Illustrator and printmaker, Blair Kelly, shares with us his favorite images and describes in his own words the inspiration and the idea behind each image.

BK:  AwardsShowImage (above image): I was commissioned by the KRW Awards Show in Toronto to create an image to represent the show appearing on programs, posters, tickets, online and on stage. (I actually won Gold- Best Illustration for another image at the same show, see next attached image).  The Kenneth R Wilson Awards celebrates the best in B2B magazines in Canada so I really just wanted to create a visually captivating image that also kind of referenced the Olympics (which was also happening that summer).

 BK:  Twitter Fraud: This image was created for CA Magazine for an article on Fraud and how social media users can make themselves vulnerable to fraud by sharing too much information. I really wanted to portray a bird, but not exactly the Twitter bird, and loved the idea of someone using a bird sock puppet to trick the bird into talking/tweeting. Since there are a lot of people online who pretend to be someone else, I thought this was fitting. This image won Gold – Best Illustration @ the KRW Awards Show in Toronto in 2012.

BK:  Online Mobs: Created for Marketing Magazine for an article on anger and how quickly it can spread online, creating online mobs.  I think it’s fairly simple but powerful.

BK:  Sobriety: Published in Scientific American Mind Magazine for an article on Emotional Sobriety and how recovering alcoholics should detach from their emotions as a recovery tool. I went literal with the detaching part.

PetLoss: I was commissioned by Time Out Chicago Kids Magazine to come up with an image about kids coping with the death of a pet. I submitted several sketches and this was the idea they decided on which also was my favorite. I now have 2 dogs but never had a pet as a child and therefore never lost a pet so this really made me emotional thinking about hard it would be for child, let alone an adult.

BK: Beach Girl: This was a personal piece and i really just wanted to make something pretty. I was inspired on a trip to Mexico when i noticed how all the long-haired women wring their hair out when getting out of the water.

To see more of Blair Kelly’s work go to his website and Altpick page.