L. Filipe dos Santos

L. Filipe dos Santos is a Portuguese illustrator born in 1978. His work is almost exclusively a study of human form, more specifically of facial expression. The way that the characters are drawn usually gives them a sense of animation as though they are a frame in mid movement which is a really impressive skill.
I think that this is a achieved through a slight exaggeration of scale in some parts. This is often used in animation because you can take great liberties with scale and proportion if images are in quick succession.
Used in the context of these illustrations it gives the characters more life.
Despite the stylised slight cartoon effect in most of the images they still retain personality and humanity and the focus is on the content of each image and not on the fact that they are clearly drawn and are not real.

The style shown in the two portraits above is interesting because it represents a messier approach to illustration but with incredible detail. This is a much more artistic style of illustration than conventional illustrative graphic design would conform to but it still creates a really nice effect. I like the fact that the illustrations don't have to go right to the edge of the paper or even round off properly; they can just end and you still understand the form that is being communicated.