#inspirational illustrator

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrators #15 Scott Campbell

Scott Campbell is an illustrator and comic book artist who is famous for creating an ongoing series of illustrations titled “the great showdowns” in which he draws famous protagonists and their mortal enemies standing face to face with cute little smiles on their faces. They often look like happy family photos, but to people who know who he is referencing, it will be more enjoyable. Campbell does other work apart from his showdowns, these often consist of cute-sifying different things e.g a volcano, Godzilla, a sandwich ect.

His work interests me because it brings together all the cult followers of all the different films, tv series and animated genres under one, big, innocent looking set of illustrations. Also the style in which he does them is both child-like yet accurate.

If I was to find one similarity between my work and his, I would say that it would be the way I draw people. Because I’m not very good at it I usually end up going with a simplified cartoony version of people, just like Scott Campbell. Where we differ however is how accurate and to what effect we do with the character. Campbell is rather accurate and cute with his drawings whilst I am more inaccurate and dark with mine.

A lot of his work is done in watercolours, with pencil crayon also being used. It often then gets published on his blog, with The Great Showdowns having already been published into two small books.

The only problem with Campbells’ work, I would say, is that, for those people who have yet to watch the films that he’s done a greatest showdown for, might not like the spoiler that they are presented with through the illustration.

Sources:

http://www.pyramidcar.com/

http://greatshowdowns.com/

http://postercabaret.com/gallery/scott-c.html

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrators #14 Q Hyashida

Q Hyashida is a manga artist who publishes a monthly horror manga which is very gritty, grungy and, in my opinion, is more like a graphic novel than a manga.

Her work interests me because, ultimately this is the sort of thing I hope to do. I want to create a dark, dank world drawn in lots of rushed detail, put my characters in it and watch them go about their ways, trying to figure out the ending to their story.

My work is actually very similar to Q Hyashida’s. Like her I am very rough and ready with the way I draw. I’m not always entirely accurate when it comes to drawing people and I love to add detail to create depth and atmosphere.

Just like all manga her work is made using a variety of inks, nibs and screens tones. But unlike some artists, who draw out a rough pencil sketch for each page, Q Hyashida draws free hand straight onto the page.

Her most recent work can be found in book format in Japan, whilst English translations are a few books behind, but still accessible from online books stores and manga reading sites.

Because the work was originally done in Japanese however, things that would be funnier or make more sense in the original Japanese language fall on deaf ears to us English speaking folk. Things such as sound effects that appear on the page would be drawn into the manga in Japanese with an English translation at the end of the book meaning you miss out on a lot of onomatopoeia. Also some puns that make sense in Japanese often get crudely replaced with a vaguely funny English version which can often detract from the atmosphere of the scene.

Sources:

http://endlessvearth.tumblr.com/post/65609408970

http://comicsalliance.com/dorohedoro-q-hayashida/

http://www.simonandschuster.com/series/Dorohedoro/books

http://mangabrog.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/interview-with-dorohedoro-artist-q-hayashida/

[nathanvs]

Inspiration Illustrator #13 Kerby Rosanes

Kerby Rosanes is an illustrator who creates extremely intricate and detailed drawings. He has done commissions for companies such as Nike and posts a lot of his complex doodles online.

His work interests me because it is so busy! There is so much going on within each drawing and all of it is done really accurately and beautifully that when you see his work for the first time you just sit there in awe. I look at his work and say to myself “I want to be that good one day!” Something else that I like about Rosanes’ work is the fact that he never uses colour; all of his work is done in black fineliner, something that you would think would make his illustrations seem flat, but it really suits the subject matter which he draws.

In relation to my work, I would say that we have a similar grim sense of taste; a lot of his work features some form of decay or brutality to it which indicates a more mature subject matter.

Sources:

http://kerbyrosanes.com/

https://www.behance.net/kerbyrosanes

http://society6.com/kerbyrosanes

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrators #12 Vaughn Pinpin

Vaughn Pinpin (a.k.a. hatboy) is an illustrator who creates his own short comics and is famous for his Tim Burton, Pokémon crossovers. His style is very Burton-esque but not in such a way that it looks like he’s copying Burton; Pinpin still retains the playfulness that he puts into his cartoons when he does his own illustrations.

