Posts Tagged ‘drawing’

netalula

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Netalula’s iden­tity might be an enigma wrapped in a rid­dle (Sein­feld ref­er­ence, any­one?), but her illus­tra­tions are sim­ply won­der­ful. Sightly more tra­di­tional in terms of com­po­si­tion and for­mat, there is still a bit of mystique.

I love Netalua’s paint­ings, and how they actu­ally look like cut out pieces, with the stark con­trast and heavy empha­sis on shape. It painterly, but also feels designed. The point of view is an inter­est­ing one, and also con­sis­tent. Netalula has abstracted and obscured our view­point to have us look­ing over each activ­ity and sit­u­a­tion that her char­ac­ters par­take in. We are a voyeur, and at time it feels like her sub­jects know this. There is a cer­tain shy­ness to them, in terms of pos­ture and gaze.

All images via her Flickr.

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eleanor taylor

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Eleanor Tay­lor is an illus­tra­tor study­ing at the Royal Col­lege of Art. Her work utl­izies a lot of draw­ing, but also incor­po­rates some paint­ing and col­lage as well.


There is an empti­ness and iso­la­tion to Eleanor’s work. It’s not exactly com­fort­ing, and at times extremely vul­ner­a­ble. I think that’s where the suc­cess in her work lies. Her illus­tra­tions expose a prim­i­tive feel­ing, in both style and exe­cu­tion of media. I see ref­er­ences to Medieval and Byzan­tine paint­ings with the flat por­trai­ture, as well as even a cubist feel with the flat, planed shapes.

There’s some­thing to take note of — it’s the nudity of some of her fig­ures. She puts them in dan­ger but giv­ing them no armor to pro­tect them­selves against the ani­mals and of the vast land she’s cre­ated. They must fend for them­selves, and do a pretty keen job at it (so far!).

All images via her Flickr.

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art together: ana benaroya

Monday, August 30th, 2010

It might have been a lit­tle while, but the sec­ond install­ment of Art Together is here! If you aren’t famil­iar with the for­mat of Art Together, it has two dif­fer­ent com­po­nents. A col­lab­o­ra­tive piece is cre­ated between myself and another artist. Based on the fin­ished piece, and con­ver­sa­tion is had about what’s been cre­ated. My hope is to to get to know oth­ers in the cre­ative com­mu­nity a bit bet­ter, and to col­lab­o­rate on some­thing we all care about. You can check out the inau­gural post with Thereza Rowe.

Ana Benaroya is an artist and illus­tra­tor liv­ing in New Jer­sey and the next par­tic­i­pant in Art Together. Here’s what I sent her to work with:

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What I received from Ana were two ver­sions of the same piece. While they uti­lized the same piece, Ana manip­u­lated the color and con­trast, giv­ing them fla­vor and feel­ing over­all.

Her response, ver­sion one:

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You and I both know that you are an illus­tra­tor and design liv­ing in New Jer­sey, have worked with scads of free­lance clients, and are the co-creator of Egg on Bread along with Ahu Sulker. What else would you like for the inter­webs to know?

Hmmmm, well I pre­fer to remain dark and mysterious…haha, just kid­ding! Basi­cally just that I am a worka­holic and I love what I do. I hope I am lucky enough to be able to keep mak­ing art till the very end!


I enjoy see­ing two dif­fer­ent ver­sions of the same piece — one takes advan­tage of the dif­fer­ent papers and tex­tures (and seems to work on sub­tleties), while the other is visu­ally elec­tric and a bit more in your face . Do you have a favorite? Also, do you feel that one is more akin to your body of work?

I do not have a favorite, I enjoy both for dif­fer­ent rea­sons. But I def­i­nitely believe that The Red War­rior is closer to the style of the rest of my work, which tends to be brightly col­ored and graphic. I believe that they are more suc­cess­ful when shown together, rather then separately.


It’s inter­est­ing look in the way you ori­ented the piece. When I cre­ated my part, I had orig­i­nally ori­ented every­thing with the tri­an­gles on bot­tom. Was there a spe­cific rea­son you chose to cre­ate piece from this way?

Inter­est­ing! Well, to me I guess the blue area seemed more like the ground and the brown area seemed more like the sky (I know, seems counter-intuitive, but I can’t explain). I liked the idea of the tri­an­gu­lar shapes push­ing down on the back of the man. To me, it kept my eye mov­ing up and down within the piece.

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Do you think by adding text (and dub­bing them each piece the “blue war­rior” and “red war­rior”, respec­tively) do you see the two men engaged in a con­flict or bat­tle?

