Olivier Tossan

Mixing strong visual forms with whimsical design this illustration is by the uber talented Olivier Tossan. Scene designer, graphic artist, illustrator, painter and sculptor, Olivier spent most of his life in Paris, France where he early on used drawing as a means of escape. Olivier studied Scene Design at the Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and for a decade put that degree to full use working on various architecture projects, exhibitions and trade fair designs. Olivier's drawings, paintings and sculpture have exhibited in various galleries in Paris and Berlin and he has created illustrations and artwork for publishing houses such as Libertion, Milan Press, Figaroscop, Bayard Press, Milan Editions, Editions De La Martiniere, Flamarion and Magnard Editions. Currently residing in Berlin, Olivier is also freelancing for Blue Sky Studios as well as other animation studios as a visual development artist and character designer.

To see more of Olivier's art please visit his website.

Nick Bruno

Displaying his love for bears and cute things, this illustration is by Senior Animator Nick Bruno. Inspired by Looney Tunes, the Muppets and Ren & Stimpey, Nick studied Illustration and Fine Arts at Umass Dartmouth, then continued on to receive his Masters at NYU in Computer Graphics and Animation. Starting his career in commercials, Nick soon landed a job with Blue Sky Studios animating on Ice Age: The Meltdown, the Oscar nominated short No Time for Nuts, Surviving Sid, Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and currently on Rio. As well as an Professor of Animation at NYU and a Mentor for Animation Mentor, Nick, along with three of his fellow animators and the occasional special guest, is a co-creator of TreehouseStudios, an episodic puppet adventure that makes light of all that goes into making an animated feature film.

To see more of Nick's creations please visit his blog.

Isaac Orloff

Freelance illustrator Isaac Orloff has designed a post office with personality in an homage to his school teacher who had a quirky postcard collection of cheesy motels with wacky colors. Raised in a family of illustrators, Isaac can be found working between the Baltimore Area and New York City where he recently finished a project with Digital Kitchen. Always looking for new projects, while looking to break into the motion picture industry, you will likely find Isaac sketchcrawling somewhere on the east coast of the United States.

To view more of his illustrations please visit his website.

Trevor Jimenez

Here's a comic styled colorful illustration by Canadian story artist and filmmaker Trevor Jimenez. Graduate of Sheridan Tech in 2007 with a degree in Animation, Trevor wrote, directed and animated a short film titled Key Lime Pie which picked up a Best Cinematography award at the TIFF student showcase, and 1st place in the most promising student category at the Teletoon scholarships. His film gained momentum and attention playing at the Toronto International Film Festival Student Showcase, The Montreal World Film Festival, Cinefest Sudbury, Ottawa International Animation festival, Barrie Film Festival, the Toronto After Dark Festival, the AFI filmfest in LA, and at Annecy in France. Soon after Trevor started working at House Of Cool with a short stop off at Blue Sky Studios as a Storyboard Artist on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs before heading to Los Angeles to the Walt Disney Company where he can be currently found working as a Story Artist.

To view more of Trevor's art please visit his blog.

Dermot Power

This beautifully rendered, space inspired painting was sent to us by Ireland's Dermot Power. Currently residing in London, Dermot is a movie concept artist who began his career as a comic artist for British anthology 2000AD in 1990. He moved over to movies in 97 and since then has served as a character designer and conceptual artist on films such as Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the Harry Potter series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Beowulf, V for Vendetta amongst others. Dermot just finished working with Tim Burton on Disney's soon to be released Alice in Wonderland. He is currently enjoying some rare downtime and using it to get his blog comic in good shape (featuring the pair in the painting above) and update his website.

Ellen Litwiller

Influenced by her work in natural history exhibitry, muralist Ellen Litwiller's lovely illustration is titled A Map of Friendship and Hope. After receiving a Masters Degree in Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ellen returned to to her native California where she began painting murals for natural history museums and parks. For over 10 years she painted murals such as those in the recently renovated Yosemite Valley Visitor Center, Yosemite National Park, California to those in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Currently Ellen is illustrating research documents for a California nature guide application while painting commissions and pursuing her own artwork. First Place Award winner in MOCA's 4th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Ellen exhibits her art in invitational shows and galleries throughout the Northern California region and beyond.