As a fan of both Tim Burton and Pokémon, when I first discovered hatboy I was immediately impressed and loved his work. Now that I’ve had time to relax and properly absorb his work I can fully appreciate his ability to imitate a style and create something new and unique.

His work relates to mine in that I like to put lots of lines in my work. If it’s hair, shadows, fur, trees, bushes, grass, anything which has the potential for high detail then I will be putting a lot of line work into it in much the same way that Pinpin puts line work into his Tim Burton Pokémon.

Pinpin’s work is done by scanning in pencil drawings and then finishing them off on the computer. Once done he displays them on his blog and also sells prints of them.

If you were someone unlike me, who didn’t like Pokémon or Tim Burton, then you probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate his work as much as I do. Because of this people may just view it as creepy monster drawings and nothing else.

Sources:

http://hatboy.tumblr.com/

http://society6.com/artist/hatboy

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrator #11 Cory Loftis

Corey Loftis works at Disney Animation Studios and draws characters and concepts for a living. A lot of his work that you see on the internet is character designs that he has done in his own time. He does all of his work on computers, from start to finish that’s how it’s done.

Loftis’s work interests me personally because I struggle at certain aspects of character design, usually it’s the face or getting all the aspects of the body lined up correctly and in proportion, but whatever it is, it’s always handy to have an artist to look up to who is good at drawing people and characters; someone to inspire you.

Apart from Disney, Loftis has also done work for Carbine Studios (game developers) and does a bit of freelance work too.

Because his work is done in this way however, it means that he’s probably not fully appreciated like how other artists or illustrators are; his name isn’t at the bottom of the image next to a nice signature, but in a long list of other peoples’ names which are all in the same font.

Sources:

http://coryloftis.tumblr.com/

http://tabletmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/

http://cory-loftis-interview.blogspot.co.uk/

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrators #10 Luke Dixon

Luke Dixon creates illustrations of iconic celebrities and animals which are very graphical in nature and sells them as prints or t-shirt designs.

His work interests me because of the way in which he uses lines in an unconventional manner to create shadows and depth. I find it visually exciting to see a wolf made up of, instead of lots of wavy fur-like lines, blocks of ruler straight lines to indicate different patches of fur.

His work doesn’t particularly relate to mine, but I will say that the depth of the darkness and shadows that he uses in his work is similar to mine. I like to add lots of intense shadows onto the characters and settings that I draw to give it more of an intense feel, which is what Luke Dixon also seems to be doing.

His work is generally done using silk screens, but the mass produced prints aren’t done that way for obvious reasons.

What I’ve found interesting with Dixon’s work (and is not all that uncommon with other illustrators) is that his work works really well as a t-shirt design. His work is instant and eye catching, and heavily relies on black lines so it really suits the canvas that is a t-shirt. Because of this it means that his work is actually more easily accessed by people who wouldn’t otherwise see his work, just by seeing someone else wearing a Luke Dixon shirt he’s already communicated to a different audience.  

 Sources:

http://www.thebearhug.com/

http://www.thebearhug.com/

[nathanvs]

Inspirational Illustrators #9 Keith Thompson

Keith Thompson does particularly grim and detailed illustrations which are mainly used in his job as a freelance artist. Some of the images can be quite macabre and gruelsome, whilst others can appear to be quite ordinary in appearance.

His work interests me because I really like dark genres in illustration. I enjoy looking at deformed and bloated monsters, and the fact that Thompson does it to such a beautifully detailed extent is really nice.

My work is quite similar to Keith Thomas’s in the sense that we both draw quite dark things. My work doesn’t go to the same amount of detail as him, but that’s down to my lack of skill rather than perseverance. Regardless of this I have created quite sinister things in the past much like Thompson.

Because of the content of the pieces it means that, unlike with a magazine or a childrens book, not everyone will be able to view his work; mainly down to parental concern, but also because not everyone likes that sort of thing. As someone who would also like to go down this avenue in the art world I will need to bear this in mind when I go about creating my own pieces.

Sources: 

http://www.keiththompsonart.com/index.html

http://blog.keiththompsonart.com/