Brent Koby

www.meowza.org

Brent Koby is definitely one of the artists, who could inspire me to create majestic art. Majority of the images on the website have that charming fairytale quality. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to find out a lot about this artist and the way in which he works, because for me personally, a little insight into his technique would be exceptionally fruitful.

What particularly stand out about his work are the textured backgrounds, which makes the whole work looked aged and yet modern (due to content) it makes the whole work into a riddle for me. Some of his works, have that mystical feel of Japanese Woodblock prints, and in general seem to be a part of the Japanese art culture.

Some of Brent’s work is particularly exciting as it is composed out of a number of different materials, layered on top of each other to create reasonably complex compositions: real flowers and leaves, cardboard and newspaper as well as his cut-out character design are placed over a painted background to create a feeling of space and dimension.

The themes of the work are varied, but the unifying factor is that there is an integrated message. Majority of meanings are soft and gentle but you will definitely find some that will get you thinking.

Dennis Jones

www.dj-art.com

Dennis Jones is an extremely interesting freelance illustrator, whom I would definitely like to mention.

Dennis is from a small town in southern Missouri, who starts his creative journey from drawing from various comic magazines, and according to him, this part of his life influenced his present work the greatest.

Dennis is a devoted draftsman, who utilizes every opportunity to capture an image. Dennis predominantly uses gouache for the beginning stages of the drawing, and later modifies it in Photoshop.

His work is light and humorous, and distinctly resembles a caricature, only taken a step further. Exaggeration of the body features, funny expressions and body features, in a combination with a delightful colouring scheme make up fantastic and complex images. In majority of cases, backgrounds are limited, as the attention is concentrated on the characters themselves.

Femke Hiemstra

www.femtasia.nl

Femkes Hiemstras art has distinct qualities of an old fairytale, sort of an original version of pre Brothers Grimm and Disney. It is dark and a little bit scary but nevertheless magical, beautiful and unusual. Her paintings, is a place where various inanimate objects come alive and gain personalities.

The atmosphere that she gives to her paintings, works particularly well on the surfaces that she uses. On her website, there is a number of old book covers that she enhances, as well as other found objects like metal boxes and various wood panels.

Many of her paintings have typography integrated within the composition; presumably this approach is used to enhance the compositional values as well as the narrative. Typeface is very important as well, as it tends to pull the composition together.

On her website, when she talks about her work, she tells us that: “I’d like to tell stories in paint. The narrative involves characters, and flora and fauna and is part real, part fictional. I am also very attracted to contrasts; I’m cheerful of character so humour is part of my stories, but I am also drawn to darker themes that involve strong emotions like battles, a hunt, a lost or tragic love or the romantic death. ”

Eric Fortune

http://www.ericfortune.com/

I was fortunate to stumble upon this intriguing artist during my creative wonders. An award winning, Columbus College of Art and Design graduate is a highly valued and praised Illustrator and fine artist, who predominantly works with traditional media of paints (Acrylics and Watercolours)

His work, as far as I managed to realise, is highly poetic and deeply affecting; they posse certain element of realism but predominantly surreal in nature. For example painting “Life’s Objective” (http://www.ericfortune.com/plugins/p2003_image_gallery/popup.php?categoryid=6&p2003_sectionid=1&p2003_imageid=17 ) the female that appears in the painting generates a mixture of emotions within me, as the image is simultaneously sensuous and repulsive simultaneously.

The focal point of the painting is the top left corner where the girl is positioned. Her face expression implies deep thought, as far as I can tell, she is entirely consumed by them. She is dressed in white, summery dress, which in essence makes her look delicate and vulnerable and her hand gesture suggests the same notion. The part of the work that currently I fail to understand completely, is an image of a little toy, which mimics the pose of the girl.(It is positioned directly above her head) The only thing that comes to my mind, is further reinforcement of the qualities I listed earlier , plus the addition of emotions related to ones childhood innocence.

