Get Lost

David Palumbo

mouharle — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:28:26 +0000

Since I’ve been a little busy lately, and not updating as frequently as I normally do (Which I do promise will resume soon), I have sort of been forced to only post when I find an artist whose work REALLY moves me. This is sort of hard to do as I see SO MUCH amazing artwork everyday, particularly since undertaking this blog, that to find someone’s work who really makes me say “People NEED TO SEE THIS” sometimes proves difficult. I guess I’m getting jaded.

But today I stumbled upon this artist, and it really hit me. Though I don’t normally like his way of painting faces, and his blatant sexual subject matter is a bit too provocative for me (it reminds me of Ashley Wood but without the robots….), his painting skills are really quite unparalleled. I could get lost in those brushstrokes….

He recently released a book, which appears to have a broken link on his page, but looks incredibly interesting, as well as some instructional DVDs. We could all learn a little more about how to paint the female figure from THIS guy! (Most of these are only 5×7 inches big!)

http://postcardnudes.blogspot.com/

Erwin Madrid

mouharle — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:20:53 +0000

Erwin works for a lot of publishers doing book covers, and also does some concept art for visual development. I really enjoy the simple designs with detailed renderings, and his designs work well for his audience. I personally love his personal work much more, and his landscape studies are really quite fantastic.

http://erwinmadrid.blogspot.com/

The Animation Workshop: Vaesen

mouharle — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:08:00 +0000

So, I was looking back on some old posts and saw my 2nd post (ever) and featured The Animation Workshop. I had posted that I had meant to check up on them to see what else they were working on, because admittedly their work something I really did want to keep track of. Long story short, I haven’t checked ONCE in over 6 months, so kept my promise today to see what was new, and was blown away by this new piece. My Scandinavian boyfriend told me that Væsen means “creature”. Absolutely breathtaking, it reminds me so much of the art that inspired me as a kid such as Last Unicorn and Wizards. Great to see it reincarnated in a form so well done.

(Ps. Sorry for the double post in a day – sometimes I feel bad for posting too many non-visual posts in a row, so I thought maybe my subscribers deserved a double dose!)

Blog : In The Make

mouharle — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:53:23 +0000

So, in the spirit of loving all things art, I present to you the coolest little blog I’ve fallen across in my travels. In The Make does little gallery visits to artists large and small and does some fantastic interviews. Being an avid artist myself, I truly love to see how other people work. Not even just their WIP pieces (which are always a treat), but literally the conditions in which they make art. Is it tiny and cramped, walls covered in magazine clippings and posters? Is it clutter free and organized? Is it your kitchen? (Like me? )

I definitely love to check it out every now and then, and thought maybe you would too!

http://inthemake.net/

Otto Schmidt

mouharle — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:31:24 +0000

Found another gem. This is why its great to have artist friends, because you always have a constant flow of new amazing artists pouring in for inspiration. Otto hails from Moscow, and has some of the best stylization and design of a lot of modern artists I’ve seen lately. (Though, it was hard to find some of this same design applied to males. Why are there never any super sexy dude drawings out there?!)

MORE!

http://schmidteugenart.blogspot.com/

Interview: David Ball

mouharle — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:23:27 +0000

David Ball is an incredibly talented artist, and one whose work is entirely distinguishable from others with his unique style. We featured his work a bit back, and I’ve been begging for an interview ever since. David has a great perspective on things, hopefully you enjoy what he has to say.

1) So, you’re pretty much a mixed media master. Though your work is primarily collage, there are so many more components added in by hand its hard to distinguish between printed detail and hand done line work. How did you figure out this was the medium for you? It seems a pretty bold choice.

