The Illustrations Of Elwood H Smith:

As an illustrator myself, it is always inspiring to look at the work of successful individuals from my field of practise. Elwood H Smith lives in New York, but his work can be seen internationally in books such as Hot Diggity Dog, Raise The Roof, and The Truth About Poop.

He draws in a style that resembles a comic strip, and more often than not he includes speech bubbles in his work. I am a great fan of his simplistic drawing style, he makes clear the expressions of his characters through exaggerated posture and animated movements.

To see more of Elwood H Smith’s work, click here.

Blot:

[Any links below lead only to screenshots]

It doesn’t take much to notice how high the bar has been set in the Games Industry for graphical representation of characters, landscapes, flora and fauna; it only takes a look at recent years to see the likes of Mass Effect 3, Rage, Skyrim and suchlike to find a truly awesome display of photo-realistic textures, high quality meshes, and mind-blowing attention to detail (accompanied by smooth frame rates) that generally make up the recipe for a hyper-real gaming experience. When the industry is dominated by a constant push for photo-realistic, better-than-last-time graphics - it is eye opening when a game with a strong visual style, that departs so much from this way of thinking, draws the attention of both casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Games like Angry Birds Space and Blot go against the grain, tearing away from strong, realistic detail - and developing more of their own visual, graphical trademark.

Essentially, Blot is a mouse driven game - where the player controls a blot of ink through a page, avoiding obstacles. Blot does not stick to one consistent art style, using a blend of 8-bit graphics and smooth vectors; complete with tea stained paper and sketchy doodles to fill the background. This art style reminisces gaming’s arcade roots, keeping in tact with the present by implementing a fresh, clean-cut graphical style.

A truly charming and beautiful game to play, Blot is backed up by some wonderful audio that really completes the experience. It is refreshing to see the difference that a solid art style makes, and how important it is in creating a fresh and aesthetic piece of work - be it oil painting, magazine layout, business cards, or indeed, games.