety of styles and new design approaches is impressive. Illusive 3 includes a broad range of illustrations including personal work, fashion illustration and commercial projects, revealing a diversity that explains how the design discipline functions. At the same time, the book outlines current developments and the many design approaches that coexist today. Because it is hard to keep an overview amid so many attractive possibilities, texts and interviews with leading design agencies provide context and give surprising insights into techniques, methods and motivations."

Taschen recently released the third volume of ILLUSTRATION NOW, a great illustration showcase with 150 artists from 30 coutries all around the world. The book is edited by Julius Wiedemann and has an introduction by Steven Heller on current trends on the field.

Along with me, Brazil is proudly represented by great artists and friends, such Daniel Bueno, Glauco Diógenes e Carlo Giovani. Fellow artists Robin Eley, Brian Hubble, Jason Seiler, Kyung Soon Park and Koren Shadmi from Levy Creatives also on the book!

And you can take a peek at Taschen's leaf through. Don't want to waste time? Jump to page 236!

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Not convinced? I'll give you 3 reasons to get the book NOW: Frank Stockton, Fuco Ueda e Matthew Woodson. Enough said...

A legend died last week. Les Paul. Musician. Inventor. The genius behind electric beauties such as the Gibson Les Paul and Gibson SG. In 2008 I had great joy to be invited to join Discovery World in the making of the exhibition Les Paul's House of Sound, comissioned to create a portrait of Les. There are no words to describe him and even though I'm not much af a writer, I tried at that time to express my eternal relationship with the Gibson Les Paul in one of my newsletter. I would like to share it with you today.

Kakophonics: A Kid's Worship

When I was a kid there was this shop close to home with all kinds of classical and tradicional instruments: trumpets, trombones and tambourines, violas too and a lot of violins. And probably because the old lady who owned the place was very religious, it had countless wooden organs like the ones in church, created to reproduce old pipe organs sounds, with colored buttons all around, each one of them set to play strange noises that tried to imitate other instruments. For us kids it was all fun, we hanged around playing every each organ, seeking the most cacophonic combination of sounds we could get. Between a tremolo or two my interest for music begun. “Sit and play” they said, and so I pressed my first and last keys from those wood wax smelling organs. First and last, because I never get to learn a single piano chord after what happened.

Just like Moses opened the sea, they put aside all organs and opened a huge space right in front of the store window. And then electric guitars and basses arrived and were hanged all over the walls, amps were lined up one by one, pedals took the places of the metronomes on the shelves, a demoniac invasion on the musical house of the Lord. And there I saw her for the first time. Black. Beautiful. It was the first time I laid my eyes on a Gibson Les Paul, my first love, even before any girl I can remember. I came back every day just to see her up on that wall and different from all other instruments before she became sacred, a Graal found, you didn’t touch her, you didn’t ask to touch her, you didn’t think about asking to touch her.

For a long time that guitar stayed put and I came back to admire her each one of those days until I became a teenager. Nobody bought it for so long that I started to believe she was mine-all-mine, that the old lady understood my devotion and wouldn’t let anyone get between me and my beloved one. The veneration continued and after begging shamelessly for her, my parents said that the guitar was too expensive for me. So I got a Giannini Supersonic, ugly as hell, looking like those melted clocks from Dali’s paintings. But I liked to play with her, after all she was my first and the first one we never forget. But it wasn’t the same and she somehow knew that. She knew her end was near.

She was sold without regrets after a long time forgotten on a corner, by the shadows of the other one, still unreachable. At that time I collected all pictures from my heroes with their black Les Pauls; Slash’s Sunburst was nothing compared to Izzy’s dark Custom. But for a 15 years old boy pictures weren’t enough and that lonely devotion was getting boring. Ironically it helped turn the attention to other beauties around. I “just looked” so much to her that I knew every detail from its body, so I used that to my favor while drawing Guns on the notebooks of the girls at school, but that’s another story.

Izzy’s Guns was gone and soon came Iha’s Pumpkins, and the old black Custom remained my favorite whenever I had to draw a guitar. Aesthetically Les Paul is perfect. Like a saint, she accepts anyone without prejudice, it fits any band, anyone, specially if you are holding a black one. So it came the day that the most black of them all became mine. Browsing over the internet I came across the Les Paul Gothic, a limited edition created by Gibson in 2002, entirely black with a gorgeous matte finishing that resembled velvet, black shield and pieces and no markings on the frets, just a moon and star inlay at the 12th fret. Black. All black. And it would look so cool with the horrible mohican hairstyle and dark fingernails that I can not believe I use to wear. I rushed to all stores asking for that Gothic Goddess and unbelievably nobody had heard about it! I yelled at those infidels so much and still nobody believed me “She exists, she is coming! She is coming! You’ll see!!!”. Frustrated, I left my number and email just in case and went straight back home. Fortune comes for those who wait and 4 months later she arrived. The first one in Brazil. My first Les Paul. Black. All black. With a moon and star at the 12th fret.

Rock on!

K