Bryan Useo

This subtly drawn triptych is from writer and visual storyteller Bryan Useo. Raised in Brooklyn and Youngsville, New York, Bryan received a BFA in Computer Animation from Pratt Institute. Having worked for Blue Sky Studios since the animated film Robots, he's worked his way up through many departments on Surviving Sid, Ice Age 2 & 3 and Horton Hears A Who!, to where he is now Set Supervisor and Pre-visualization Supervisor for the film Rio currently in production. Also, Bryan created and is co-directing a short animation presently in development at Blue Sky. He lives in a small house with his wife and dogs and enjoys watching mixed martial arts when he's not surf casting for striped bass. Bryan is also working on his first novel (finally!).

Jony Chandra

This sweet illustration is by artist Jony Chandra. The first in his family to leave his native Indonesia, Jony moved to the United States to pursue an art career.  Beginning in computer animation he realized quickly that computers where not for him, so leaving the digital world he earned his degree in fine art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. He got started at the Mural Arts Studio where he completed high end murals and mosaics which can be seen all over the United States.  Moving back into art and work in the digital realm, Jony's honors include the Best Drama Award for his contribution to the short story Fowl Play from alt.SHO.com at their First Annual Alternative Media Festival and was a matte painter on the 2008, three Primetime Emmy nominated documentary Life After People. Jony was invited to join the Blue Sky Studios crew as a Story Artist in 2006 for Horton Hears A Who! where he has worked on Ice Age 2 & 3, the short film Surviving Sid and most recently Rio.  An active participant of SketchCrawl, Jony can often be seen on the subway to work or home, sketchbook in hand, drawing away.

To see more of Jony's illustrations please visit his blog.

Tracey Atkinson

"Art, like eyes, offers a window to the soul" as does this portrait entitled Kid by New York City based painter and illustrator Tracey Atkinson. Through her richness of color and purity of line Tracey's artwork captures the intimacy of subtle emotion. Prior to her recent return to freelance artist full-time, Tracey dedicated herself to teaching art to the children at the Urban Assembly School for the Urban Environment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn where half of the Brownstones To Red Dirt documentary takes place. Educator as well as artist, some of Tracey's honors include Who's Who of American Women for Teacher of the Year 2006-2007 and the Certificate of Excellence Award for Outstanding Merit in Illustration from Pratt Institute 1999. As well as commissions and exhibiting her artwork in New York and internationally, her art will soon be featured in a short film called "In A Box" where the main character, who is an artist, is using Tracey's artwork as her own.

To see more of Tracey's art please visit her website.

David Dibble

Illustrator, graphic designer, muralist and fine artist David Dibble has created a figurative oil painting titled Light and Knowledge based on themes of classicism. Just as the great schools of antiquity were rooted in discussion and exchange, so the Brownstones To Red Dirt project creates opportunity for learning and growth through the sharing of ideas and experiences. Born and raised in Northern Utah, the farmlands of David's boyhood have influenced and inspired his artistic themes, compositions and designs which can be seen in his paintings exhibited in several galleries throughout the western United States. Following the completion of a set of large agricultural murals in Utah, David has recently begun working as a Color-Key Artist for Blue Sky Studios on the animated film production of Rio where basically he continues to do oil paintings on the computer.

To see more of David's art please visit his website and blog.

Emanuela Cozzi

Illustrator Emanuela Cozzi's most loved living organisms are trees, and the imagery used in her lovely painting titled Unity, comes from the belief that trees symbolize connection and strength and create union among life's greatest diversity. Emanuela is a women of many talents, besides being known for her work as an illustrator she is also a sculptor, character designer, storyboard artist and animator. Her career in film started to take off when she moved to London to join the crew of the Richard William's Studios and since she has worked for many well known companies including DreamWorks and Imagi Studios, with an impressive list of film work including Spirit, Sinbad, Over The Hedge and Shark Tale, to name a few. Having recently begun participating and exhibiting her art in events and benefits, it has awoken a desire to create an illustrated book which Emanuela is currently working on in her spare time.

