Swedish illustrator Martin Nicolausson’s delightfully ambiguous portraits

It’s been over year since we last featured Martin’s delightful work and there’s a great selection of recent illustrations in his portfolio. Throughout this new slew we see Martin experimenting with shapes, forms and faces in both his commercial and personal projects. Still creating work for clients including Refinery29, Wallpaper* and The Economist and The New York Times, the Swedish illustrator is known for his digital and analogue approach.

In a series of portraits, smiley visages look as though they’ve been constructed out of found objects and facial features, like naive potato prints for the digital age. The sunny disposition of these ambiguous depictions is elevated by a pleasing mix of muted green and blue tones with lighter pops of pastels. The texture and shade bring his illustrations to life and the minimal detail of his simply composed characters is endearing.