Harriet Russell

HARRIET RUSSELL

I've recently begun reading the brilliant Rainbow Rowell young adult novel 'Eleanor & Park' for the second time (you can check out my review here) and this morning I just happened to be looking at the striking cover art before I went for breakfast. The illustration was so simple and yet so cute, whimsical, pretty and it was entirely the kind of art that I just adore. I always seem to be drawn to the highly illustrative, graphics rooted art with black definitive lines, bold, block colours, a smattering of patterns, a combination of simple and intricate details, clear cut and cleverly thought out designs. I love it when an artist, illustrator, designer, uses their artistic skill to capture the world in that almost fairytale, cartoon, magical way. It's truly captivating. And that's the kind of art that catches my eye, intrigues my mind and which I find myself easily getting lost within. That's the kind of art I find pleasing to look at, which makes me feel happy, which means something to me and not only inspires me, but also inspires the artwork I produce too. So when I saw that particular illustration this morning, I found myself curious to know just who had produced that gorgeous little illustration, because chances were if I liked that, then I would definitely love the rest of the illustrator's work. It was worth finding out, and lo and behold who should the talented creative genius be but the lovely British freelance illustrator Harriet Russell.

Harriet studied at both Glasgow School of Art and Central St Martins, where she perfected her brilliantly unique, beautiful, quaint illustrative style, and now lives in London, from where she busily supplies realms of original illustrations for various publications, projects, companies and clients the world over. She also sells her artwork in store on various different items too, which means aside from drooling over her existing body of work you can also own your favourite Harriet Russell designs for yourself, which is rather wonderful indeed. I adore Harriet's work because of the unique way she uses illustration to capture the world, or blend various imagery together to create an entirely new concept. I also love the gentle, pale colour schemes, the quaintness and delicacy of her illustrative style, the clever intertwining of colour, texture and pattern, and personally I find her style to sometimes be very reminiscent of the artist Rob Ryan, whose work I also adore. I could just get lost in Harriet's work all day, and because I think she's just such a talented, original, amazing illustrator, I would love to brighten your Saturday morning too by sharing some of my favourite Harriet Russell illustrations with you lovely readers.

All images are taken from http://harrietrussell.blogspot.co.uk/ and belong to Harriet Russell!

If you want to see even more of Harriet's wonderful artwork, head to http://www.harrietrussell.co.uk/