Hyperreal art, also known as Hyperreality art is a relatively new form of art and has close similarities to photorealism. Hyperreal paintings are convincing illusions of reality based upon photographic images, and Hyperreal painters have the ability to create something which convincingly looks very three dimensional with two dimensional media.

Mary Ellen Johnson creates giant hyperreal paintings of the most mouth watering looking food. Born in New Jersey and now living in South Carolina, Mary struggled with her weight as a child and was picked on by bullies, something she admits had a major impact on her life. In interviews, she regularly comments on her love-hate relationship with food. "On one hand it is a positive, giving comfort and communion with friends and family. But on the other hand, its excess has a very negative side, capable of destroying one's self-perception"

Her work spans a vast array of different food and types of cuisine - from hot dogs and M&Ms to bowls of steamed mussels and plates of sushi. The attention to detail in Mary's work is quite astounding. I am a huge foodie (not huge and a foodie but urh...*thinks*), as some of you may already know, so to me it is almost impossible to not completely fall in love with Mary's work. You can almost taste the sweet but slightly sour Morello cherries in her Big cherry a la mode, and you can definitely smell the butter melting on the stack of Big pancakes.

To see more of Mary Ellen Johnson's wonderful paintings, why not visit her → website.

My only warning is that I wouldn't go there on an empty stomach.

These miniature food sculptures are so intricate, that at an amazing 1:12 scale, they are small enough to fit on to the tip of your finger. Shay Aaron has perfected the art of recreating delicious looking meals and snacks out of Polymer Clay. To give you an idea of the proportions Shay works with, his portfolio includes a side salad which is the same size as a cent coin.

If you are interested in seeing more miniature food art, then have a look at a previous post I wrote about Stephanie Kilgast.

If you would like to see more art by Shay Aaron, head over to his Flickr stream.

I previously designed an illustrated birthday card for a regular customer of mine which included an assortment of cute cats and a dog. My customer was so pleased with this card that when she wanted to give a moving house card to the same friend of hers, she asked me to design something similar. I think I have mastered the fine art of drawing cute cats, I find thinking of odd expressions to give them easy, as well as fun. I also like to make some of them wear hats and I think one of the cats in this particular card is even wearing a Fez.

If you like your cute cats, I have also designed a cute cats wallpaper which you can download for your mobile phone, laptop or desktop computer.

As per usual, I have used a combination of Staedtler pigment liner pens in sizes 0.2 and 0.5 with Letraset ProMarkers for colour.

For Easter I made my friends some cute origami gift boxes which I filled with chocolate bunnies and mini eggs. In a future post, with the help of Ralph, I will show you how to make these cube boxes. They are surprisingly strong and will probably be able to carry a whole manner of items, and the real treat is watching your friends trying to work out how to open them.

This short animated film was created by Nadav Nachmany, an animation artist from Jerusalem, Israel. I don't want to tell you too much about the film as I don't want to give the ending away. However Nadav mixes together elements of 2D and 3D animation in a way that is not only clever and visually stunning, but also integral to the plot. I also love the use of colours he uses as well as the 1950's and 60's styling in his artwork.

To see more films by this artist, visit his → Vimeo page.

This stop motion animation was created by Boolab, a production house dedicated to motion graphics, animation and the development of other visual techniques. Boolab is a Spanish company based in Barcelona.

I particularly liked the inclusion of the pen in this short film. I love the way that the artist is able to interact directly with the animation by becoming part of the animation. The soundtrack has a really nice quirky feel and matches the pace and feel of the film perfectly. My only quibble would be that the film is possibly a little too short, so to compensate for that fact, I watched it about 12 times whilst writing this post.

To see more films by Boolab visit their → Vimeo page.

Each year, once I have designed and made my own mum's Mother's day card, it is tradition that I also design and make my better halfs Mother's day card too. Alex had a very specific design brief for me, which is fine because the more specific a request is, the easier it is to create. I am pleased with the final design, the pirate is supposed to be cute but kind of sassy at the same time. The parrot in the image is called Alex, he is a particularly naughty chap who likes to squawk expletives at passers by like poo or bogies. Is he based on anyone I know? Yeah, probably :)

Whilst hunting for inspiration for a suitable design for my own mum's Mother's day card, I found that there are approximately 3 standard designs available; shoes, cupcakes and flowers, with or without the inclusion of hearts and sequins. And as the whole point of making or creating something is that you are making and creating something that is unique, my goal was to come up with a design that was just that, unique and not available to buy in any shop.

