Melbourne illustrator Marc Martin is a quiet achiever. He created this incredible collection of bold and beautiful A-Z illustrations for a very special self initiated project - a little book entitled 'The Curious Explorer's Illustrated Pocket Companion to Exotic Animals A-Z'. It is TRULY so exquisite - though the book itself is rather little(!) - so if you REALLY want to admire Marc's amazing animal illustrations, you should definitely pop over to the online shop and nab a limited edition A4 giclee print! Beautifully printed in vibrant colours, they're a steal (most are $50!) - and such perfect painterly pieces for any little person's bedroom!
Marc would also love to give you opportunity to WIN one limited edition print (of your choice!) and a copy of his sweet little book!
FIRST please share the love by visiting Marc's website and having a browse through the full collection of prints!
THEN pop back here, and leave a comment letting us know your FAVOURITE illustrated exotic animal.
A winner will be selected at random and notified by email tomorrow. How lovely! Thanks Marc!
I asked Marc a few questions about this beautiful little project - What inspired you to create the 'Curious Explorers' book? The idea behind the book was to do a bit of a world safari of animals. I like the 'old world' idea of bizarre, unknown creatures in far away lands, when people weren't very familiar with a lot of animals and the notion of the 'exotic' was still new. I drew a lot of inspiration from old books on flora and fauna – Ernst Haeckel's 'Art forms in Nature' is a big influence, as are my illustration heros Eric Carle, Charley Harper and Bruno Munari. How long have you been working on this project?
The idea for this project started over a year ago when my lovely partner Skye and I were traveling overseas. I did a lot of drawings whilst we travelled, and some of those drawings (especially the drawings of Borneo and Indonesia) somehow developed into this book. The feedback from the first book I did (A Forest) was really positive, so I knew that there was an opportunity to carry that momentum through to another book. Which is your favourite print!? Hmm, I think the Loris is probably my favourite - I love their big eyes. I actually spend way too much time on Youtube looking at videos of them!
The Curious Explorer's Illustrated Pocket Companion to Exotic Animals is, as the name suggests, perfectly 'pocket-sized' and assembled by hand, with a soft cover. What would be AMAZING, I reckon... is for this beautiful project to be published properly, with a beautiful hard cover... and distributed to all the best book shops in the land! Now I KNOW there are some clever publishing people reading... if Marc's stunning work has struck a chord with you today, he would love to hear from you! That's all I'm SAYING.