To see more of Emanuela's art please visit her website and blog.

John David Thornton

This dreamy oil painting titled Milo comes from another talented Blue Sky Studios colleague, John David Thornton. As well as being a painter, music composer and jazz guitarist, John is also a veteran of the animation world. After working for Disney for many years and completing such movies as The Lion King, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Mulan and Lilo & Stitch, John can be found currently working as a senior fx animator for Blue Sky Studios where he has continued to add his unique talents which can be seen on Robots, Horton Hears A Who!, and Ice Age 2 & 3. John's effects work was recognized with a nomination for the 34th annual Annie Awards for an individual achievement in animated effects and was chosen to hold one of the prestigious Siggraph lectures where he covered the topic on directable simulations of stylized water splash effect in 3D Space. Examples of his detailed water illustrations and beautiful landscape oil paintings can be found on his website.

To see more of John's art please visit his blog.

Peter Nguyen

This beautiful oil painting shows off illustrator, freelance artist and rising talent Peter Nguyen's incredible skill. Growing up in Texas amongst a family of artists, Peter spent his childhood drawing and painting on whatever he could get his hands on. Currently working as a Color Key Artist at Blue Sky Studios his keys have influenced feature films such as Horton Hears A Who! and Ice Age 2 and 3 but Peter is best known for his contributions to the graphic novel community. His artwork can be found in Out Of Picture II and most recently in the DC Comics publication DC Holiday Special where, achieving a boyhood dream to be a comic artist, he illustrated a short story. From this, more possible collaborations with DC Comics are currently in the works! In addition to his printed projects, Peter's art has been exhibited in a many galleries nationally as well as in Paris, France.

To see more of Peter's art please visit his blog.

Christopher Gilligan

In his joyful illustration New York City's Christopher Gilligan has captured the spirit of the lovely Augusta, one of the children featured in the documentary Brownstones To Red Dirt.  Chris is a talented and funny artist who has worn many hats, from lead stop-motion animator on James and the Giant Peach, storyboard artist on Robots, Ice Age and Horton Hears A Who!, to Supervising Director for MTV shows and Director for the short film Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty for Blue Sky Studios.  Currently writing, Chris has just finished his first screenplay which we are all looking forward to seeing on "the big screen"!

Dennis Nolan

This dream-like postcard, by illustrator and author Dennis Nolan, is reminiscent of his award winning picture book The Castle Builder. Dennis' first book was published in 1976, he has since authored and/or illustrated many recognized books such as Dinosaur Dream, Sword in the Stone, Step into the Night and Fairy Wings (to list only a few). Known and respected in the illustration world, some of Dennis' awards include France's Prix de Zephir, the New Yorker and Newsweek Best Books of the Season, SCBWI Honor Book, SCBWI Golden Kite Best Book Award, Spectrum Best of Fantasy Art Silver Award and ARC Salon First Place Drawing. In addition to being an illustrator, painter and sculptor Dennis is also a teacher of Illustration at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, has exhibited his art at the Society of Illustrators, the National Sculpture Society, and has been selected for Spectrum Annuals and the ARC Salons.

Patricia Horing

Capturing the image of one of the girls from Sierra Leone, accomplished portrait artist Patricia Horing's postcard is entitled Augusta. Patricia's most recent honor is to be one of 50 artists out of 3,300 entries selected for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition's 2009 show currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC through August 2010!  Living and working in Larchmont, New York, Patricia paints psychological portraits and interior scenes that explore the tensions and pleasures of family, adolescence, and life in the suburbs.

To see more of Patricia's art please visit her website.

Elaine Bogan

Choosing to paint one of her favorite themes, birds, Elaine Bogan shows off her unique talent with this pretty illustrated submission. Canadian born and raised, Elaine comes from a house full of creativity. Since joining Dreamworks Animation as a storyboard artist she has worked on two feature films and a half hour show called Shrek The Halls. In her spare time Elaine also creates poster designs and illustrations for The Steven Allen Theater's quarterly issued program, contributes to various art benefits and blogs, and relaxes with her sketchbook.