Designing my mum's Mother's day card wasn't that difficult to do in the end. I just thought of a list of things my mum would like to do on her day off and then thought of a way that I could fit them all together into a singular image. My mum likes to snuggle in her armchair, with the biggest cup of tea whilst watching Castle Castle. To make it an extra special occasion, she also likes to complete this experience with a super soft blanket (known as the Blinket in my parent's house), and a slice or 2 of a nice traditional Victoria sponge cake.

These amazing paper sculptures are actually made from money, and as international currency can be found in a variety of colours, it makes for a very unusual, possibly expensive, but incredibly unique artist material.

The work you see here is all made by the Canadian visual artist Kristi Malakoff. She fully utilizes the vast spectrum of hues that are present in paper money from around the world to produce her eye catching scupltures. Her work combines elements of mathematical polygon and geometric shapes, origami and beautiful floral shapes. This is a fine example of when art, science and nature can be blended perfectly together to create something that will inspire people.

Kristi Malakoff is a BFA graduate of the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver where she won many awards and scholarships. Since graduating in 2005, she has participated in artist residency programs as well as exhibiting her works in both group and solo shows across the globe. Her work has been featured and reviewed in may canadian journals, newspapers and arts related publications as well as being held in private and corporate collections across Canada and the Unites States of America.

• Banknote sculpture 1
• Banknote sculpture 2
• Banknote sculpture 3
• Banknote sculpture 4

To find out more about Kristi and to see more of her work, visit her → website.

I love Springtime and I love chocolate, so what's not to love about Easter! As we come into late March and early April, you can tell the seasons are changing straight away. The days seem to be longer as the evenings stay brighter and warmer for longer. Seasonal flowers like Daffodils, Crocus and Tulips appear in parks and gardens and generally everything appears happier, especially after the coldness and darkness of Winter.

To celebrate Easter, I have made a range of colourful and fun cards for you to download, print and share. Easter bunnies, bunting and of course chocolate eggs are all hand drawn with added elements of collage.

• Happy Easter 1
• Happy Easter 2
• Happy Easter 3

I have created a few Mother's day cards for you to download and print. When designing these, I thought about the sort of things that my mum likes - she likes tea and cake and flowers. However she also has a soft spot for George Clooney - I'm not too sure how I would be able to incorporate the Silver Fox into my usual cute style - but for my Mum I'd try.

All cards are drawn by hand using black fine liners and and Letraset ProMarkers. I have also used some elements of collage.

• Mother's Day 1
• Mother's Day 2
• Mother's Day 3
• Mother's Day 4
• Mother's Day 5

Saiman Chow is a New York based artist working in a variety of media including painting, collage, illustration and design. Change is a short film which he co-directed with Sean Doughtery and Chad Colby. The animation doesn't use any special tricks or effects to amaze the viewer and it isn't particularly innovative or different. But what it does do is fill your mind with brightly coloured objects, some which may remind you of your childhood, some are just familiar things we see or use every day.

One of the comments on Youtube said that this film made them feel they were back in elementary school watching Sesame Street. The user who posted the animation gave it the title of The happiest stop motion video ever, and with over 4,500 likes, he may be right.

To see lots more of Saiman Chow's artwork and animations you can visit his → website.

This is a quirky animation that I found on one of my many repeat trips to Youtube. I really don't know much about the artist or the story behind the film, which is a shame. This is a fun animation with an addictive soundtrack. The song is Crimewave by Crystal Castles and Health.

I love the main characters constant look of bewilderment throughout this short. And !spoiler alert! check out the super hero costume about a third of the way into the film - this takes randomness to a whole new level.

Animator Steven Briand made this inspiring stop motion animation over a period of two months. Everything is perfect about this short film - the soundtrack and animation work seamlessly together and the entire piece has a wonderful fluidity about it. I really love the minimalist style of this type of animation.

