It was by divination and some clever spins of the link hat that I found illustrator Zina Saunders – but it’s no random splotching that gets her paint to the patron. She’s an illustrator for hire, working in color, seeming most recently to be finding a muse in everyone’s favorite Alaskan big game hunter. Sarah Palin appears several times in Zina Saunders portfolio, but that’s only sprinkles on the delicious cupcake that is her collection of painted and delightful unique forms of humans. Fantabulous colors and form!

My passion is discovering and revealing the extra-ordinary nature of ordinary people. It all began with Overlooked New York and has grown to include series about politics, working people, illustrators and art directors , Zimbabweans and anyone else that catches my eye or imagination.

I’ve been a writer-illustrator for more than 15 years. In addition to contributions in a variety of periodicals (including The Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, The Progressive, The Nation, and Foreign Policy magazine), my client list includes Chronicle Books, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, and Oxford University Press.

I think my favorite set of pictures Saunders has done is the “Overlooked New Yorkers” set. Several of these are sitting down below there: I love the found individual. What’s more interesting that the eye focused on the strange nature of any one single person? Especially if they’re from the apple.

Portraits of impassioned New Yorkers doing what they love to do

I thought about putting this in the World Famous Design Junkies illustration category, so I did, then I thought gosh these illustrations are strange. More like these pictures subject matter are weird and the execution is superbly excellent. Peek and see!