It evolved pretty naturally. I started out in school with inks and colored pencil and painting. Time passed and I began playing around with collage. Once I realized that I liked the results, I started out by using it for illustration, initially for Dave Eggers’ Might magazine. I did not have a computer yet at the time so I would make my work by piecing scaled, copied elements together and then making a color copy of it which I would rework with marker and ballpoint. This was quite expensive so when I got a computer, I switched to digital collage for illustration. While it had some benefits, I missed the limitations of physical mediums. This set me off into trying to create collage works for my fine art as well. As I was already used to modifying my works, and displeased with the disconnected quality of the various parts, I took too determining how I could adapt them with glazes of pigmented medium and colored pencil. This eventually brought me back to painting and drawing as well. Finally, I determined how to make the work ideally archival and that brings us to the present.

2) Your work is incredibly emotional. That is always the first thing that strikes me, specifically, about your work – when you first view a piece, there is a punch of emotion straight away, whether it be sadness or curiosity or rage. Maybe its just me being overly sensitive, but how important is it for you to have the right “mood” for your work?

I am not sure when the emotion comes in but, as an emotional person, it is always there. I can say that sometimes, the first strikes of paint to the surface set the emotion. Other times it does not come through until the end. The mood is fairly important to me if the piece has a more narrative intent as I want to set the tone for how the work is considered.

3) How do you begin a piece? Is it concept first or pure instinct? Is you process fairly organic or rigid? I really feel like your work could go either way – either with tight thumbnails that are rigidly followed or a haphazard flurry of line work that is a general gist of a composition until if “feels right”.

I start almost all pieces abstractly (think Chinese calligraphy, Clifford Still, Franz Kline). I’d say the former for illustration and the latter for fine art. Generally, I have only color and composition in mind.

My work evolves organically but I can be pretty rigid at well. It mainly depends on where I am in the process. I try to mix it up and question my rules though and eventually, introduce some kind of change.

4) Where are you hoping to see your work go in the next 10 years? In a perfect world, would you lead your art somewhere or would it lead you?

Someplace new and fresh that keeps me excited about being in the studio. In a perfect world, I and my work would take turns leading one another.

5) Your top 5 you-must-see-these artists:

I am going to just say the first five as I could never have a proper “top 5″. I like too much stuff. Stuart Davis, Anselm Keifer, Georg Grosz, Gino Severini, Amedio Modigliani.

Aapo Pukk

mouharle — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:25:56 +0000

A friend of mine, Hsin-Yao Tseng whom I featured on this blog before, is currently in the finalists for the International Portrait Competition. Of course I checked out all the finalists, and although I do believe he has a good chance of winning, this other artist caught my eye as well. My favorite pieces of his are where he uses the most artistic expression with lots of visible brush strokes, though all of his work is recommendable. His landscapes have a great flare as well that is very different from his figurative work.

http://www.aapopukk.com/welcome

Sherrie McGraw

mouharle — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:00:17 +0000

Sherrie McGraw received her Honorary Doctorate at my 2010 commencement, and I just recently looked up her work. Her work is incredible, even though I’m not too into her concepts of simple still lifes and portraits. But her brush strokes and values and drawing and and and….! Its all so incredible, that maybe you should just enjoy these images….!

http://sherriemcgraw.com/

Rory Phillips

mouharle — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:58:38 +0000

Some absolutely adorable illustration work here, that perfectly lends itself to his clear passion for printmaking and crafts. Some of his paper cut out creations are really just the best ever….and, my love of Game of Thrones is almost rivaled of my love of this Brienne of Tarth fanart….

http://www.gogopicnic.com/

Waldemar Kazak

mouharle — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 04:43:09 +0000

Editorial illustration is a field I have a lot of respect for, because like many things, I am terrible at it. Waldemar is a Russian editorial artist who is clearly wonderful at what he does because even without text (or, text in English), I can still understand most likely what the article he is illustrating is about. It also makes it look really interesting – a wonderful lead in to a story that I otherwise might have overlooked or not really cared about. Except for a few at the end, these are all some of his recent editorial works. He also has a wonderful variety of styles, which seems adept for most any challenge….

His official site…..

http://www.kazakdesign.com/

His DA site….which is conveniently in ENGLISH! (Chrome does an odd job of translating his official page…!)

http://waldemar-kazak.deviantart.com/