Steven Briand is also known on Vimeo as Burayan. He graduated from Ensad, Paris, in animation. Steven specialises in animated short films mixing techniques such as live action and stop motion.

Jason Hull, also known as Jayfish on Flickr and Etsy, transforms cameras from the 1950's and 60's into unique, and cool night lights for children and adults. The retro lights are made by removing the shutter, film transport and as much extra plastic as possible to make the camera light enough to fit in a standard outlet.

Jason also only uses cameras that he finds at garage sales and flea markets. To view the whole set you can visit his → Flickr page

I made this wallpaper by first of all creating a landscape from shirts, which I scanned into my computer. The robot is hand drawn and then also scanned and the colour to the robot's eyes and body were later added in PaintShop Pro.

This wallpaper is available for free to download in the following screen resolutions - enjoy :)

• 320x480 (mobile/cell phone .jpg)
• 640x960 (mobile/cell phone .jpg)
• 1024x768 (.jpg)
• 1280x1024 (.jpg)
• 1680x1050 (widescreen .jpg)
• 1920x1080 (widescreen .jpg)

Elsa Lambent is a French designer with not only a degree in Product and Packaging, but a Masters in Advanced Studies in Luxury. Sweet Play is a diploma project she created as part of her studies, which explores greater interaction with food, namely chocolates.

Sweet Play is a selection of sweet components which can be fitted together with syrups, fruit and nuts to create unique chocolates, designed entirely by the consumer. You start off with either a white, milk or dark chocoate shell - each shell has a slot for a variety of different fillings including wafers, biscuits, nougat or caramel - and each shell has a depression on top that indicates which type of topping would complement each chocolate best.

I love the whole concept of being able to make your own sweets. There are probably an infinite amount of combinations that you could create, as long as you have the imagination, and the courage to do so. To me, this is like Lego for foodies, but, after you have had the fun of building your own, personalised chocolate treat, you also get the pleasure of devouring it. I would probably opt for a milk chocolate shell, a slice of marzipan in the middle and a nugget of crystallised ginger on the top. Yum.

You can read more about Elsa Lambent and Sweet Play at her → website.

Valentines day, the universal day of romance is the day where we traditionally exchange cards, flowers and chocolates with the people we love. But I think that the day is best for those who suddenly get the courage to tell the person who doesn't know that you fancy/like/love them that you, indeed, think that they are kinda special and fancy/like/love them.

Forget about texting, tweeting or even the classic Facebook poking, to me, the best way of telling someone that you have secretly had a crush on them for the past 12 months is to send them an anonymous card, and then hope that they either realise or don't realise that it is from you depending on how brave you are.

This is a selection of Valentines cards that I have designed. I have used a variety of techniques, including paper cutting, illustration and collage. You might feel that my designs are a little cute, wobbly and quirky, but in a way, so is love!

So feel free to download, print and use these free Valentines day cards, and go on, tell someone you fancy them!

• I love you 1
• I love you 2

This is officially the 100th post on Majolo, so in true illustrator style, I have made a picture. Under normal circumstances any celebration would have involved logging onto Hungryhouse and ordering either a Pollo alla Milanese (Chicken fillets coated in Parmesan cheese served with Spaghetti) or a very large Holland Pizza (hollandaise sauce, bacon, red onion and Italian sausage, topped with rocket salad). But sadly it's gone all healthy in Camp Ralph at the moment so now we stretch our celebrations to doing an illustration and drinking a glass of cold London tap water. I am so hungry I may just pretend my yellow and orange ProMarkers are lumps of cheese, and eat my pens!

Anyway - here's to the last 100 posts and I am truly looking forward to reaching my next goal of 200.

I always find the beginning of a new year to be quite exciting, it's a chance to reflect on the past 12 months and plan for the next 12. For me, it's all about how I can be healthier, happier and more creative! The expression 'Out with the old and in with the new' is so cliche but, it also does have a lot of truth in it. To me, as an artist, the new year is like starting on a new sheet of paper, however, this year I may need a bigger metaphorical desk as I am hoping that, with what I've got planned for 2012, I'm going to need a huge piece of paper.

