Elliot Freeman’s Patterned Jungle Illustrations

Elliot Freeman’s jungle scenes are so densely packed with pattern that the animals nearly vanish into the foliage. A white tiger, a green elephant, a crocodile with a grid across its back and two spotted cats press up against one another inside large dark leaves, with no sky to escape into.

Freeman, a London illustrator, works in flat vector with thick, uniform black outlines and a deliberately small palette — royal blue, forest green, coral orange, white — then fills his shapes with stripes, spots and grids until the picture starts behaving like textile design. It is illustration that would work just as well printed on a bolt of fabric, which is probably the highest compliment you can pay a jungle.

More of his work: elliotfreeman1.tumblr.com.