Bill Carman has an approach that combines stylish exaggeration, line, painted rendering, texture, design and a variety of applications of color to achieve an entertaining and eye-catching range of illustrations, paintings and drawings.

Carman studied at De Anze College and Brigham Young University and is currently a professor of illustration and drawing at Boise State University.

In addition to his work for clients like Lucas Arts Entertainment, TSR, Opera Idaho, Ford Aerospace, UTNE Reader, and a number of other editorial and commercial accounts, his work has been featured in publications like the Society of Illustrators Annuals, American Illustration and the Spectrum collections of contemporary fantastic art. He is the author and illustrator of the children’s book What’s That Noise?, from random House.

The gallery on his own site is essentially just a shopping cart for giclee prints; of more interest is the wider range of work shown on his gallery on Boise State University, which is divided into sections like illustration, children’s books, paint stuff and draw stuff. I particularly like the pieces in the painted stuff section. Don’t miss the Altoids icon at the bottom of the pop-up that leads to a selection of painted Altoid tins, and the sketchbook link to the right of that.

There are also larger images of some of his paintings in the Tor.com gallery.

When I discovered Erin Kelso’s work on conceptart.org, I did my usual dig to see what else I could find about the artist, who was listed only as “bluefooted”.

I eventually found out that she also has a presence on deviantART, where she is also listed only as “bluefooted”, but no actual website or blog.

I eventually contacted her, found that she does have an actual name, and that she a PhD in evolutionary biology and a Master’s in zoology and is working for a university; and her art is done in her off hours.

Kelso is largely self taught as an artist (though I think I saw in a post that she is taking a class of some kind currently), and takes her inspiration from numerous sources. When I contacted her, she confirmed my thoughts that she was influenced by artists like Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Gustav Tenggren and Gustav Klimt; and mentioned contemporary artists like James Jean, Jon Foster, Yoshitaka Amano, Michael Kaluta in addition.

Kelso does her drawings in pen and ink, and sometimes pencil, scans them and applies color and textures in Photoshop and Painter. (She has a brief Fake Watercolor Tutorial on her sketchbook post on the conceptart.org forums – about halfway down.)

It is the strong design elements and artful use of texture that make her work particularly appealing for me. I also enjoy the pen and ink and watercolor approach that carries some of the flavor of both drawing and painting; and her nice combination of Rackham-inspired line work with areas of Klimt-like textures and patterns.

Peder Mork Mønsted was a Danish painter active in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Looking through his work you will find lush, color saturated paintings of his native Denmark, where Mønstead studied at the Copenhagen Academy, as well as landscapes from lands where he traveled, including Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, North Africa and Italy.

His paintings ring with a crisp, vibrant naturalism, emphasized by passages of sharp detail and strong value contrasts. The detail doesn’t keep them from being painterly, and lively with the feeling of the artist’s hand.

His subjects ranged from shade darkened streams, dappled with sunlight, to snow covered Nordic fields and the warm sun of the Italian coast.

Mønsted’s fascination with water and small streams remind me of Norwegian painter Frits Thaulow (also here).

Overall Mønsted’s style is a wonderful blend of intense, almost impressionistic color with strong academic underpinnings.