To see more of Elaine's art please visit her blog.

Mike Boldt

This sweet illustration titled "Far Off Friends" is by Alberta resident Mike Boldt. From speech therapy products to video games and animation, from numerous pop-up books to comics and toy design, Mike has been illustrating almost exclusively for children for the last 10 years. In 2009 Mike self-published The Gopher's in Farmer Burrows' Field, his first children's picture book, which he both wrote and illustrated, and to date he's close to completion with his next one! Mike is particularly fond of cartoons, picture books, ice cream and most other things kids love.

To see more of Mike's art please visit his website.

Alen Lai

Alen Lai's great appreciation for the outdoors is clearly evident in his beautiful landscape painting. Originally from Taiwan, Alen now lives in New York working at Blue Sky Studios as a Senior FX Technical Director and Sequence Lead where he develops and supports the pipeline for the fx department and also writes tools for creating various effects throughout the production. He has worked on such films as Ice Age 2 and 3, Horton Hears A Who! and Robots and has been recognized for his work in animated film by numerous festivals including an Individual Achievement in Animated Effects nomination for the 36th Annie Awards. When he is not working on the computer he spends his time painting in nature.

To see more of Alen's art please visit his blog.

Jason Dryg

The pen pal theme inspired quite a few artists to think of birds found in the geographical regions of the film and San Francisco bay area native Jason Dryg's submission is another colorful graphic example. As an illustrator and founding member of the Local 303, a group of San Francisco based artists, Jason works in a variety of mediums which include digital, pen and ink, and the occasional traditional painting. Most of his favorite things are funny and he tries to convey this in his imagery which often mimics commercial art from the latter half of the last century.

To see more of Jason's art please visit his website and blog.

Shaun Tan

This colorful postcard is by Hugo nominated and multi-award winning artist Shaun Tan, one of Australia's best known children's book illustrators. Shaun's illustrated books deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery, and are described as ‘picture books for older readers’ rather than young children, as they deal with relatively complex visual styles and themes. Besides being an illustrator and author, Shaun is a concept artist for films such as Horton Hears a Who! and Wall-E, a designer/producer for theatre, and a muralist! His most recently published book is Tales from Outer Suburbia. Shaun's work has been adapted and interpreted in both film and music and currently he is directing a short film with Passion Pictures Australia.

To see more of Shaun's art please visit his website.

Mattias Adolfsson

A wonderfully whimsical interpretation of the Pen Pals theme, Swedish illustrator Mattias Adolfsson is an inventive artist who "likes to draw what he thinks". With a Masters of Fine Arts in graphic design Mattias has been a professional 3d artist since 1995, first with animations for music videos and film, then becoming involved in creating computer games. He began drawing again with a sketch blog in 2006, which since has been one of the most visited sketchblogs in the world and has given him freelance illustration work worldwide. Mattias has also started to exhibit his artwork, his most recent showing being a group exhibit in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently working on a children’s book.

To see more of Mattias's art please visit his blog.

Trip Park

Enjoy this fun and lively submission by illustrator Trip Park who, being an avid Painter junkee, made his first foray into non-digital media in years! Before he began illustrating full-time Trip was drawn to advertising and worked as an Art Director with agencies Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi where, working with many of his favorite illustrators, he was inspired to break out on his own. Illustrator for several children's books, including the Rotten School series with author RL Stine, Trip most recently has been working on character designs for some Blue Sky Studios' projects in development.

To see more of Trip's art please visit his blog.

Tom Blackford

London freelance illustrator and concept artist Tom Blackford's postcard is inspired by the charismatic Mailk and his disdain for Pokemon! Tom's illustrations, paintings and murals, which can be seen throughout the London area and beyond, are fused from his involvement in the street art scene, background in self-published comics and passion for Japanese history and pop culture. Exhibiting in gallery shows and related events worldwide, Tom's artwork resonates with a continually growing audience.

To see more of Tom's art please visit his website.