I think by adding the text I tied the two pieces together on another level (beyond the fact that they are vari­a­tions on the same image). It cre­ates an abstract nar­ra­tive that can be taken in either a light-hearted or seri­ous man­ner. The men could be two dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als or they could be one and the same. The image itself is a soli­tary one (with only one human within the com­po­si­tion) — but by call­ing the man a war­rior it implies a world out­side of himself.


You have par­tic­i­pated in many col­lab­o­ra­tions over time. How was your approach to this project the same or dif­fer­ent from other endeav­ors in the past?

I actu­ally believe this to be my most suc­cess­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion. Often­times I think the result of a col­lab­o­ra­tion is a piece that nei­ther artist would like to call their own. The unique voice of each artist is lost and the result is some mutant mish-mash that belongs on another planet. Maybe you feel dif­fer­ently? I don’t know if you would like to call this yours anymore.

I don’t know if my approach was dif­fer­ent this time around, but I was try­ing to remain respect­ful of what you cre­ated and add some­thing that was my own voice that could live within your world. So I guess The Blue War­rior would be more suc­cess­ful in that aspect. The Red War­rior is def­i­nitely closer to my style.


And finally: Where do you think your love of draw­ing mus­cu­lar men comes from?

It prob­a­bly comes from my tomboy­ish child­hood love for super­heroes and action fig­ures. I had a col­lec­tion of over two hun­dred! No Bar­bie dolls for me. From the day I was born I was obsessed with being able to draw mus­cles accu­rately and I would copy anatomy books over and over again. I guess this obses­sion stuck with me. I think child­hood obses­sions and inter­ests always stick with us.

Or maybe deep down inside my sub­con­scious I secretly desire to be a mus­cu­lar man. We may never know.

Thanks, Ana! And, for the record, I am very happy to call this col­lab­o­ra­tion mine.

bárbara malagoli martino

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Both humor­ous and mor­bid, Bár­bara Malagoli Mar­tino illus­trates girls and women, in a sort of cross between Japan­ese Hara­juku and a Lolita.

I like the spin that’s put on Bárbara’s illus­tra­tions. They depict exu­ber­ance and super­flu­ous­ness, using pas­tels and col­ors so sweet that it’s sac­cha­rine. Out­fit­ted with lace-up boots, cups of tea and pal­ing around with uni­corns, there is, at the same time, a sense of dis­ap­point­ment or some­thing awry. Dis­mem­ber­ment, black tears, skulls — all of these things are also present amongst the sweet.


A lot of draw­ings that I like are done in a Mole­skin, to which I say “great job!” to Bár­bara. My sketch­books are never that com­posed. Her port­fo­lio also includes shoe design, street art, apparel and acces­sory design. These things are a bit more unas­sum­ing than her draw­ings and paint­ings, but still delight­ful nonethe­less. I love her painted shoes!

All images via her Flickr

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eric shaw

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Eric Shaw’s work puts me between eras. While it’s mod­ern, he tends to strad­dle the line between futur­ism and sur­re­al­ist move­ments. His draw­ings seem auto­matic and seem to come from the subconscious.

His shapes are exag­ger­ated arms and legs, and his paint­ings flesh-toned tow­ers. In the grand scheme of his work, there is a very struc­tured and at archi­tec­tural feel to it. Not only the del­i­cate lines give way to this, but the mon­u­men­tal­ism of his fig­ures as well. They tower in envi­ron­ments, unwa­ver­ing and not intimidated.

There is a sense of secu­rity that I draw from Eric’s work. Every­thing seems very con­tained; shad­ing does not ven­ture out­side the realm of its intended shape, and the col­ors are even and strong, despite the chaotic nature of its content.

All images via his Flickr.

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little paper planes and château-vacant

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I always love get­ting emails from Kelly at Lit­tle Paper Planes. She always reminds me of the great things they have at their online store, includ­ing a bi-monthly fea­tured artist. Twice a month, Lit­tle Paper Planes selects an artist to inter­view and sell exclu­sive prints of their work.

For part of August, the artist col­lec­tive Château-Vacant has been fea­tured. Com­prised of three mem­bers, Yan­nick Calvez, Lémuel Mal­i­coutis, and Bap­tiste Alchour­roun, all are orig­i­nally from France and cur­rently reside in Mon­treal, Quebec.

