South Korean illustrator Bang Sangho takes us on a psychedelic journey to a new planet—submerging our eyes and mind into the imaginary depths of the neon sea and black holes. Crater-headed humans are ticking time bombs in this world, as their brains erupt like volcanoes and revealing their insides as star-filled galaxies. “There is an […]
Category: Illustration
Morbid and Mysterious Illustrations by Virginia Mori
Virginia Mori is an Italian artist who resides and works in Pesaro and Milan. Using BIC pens on paper, she draws visions from a Victorian-esque nightmare; young girls wearing dark dresses and long hair, accompanied by their shadowy animal companions, are witnesses of and participants in a number of strange situations. As it often happens […]
Illusion Magazine’s Top Illustration Picks of Spring 2017
In early 2016, we selected a number of illustrators whose impressive works had already caught our eye. We’ve continued the tradition for spring 2017 and are equally as wowed with what’s been produced so far. With so many tools at a creative’s exposure—both analog and digital—the best ones have honed their techniques and married it […]
All We Cannot See: An Interview with Marco Mazzoni
Italian artist Marco Mazzoni has used colored pencils in his work since he was very young. Although some abandon the medium as they get older, Mazzoni continued to hone his pencil technique into something truly spectacular. He fuses colors into smooth, silky blends that resemble oil paintings. Although Mazzoni depicts elements of beauty, his work takes […]
Death and Morality in Macabre Paintings by Kikyz1313
Kikyz1313 is a Mexican artist who confronts the viewer with discomforting representations of “the abject.” As developed by Julia Kristeva, the abject is a term that refers to the more unpleasant details of our earthly existences, such as excrement, disease, death, and decay—all of the natural processes that erode our sense of human superiority and […]
New Immersive Fantasy Landscapes by Jakub Rozalski
We featured the work of digital artist Jakub Rozalski back in 2014, but since then he has been busy creating more immersive landscapes that combine turn-of-the-twentieth-century Polish countrysides with werewolves and robots. According to his artist’s statement, the most important aspects of his art involve creating an atmosphere and telling a story. The stories he […]
Rituals of the Sleepless Dead: Dark Art by Dehn Sora
Dehn Sora (aka, Vincent Petitjean), is a French graphic designer, art director, and composer who builds sonic, hallucinatory worlds driven by ancient rituals and living death. On the Bandcamp page for his dark ambient project Treha Sektori, Dehn Sora simply states, “We’re born with the knowledge of death.” The presence of death—bold, fearless, unfeeling—permeates all […]
10 Best Illustrators of 2016
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 […]
Cyborg Sensuality: Mind-bending Digital Illustrations by Giovanni Maisto
Giovanni Maisto is a Venice-based concept artist who experiments with the feminine body in surreal, sci-fi worlds. With the rate of modern technological advancements and the possibilities of bio-engineering, our future is often represented as sterile, unnatural, and devoid of history and meaning—but Maisto’s cyborg bodies are different. Infused with mythology, classical architecture, robotic components, […]
Dark Magic in Hogan McLaughlin’s Fashion and Illustrations
Hogan McLaughlin is an American dancer, fashion designer, and artist whose work is influenced by medieval imagery and the fantasy genre. For his spring 2016 collection, McLaughlin collaborated with the New England-based artist Bill Crisafi to create the series of images featured here. Entitled “Upon the Heath of Bedlam,” they are shot in Salem, Massachusetts. […]