Chris Renaud

If one found these two pigeons on a trail marker, as in Chris Renaud's illustrated postcard, it would be at the foot of a bridge between two worlds. Annie Award winning and Oscar nominated writer and director, Chris' early career began as an illustrator and graphic designer drawing and writing comic books for both Marvel and DC Comics. Production designer of characters and sets to story artist, Chris' love of animation has taken him from Disney and Blue Sky Studios to his current position at Illumination Entertainment and Mac Guffe Ligne where he is directing The Lorax and the soon to be released Despicable Me.

Vincent Nguyen

Here we have a lovely submission from the talented Vincent Nguyen. Color artist for Blue Sky Studios by day, children's book illustrator and avid art collector by night, Vince started out in Houston, Texas where he began his artistic pursuit drawing dinosaurs and super heroes. He has worked on animated films such as Robots, the Ice Age series, and Horton Hears a Who! And as a well known children's book illustrator and contributor to many collaborative art books, Vince is widely published and always has another project in the works!

To see more of Vincent's art please visit his blog and website.

Willie Real

Here's Willie Real's amazing submission, titled the "3 Siblings Triptych". Blue Sky Studios' Willie Real has designed environments and characters for the animated films Horton Hears A Who!, Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs and currently Rio. Known for his signature orange pencil, Willie's graceful line drawings can be viewed in the collaborative book Out Of Picture 2 as well as the many art benefit auctions to which he is a frequent contributor. He also drew the beautiful Brownstones to Red Dirt illustration that's featured in this blog as well as on their website. Illustrator Willie Real is a true rising star!

To see more of Willie's art please visit his blog.

William Wray

William (Bill) Wray is mostly known for his painting style on the Ren and Stimpy Show, as well as his monthly strip in Mad Magazine and his collaborations with Mike Mignola on Hellboy Jr. Currently concentrating on his fine art oil painting, his postcard submission is a beautiful example of his urban landscape series where he chronicles fast disappearing pockets of industry, urban decay and places most consider not worth remembering.

To see more of William's art please visit his website.

David Catrow

Illustrator and/or author of more than 60 children's books, artist David Catrow's whimsical postcard is evidence of his love for dogs; especially the three dogs that lay all over his furniture! As a boy, David's favorite subject in school was drawing, aka math class, and fortunately for us all, even though he intended to pursue a "sensible" profession, drawing silly pictures turned out to be his destiny. Winner of numerous awards for illustration and cartooning, David's editorial cartoons have been syndicated to more than 900 newspapers in the United States and Canada and his art is held in many private collections as well as the permanent collections of the National Archives, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Museum of Cartoon Art in San Francisco.'

To see more of David's art please visit his website.

Caroll Spinney

The amazing Caroll Spinney has sent in two wonderful postcards. Author, artist and puppeteer, Spinney is most famously known for the voices and characters of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street for over 40 years. He's received 4 Emmy's, 2 Grammy's, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! Spinney's also received the Library of Congress' Living Legend award in 2000. Just think... for a short period of time while scanning these postcards, I held greatness in my hands. They could be yours.

To see more of Caroll Spinney's art please visit his website.

Tom Cardone

This beautiful submission from Tom Cardone surely sets the bar! An Art Director for feature films, Tom started his animation career at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, CA in 1990. He supervised the Background Painting Department on “Hercules”, and eventually moved on to Co-Art Direct “Emperor’s New Groove”. His Disney film Credits also include classics such as: “The Rescuers Down Under”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas", “Pocahontas" and “Chicken Little”.

He returned to New York in 2002 to join Blue Sky Studios to make “Robots” and Art Direct “Ice Age The Meltdown” and “Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears A Who”. He currently is in production on “Rio” (Spring 2011).

A passionate plein air painter, he lives on Long Island in Roslyn and Amagansett, and can be spotted painting the east end landscape all year round- rain, snow or shine- with his tuna salad sandwich at the ready when he needs to refuel.

His paintings can be seen at the Arthur T. Kalaher Fine Art Gallery in Southampton, NY or on his blog.