Each mem­ber of the col­lec­tive has their own area of exper­tise, but they all share a sim­i­lar aes­thetic which enables them to cre­ate work that looks cohe­sive yet at the same time main­tains indi­vid­u­al­ity. They pride them­selves on mak­ing things con­cretely, and hav­ing the abil­ity to touch and feel every­thing made. The mem­bers pre­fer not to use the com­puter, which feels abstract and disconnected

You can find more about Château-Vacant in their inter­view with Cort­ney from the LPP gang. You can also buy exclu­sive prints of their work — lim­ited edi­tion AND signed by the artist! I per­son­ally love the prints and the arrange­ment of their shapes.

All images via Lit­tle Paper Planes.

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hanne ulla

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Hanne Ulla is a Berlin-based artist and illus­tra­tor orig­i­nally born in Nor­way. Her recent and on-going work body of work explores the inter­sec­tions between civ­i­liza­tion, envi­ron­men­tal issues, and iden­tity. Hanne imag­ines bath­rooms and bath­houses and cre­ates dystopian sce­nar­ios, frag­mented and often lack­ing any sort of sense.

Hanne states, “The pre­sen­ta­tion of dif­fer­ent rooms or ‘des­o­lated spaces’ should be a way to affirm real­ity, which is a flux of change, dif­fer­ence and iden­ti­ties.” she explains. “I feel as if these archi­tec­tural draw­ings become med­i­ta­tive as acts of rep­e­ti­tion and endurance, but work­ing with lay­ers of sym­bol­ism together with more ambiva­lent archi­tec­tural struc­tures makes the draw­ing bear wit­ness of a com­plex and per­haps mean­ing­less exis­tence. That detach­ment from both our past and our future under­lies the works. Maybe an attempt to grasp a noth­ing­ness. A noth­ing­ness that defines our subjectivity…“

Hanne’s work has a voyeuris­tic qual­ity to it, as if you’re peer­ing out a win­dow. At the same time, her forms are con­fus­ing (hear­ken­ing a “mean­ing­less exis­tence” and detach­ment) to a space or a room that doesn’t mean that much to us in the first place.

All images via the artist.

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keri oldham

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Keri Old­ham manip­u­lates water­color to cre­ate human-like forms that cor­re­spond nicely with both the sculp­tures and lis­ten­ing col­lec­tion also present in her portfolio.

Keri’s water color draw­ings are exag­ger­ated, sat­u­rated, and are simul­ta­ne­ously cos­tumes and a rep­re­se­n­a­tion of the human physique. Each pose is telling of the atti­tude pos­sessed by each fig­ure, and I love how she stretches and pulls the pig­ment to cre­ate shapes that are both loose and detailed.

Cor­re­spond­ing with her draw­ings, Keri has cre­ated sculp­tures which utl­ize the same sense of color and shape in her two dimen­sional work. They are things worn on the head and things to be car­ried. The sculp­tures are mixed media, and while not exactly prac­ti­cal, pair dif­fer­ent tex­tures and meth­ods of con­struc­tion together in its own har­mo­nious way.

All images via her web­site.

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aidan koch

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Aidan Koch uses a unique way of see­ing to influ­ence and cre­ate work that is both mul­ti­di­men­sional and heavy with mood.

I’ve included a hand­ful of Aidan’s draw­ings, which range from fully com­posed works to more abstracted mark-making. I tend to pre­fer the lat­ter, with its unbri­dled expres­sion and heavy hand. It seems a bit more spon­ta­neous, less cal­cu­lated and really beautiful.

Present in most of Aidan’s work is the idea of a fan­tasy or escapism. Blank space is often the result of sub­tracted ele­ments of her draw­ings, keep­ing us in the dark about the work as a whole. It leaves us won­der­ing what the whole story really is, and to appre­ci­ate of the fleet­ing nature of a mood, mem­ory, or place.

All images via her web­site.

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An instal­la­tion done by Aidan. I love how her 2D trans­lates into 3D. This is titled, Rain­bow Sta­lag­mites in the Wild.

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ori toor

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I know I just posted about Ori Toor’s Ani­mal Col­lec­tive video yes­ter­day, but his draw­ings are just too good to not make a men­tion of.

Ori’s draw­ings are really in their own head. In every draw­ing, there is a lot of con­tem­pla­tion involved. Many of his works seem to pos­sess an inner demon or con­stant source of con­flict. Com­monly, Ori rep­re­sents these by a mass, which at times resem­ble innards. I think of it as excess, and it leaves his char­ac­ters and draw­ings in a very vis­ceral state, their often one of ambiva­lence. While they try to fight it, this doesn’t seem to be enough. It lacks effort, and will prob­a­bly result in their even­tual take over by this gluttony.

All images via his web­site.

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