At the time of writing this post it is the start of January 2012. And as the start of the new year isn't complete without a brand new calendar, I felt it appropriate to round up a selection of the most creative and inspiring calendars that I could find.

First of is a really cute DIY papercraft stand-up calendar made by Scout Creative, a design company based in Portland, Oregon. The downloadable PDF, which includes easy to follow instructions is available to buy from their Etsy shop. Each month has it's own character and theme and some come with special accessories.

The rest of these calendars are also available to buy from Etsy - these are just a few that I loved, but trust me, there are lots of great ones out there...

• Cute printable animals by Loopz - view Etsy shop
• Don't count the days, make the days count - view Etsy shop
• Letter press - view Etsy shop
• Little colourful peacock - view Etsy shop

This Christmas card design was made for my Mum and Dad. The letters and trees are all cut by hand using a Fiskars finger tip craft knife, the stars are made with a craft punch. I like the way that some of the letters are actually cut into the background of the card to match with the trees at the bottom.

This card is part of a set that I designed for Christmas 2011, the 3rd of which can be viewed → here.

This card was designed for my family who live in Cyprus - my brother, sister in law, and 3 gorgeous nieces. I wanted to use a combination of warm tones mixed with some gold. The letters and trees are all cut by hand using a Fiskars finger tip craft knife, the stars are made with a craft punch.

This card is part of a set that I designed for Christmas 2011, the 2nd of which can be viewed → here.

Inspiration for this card came to me whilst watching the BBC's Frozen Planet. I made this card for my sister and wanted to keep the colours very soft and pretty. The textured white card in the background is supposed to resemble snow and the snow flakes are made with a snowflake punch. You can buy similar at Handy Hippo.

This card is part of a set that I designed for Christmas 2011, the 1st of which can be viewed → here.

Every year I make the decision to only give out handmade cards, and every year I end up in a mad panic because one minute it is August and then next minute it is December and not only have I not started making any cards, but I have also realised that I have family in Cyprus and North Wales that I need to post the cards to ... *pauses for breath* Christmas always comes too quickly.

I love getting a handmade card from someone. I still have Christmas cards that my niece sent me when she was younger where she has gone through a variety of crafting techniques and experimenting, including painting, collage and of course, glitter pens! There is something so special about receiving a handmade gift or card from someone, the uniqueness, creativity and love that goes into making something yourself can never be matched by something that is mass produced and sold in a shop.

Making cards using cut paper is a fairly new concept for me, so I have started with fairly basic shapes and designs. I enjoy using typography in my artwork so using mainly text in the design of this card made it more fun for me to make. I wanted the colours to be warm but with just a hint of seasonal sparkle.

This card was made for Beth and Janet who are part of my extended family in North Wales.

Growing up, our family always had a big tree. Sometimes we would buy a real tree, and sometimes we would get the fake one out of the loft. But either way, it was always green and always around the 6ft mark. Now-a-days due to size constraints (my flat is what you might call spaciously challenged), I have had to be more imaginative with regards to my choice of seasonal decorations. I've decorated house plants, made paper trees and my favourite to date is the Lego Christmas tree I made last year.

This Christmas tree however is on a completely different scale to anything that I could build in my current home. This tree is currently (December 2011) taking pride and place in St Pancras railway station in Central London. It is approximately 10 metres high, has 1,000 baubles attached to 172 branches, took 2 months to build - and is made entirely from Lego. Duncan Titmarsh from the professional Lego building company Bright Bricks created the concept for the tree. Children from local schools along with the Harpenden Explorer Scouts helped to put the tree together.

To me, this tree encompasses all the good things about the season of goodwill. It is a fun idea which not only brought people together in the creation and construction, but it will continue to bring people together throughout Christmas as visitors to the station will gather to see this amazing example of creativity and innovation. I know myself, that I can't wait to find an excuse to end up on that side of London before the new year.

Other fantastic trees that I would like to share with you are:

• Recycled plastic bottles and zip ties tree - Kaunas, Lithuania - 2011
• Pac man tree - Madrid, Spain - 2007
• Knitted Christmas tree - The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK - 2006
• Recycled cardboard tree - Kit from Makedo - instructions from Instructables