Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta illustration. Mostrar todas las entradas

Alexander Jansson - Surreal Circus with Punk influences

In the work of Gothenburg, Sweden-based artist Alexander Jansson, we can observe the influence of a diversity of genres as distant as literature, cinema or painting itself.


Occasional animator (I recommend watching The Curious Kind by clicking HERE), and aesthetically reminiscent of Tim Burton. Like this short animated film, his digital work shows certain parallels.


These works are characterized by being characterized by misplaced and somewhat disconcerting beings. However, they gather the skills to finally end up finding each other, coinciding in space time in similar places.

In nebulous universes, in which after overcoming a thousand avatars they manage to feel comfortable in the presence of others. Who are sometimes visible and sometimes not, weaving their own destiny with dreams. 


The carnivalesque elements that he frequently employs, contribute to create a circus atmosphere, in which the range of taciturn and bohemian colors contribute to create compositions through which he conveys a sensation of intensity. Hypnotizing the observer, who is seduced and invited to explore each work in detail. 



Although he is mainly known for his commissions for covers and illustration of special editions. Works that over time he has also created his own creative identity as well as his own style that he called Greenpunk. 



The one that consists of applying a mixed technique formed by a collage to which he incorporates elements of his photos, models, drawings and paintings that he mixes in the same illustration. Almost handmade works with which she achieves digital images that stand out for being very natural, works that require a considerable investment of time. Completing them by adding scratches, dust and brushstrokes with which he enhances their formal finish in plastic terms.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Alexander Jansson - Circo surrealista con influencias Punk


Founder of his own studio called Sleeping House. Among his many works, the illustration of an anthology of works by Robert L. Stevenson, or the new edition of Anne E. Book of a biographical volume on the life of JRR Tolkien.

Jean-Claude Claeys, the gangster's girl


Each illustration by French illustrator Jean-Claude Claeys, represents an act in a story where the protagonists. hustlers and femmes fatales play a game in hyper-realistic tones, where the bank always wins.


Influenced by filmmakers such as the well-known filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and the classic film noir genre classic cinematographer, of which he declares himself a follower incodicional. In his compositions, the treatment of shadows stands out.


This allows us to appreciate the details that make up each and every one of the illustrations that he approaches, always applying similar techniques. In which color is observed in a very discreet way in the composition of illustration, in whose realization occupies a second plane.

What is important is the gesture of the model he selects to star in his stories, in whose plot emerges a certain bohemian air as well as a purpose of amendment and redemption. The characters are characterized by transmitting a behavior that is at the same time cruel and disbelieving.


Jean-Claude Claeys was born in Paris, in whose streets he grew up spending most of his childhood, as well as his adolescence until he completed his education. This phase gave way to his work in the advertising industry. 


READ IT IN SPANISH: Jean-Claude Claeys, la chica del ganster


Stage that he combined with his incipient career as a comic book artist starting in 1975. From this distant date he has developed most of his career. In that his way of working is curious, since each project is triggered by a series of photographs from different periods.


Although preferably are those made in black and white those that inspire him the most, giving his work a bittersweet and taciturn sense of humor. Claeys also works regularly as a cover illustrator for Néo publication's crime collection.


Fab Ciraolo - Old School Heroes, mythological portraits of Pop Culture

 


The Chilean Illustrator Fab Ciraolo, distmitifica roles and icons, showing us some of the most ambiguous, frivolous, and even why not say it more bizarre aspects. Of many of the most idiotic personalities of the last one hundred years.


Discontrasting the character sometimes practicing the most militant iconoclasm. His is not only limited to a more or less subjective interpretation from a psychoanalytical perspective of the character. Regardless of whether this is confined to the world of fiction as in the case of Edward Scissorhands.


Emblematic character created by the famous film director Tim Burton. Or real personalities who, due to their transcendence or contribution in some social or historical field, have deserved Fab's creative attention.


Such as relevant and influential figures, each in their own facet, such as Cleopatra, empress of ancient Egypt, one of the first women leaders in history. Or the closest in time, the painter Frida Khalo. He portrays them preserving their almost mythological halo, but subtly incorporating elements that belong to a much more current context.



Adding elements of the contemporary culture that revitalize it, updating it for the new generations that observe it as if it were a figure that was relevant in another time and under another social and cultural prism. He reinvents himself by being able to identify himself with him.


Great fan of music, an element that he adds in the form of a fetish or tattoo to his compositions. In which through collage and nuances of Pop culture, he develops a language where the visual impact of the work leads the viewer to a state of mixed amazement and awe as well as admiration. Exciting sensation that far from being diluted in the innocent effervescence that underlies the background, feeds it by demanding the segregation of large doses of dopamine.


His relationship with art begins in childhood due to the influence of his father, selling his first work at the early age of ten. This makes him think that he can make a living from his art.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Fab Ciraolo - Old School Heroes, retratos mitológicos de la cultura Pop



Graduated in graphic design, discipline that relegates to the background in favor of the stroke of illustration. With whose works he has managed to make a name for himself thanks to the presence he has on the Internet. He combines his artistic facet with the musical, being a member of the band Oh Margot, with whom he has released an Ep at the end of 2001.


Starting from a quick sketch, he draws by hand, both in pencil and the part of color and shading using a mechanical pencil 01, adding the shadows and finally coloring with watercolors, temperas and acrylics, also oils, dry pastel and colored pencils. Once the preliminary version is ready, it is digitalized and the necessary filters are applied to complete the illustration.




Meags Fitzgerald - Photoboth: a biography, graphic stories inspired by the photomaton

 


The writing of a book is usually inspired by events, experiences or vicissitudes of which one is a first-person witness. Or by the knowledge provided by a third party such as a friend or access to a story read in the media. 


Sometimes one resorts to a historical ephemeris that, combined with a personal experience, generates the argument of a more or less plausible narration. This was the case of the cartoonist Meags Fitzgerald, who, due to her passion for taking passport-size photos of herself in photo booths, had the opportunity to get to know the origin of the story.  


READ IT IN SPANISH: Meags Fitzgerald - Photoboth: a biography, historias gráficas inspiradas por el fotomaton


She had the opportunity to learn about the origin of this element that has been part of the furniture of any self-respecting city for a good part of the 20th century. Being at present a vintage object that after being acquired almost as an antique can be found in private homes, or as an incentive in a bar.



Becoming the thread of a story presented in graphic novel format, where through the illustrations of cartoons. She tells us about her relationship with the photomaton almost becoming an obsession, which led her to make a diaspora around the world on a journey to find her identity. 


And whose adventures have been published in a volume entitled Photoboth: a biography, where parallel to this search. The story of this photographic device is told in a global key and from a domestic and personal point of view, a story dotted with numerous episodes of autobiographical character.