The field of illustration once had a period of time called “The Golden Age.” This 40-year stretch began in the 1880’s and continued into the 1920’s, coming to fruition because of advances in image reproduction technology. Once the public got a taste of graphic art, there became an insatiable demand for it. American illustrator Howard Pyle was […]
Category: Drawing
There’s Beauty in Everything: An Interview with Peony Yip
Peony Yip, also known as The White Deer, inadvertently focuses her illustrative work on themes that make some people uncomfortable. One of her most popular series called “To Bloom Not Bleed” is described by her as “A series that portrays the fine line between the grotesque and beauty of death.” To Yip, you can find […]
Artists Who Use Their Sketchbook as Handheld Galleries
The sketchbook is a special place for an artist. It’s like a playground—a place where they can try out new techniques, imagery, and generate new ideas and ways of working. The pages can even offer a place to emotionally heal. The work done in a sketchbook is often incorporated into an artist’s larger, more finalized […]
Delicate Rot: Animal Paintings and Drawings by Hannah Ward
Hannah Ward draws and paints animals in opposing states of birth and decay, power and surrender, healing and infection. Deer, foxes, chipmunks, and other woodland creatures are painted in pastel colors that mix with the deep reds and blues of exposed viscera, suspended on the page in a symbolic purgatory that shows both their materiality […]
Drawings and Paintings of Opposing Forces by Christina Mrozik
Years ago, artist Christina Mrozik had a stomach disease in which she couldn’t digest or absorb the nutrients from food. “After becoming rail thin and suffering through daily nightmares and being racked with pain for months on end,” she described, “I became very connected with a deeper part of myself.” Death, among other things, became […]
Illustrations by Rose Wong Consider Death in a Tan Void
Illustrator Rose Wong ponders existence in her series “Consider Death.” Minimalist in its approach, she pits a solitary character among bold florals and geometric forms that seemingly go to nowhere—they’re islands among a tan void that’s devoid of anything. It exists with no known purpose, and you can’t help but feel a little sad when […]
Wild and Wicked Overlay Tattoos by Pablo Puentes
Before he was tattooing, Canadian artist Pablo Puentes developed 3D film for the entertainment industry. “I gained familiarity with all kinds of stereoscopic imagery,” he explains. “That, coupled with my proximity to the mountains and wilderness, sparked the idea” for two-toned overlay tattoos. These “double up” designs, as he calls them, superimpose two separate images […]
Surreal Graphite Drawings Meditate on the Nature of Pain
Note: Contains slight nudity. Artist Alejandro Garcia Restrepo takes a cinematic approach to his graphite drawings. The dramatic still images feel like scenes from a silent film, full of tension and a desire to know what is next. Characters don strange attire and are found in desperate situations. The overarching theme of these images is […]
Update: Thomas Cian’s Graphite and Watercolor Portraits
The young dreadlock-haired Thomas Cian continues to impress fans with his latest works of art. Many admirers have taken guesses about his technique—i.e. if the graphite was placed first or the wash. The best answer is shown visually at Behance; pencil and water-soluble graphite are used to produce monochromatic portraits of friends and family—see one […]
Oscar LLorens’ Drawings of Tangled Objects and Explosive Migraines
A piercing squeeze of the brain, the unbearable and unending pain. That migraine. Depicted by Oscar LLorens in a small number of Wacom drawn compositions of head exploding people with their cerebral matter formed from stacks of cartoon characters and hoarded objects. Such a nutso combination of things (hippopotamuses and yellow traffic cones); but once […]