Illustrations Inspired by an Artist’s Rock Collection

Ella Webb creates finely realized illustrations that draw from her love of nature and geology in particular. Exploring geometric patterns and organic forms, Webb’s pastel-toned illustrations are informed by a practice of collection and research.

“I have a huge collection of Kodachrome slides which I started collecting two or three years ago, along with an ever-expanding rock, fossil, and mineral collection,” the artist tells Format Magazine. Webb is interested in the temporal identity of fossils and stones, noting that “the mineralogy of rocks tries to unravel the record of the geological past which they each contain.”

Beginning her sketches in Moleskine notebooks, Webb creates work with a tactile, richly layered feel, with dense lines of color evoking geological strata or layers of soil underground. It’s also easy to see the influence of Webb’s found slide collection in her illustrations; the jewel-like, tiny images contained in her slide photos often find new life in Webb’s work. Several slides of a volcano erupting, cast in an otherworldly blue, seem to reappear in the mountain range patterns lining the pages of Webb’s sketchbook.

See more of Ella Webb’s artwork at her website, built using Format.