artist spotlight: gavin aung than

I browse the web on occasion… usually following links from here to there that I’ve seen on Pinterest of Facebook. (There hasn’t been time for that for the past few months.) Every once in a while a gem comes through that is worth watching. 
It’s a website where inspirational quotes from famous people are adapted into cartoons. The artist, Gavin Aung Than, is a cartoonist based in Melbourne, Australia. After working in the corporate graphic design industry for 8 years he quit his unfulfilling job at the end of 2011 to focus on his true passion, drawing cartoons. Gavin launched Zen Pencils at the start of 2012, a cartoon blog which adapts inspirational quotes into comic stories, and hasn’t looked back since.

I seriously love his work.

My kidlets fight over who gets the tear-out poster from his first book. I just bought a second copy of it so that I could cut out some of the illustrated quotes and tape them to their walls. You can find his posters here.

He just announced the availability of his second book, Zen Pencils-Volume Two: Dream the Impossible Dream.  I’ve already pre-ordered my two copies. 

It will include my favorite illustration of a quote from Amelia Earheart: The fears are paper tigers. Than’s illustration brings it to life in a way that captured my heart and my mind! C’mon – go look at it now. Then support an artist who is making the world a better place by buying his book. 🙂 You’ll be glad you did!