I’ve found her! The maker of my all-time favourite video in all of existence! I’ve finally found out who the genius behind it is and it feels like I just discovered some miraculous new species of insect or something, that’s how positively elated I am. I’m like a kid on Christmas morning hyped up on sugar and bouncing off the walls! It’s frightening how excited I am right now. She’s the one and only, illustrator Julia Pott, and her work is positively electrifying! I just spent the last few hours perusing her Flickr stream and oh my word, it’s like I’ve died and gone to illustration heaven. A wonderful illustration filled heaven complete with copious amounts of charming little animals, unusual colour palettes, and patterns galore!

For those of you who have been with me and my blog for a little while, you may recall me gushing ad nauseum about My First Crush a few times (I ended up dedicating an entire entry to it at one point. Check it out here.). Like I said, it rocks my world hundreds of times over. It’s an adorable little video/interview detailing a handful of stories about first crushes. So delightful.

Stills from My First Crush

In addition to My First Crush, Julia has also illustrated/created a handful of other whimsical animated mini-films which you can view on Youtube here. Because I couldn’t help myself, here’s a handful of stills from her various videos a) because they’re gorgeous in an of themselves, and I think that speaks for itself – stills that are incredible as stand alone pieces of art… wow, and b) this is my attempt to entice you into viewing them. Watch and fall in love, my friends. Watch and fall in love.

Casiotone the Painfully Alone

Howard

Here Come The Waves

And a few stand-alone illustrations:

Tell me you’re not falling all over yourself in adoration right now. I pretty much idolize, borderline worship her and her work. All of her characters are so wonderfully individual and filled with personality. And her carefree and spontaneous approach to patterning, use of “visible brush strokes” (not sure what the technical term for that is, so I’m making one up), the vivid and unexpected colour combinations, the humorous little exchanges of words between figures… lovelovelovelove her work! I have many illustrator crushes, but she is definitely my number 1 now! I’m so glad I happened upon her work and could finally put a name to the beautiful work I’d been admiring all this time.