As my eyes travelled further down, a whole different spectrum of emotions occurred when I notice that girls’ legs have been sliced apart in multiple areas. Artist himself speaks of this notion that appears in some of his work: “I get a lot of questions about the slicing in some of my work. I see it as another metaphor, sometimes different depending on the context, I think mostly it stands for hurt or pain, physical or emotional.” And it appears as exactly that, as this work has certain nightmarish qualities, only the victim seems completely indifferent to what has happened.

Another character present in the painting is a metallic being that appears to completely hollow inside, and yet alive. Its empty, white eyes and sharp claws do not make an appearance of a delightful character. Even though positioned in the bottom right side of the painting, this being posses some strong intimidating qualities, that it appears as looming over the girl.

This image if dull of subtle emotions and sad beauty and as it appears it is the trademark of the artist.

Brett Bean

http://www.2dbean.com/

Bret Bean is an established illustrator and concept artist. Recently I visited his website and found it interesting to say the least.

The first page of http://www.2dbean.com/ has an appearance of a sketchbook cover placed on a pitch black background. What I like about the introduction page of this website, is the rustic effect that the artist went for. The exterior of an old sketchbook in an electronic format, from my point of view, is unusual and interesting.

At the top of the page there are a number of settings options that one could find useful while browsing his website. They are self explanatory and not complicated to get your head around. At the bottom of the page there are a number of buttons that allow for inter-page navigation.

When the viewer pushes the button to turn the page, it gives a distinct page turning sound as well as visually it mimics the action. As well, the observer of the website can do it manually by pressing on the page and dragging it over.

I would like to point out, that the interior of the sketchbook does not directly link to the exterior as inside it is full of futuristic, sci-fi type of imagery.

The only true unfortunate factor of the layout is that one can’t zoom in on to individual images and to me that seems as a disappointment as I do prefer to look closer and admire the details as it helps to understand the subject matter a great deal.

The presentation of the images is consistently good, I like the way the finished images are laid out with sketches traced in the background as well as in some cases the background consists of a surface that seems like it was worked with a paint roller. It does give it that contemporary feel.

The subject matter is reasonably varied, though the space theme is in dominance. Some drawings are erotic, as the artist explores the female form, and it seems that there is a certain level of Japanese Manga influence in his work. The clues is the over exaggerated eyes which makes the subject to appear more feminine and vulnerable.

The level of imagination in his work is exhilarating, as the details of some drawings, composition; micro and macro expressions make an extremely tight and beautiful image. Personally I have a lot to learn from artists like Brett Bean as the style and approach, at this stage of my artistic development, seems mind-blowing.

Veronique Meignaud aka Marmote

http://www.v-meignaud.com/

Recently I came across an incredible illustrator from France, her name is Veronique Meignaud. She normally works freelance for the gaming industry as a character and environment designer.

According to an interview in a journal: “Marmote has a systematically random approach to the creation of her vibrantly individual art.”For personal illustrations I don’t have any precise thinking of what I am to create before I start. The process if automatic- I paint abstract shapes and choose some saturated colours. I also look for harmony, a balance with empty and full spaces. The final atmosphere depends on the general mood of the day.”” (ImagineFX August 2009).

I personally am an admirer of fantasy art as every image holds a story, and what I love about it is that it leaves me wondering about the subject depicted.

I would definitely recommend visiting www.v-meignaud.com as the variety and quality of images is certainly impressive. The artist possesses an unusual approach to composition, style and colouring technique. On the website, a substantial number of images is present, with several distinct style directions, each beautiful in its own individual way.

Veronique Meiginaud ‘s images are normally subtly erotic, with almost ever present notion of female form integrated in her work. Though at the same moment, I would like to point out, that majority of her subjects are faintly deformed.

The artist has obviously experimented with colouring techniques, as she skilfully combines colours from all around the spectrum to great compositional and emotional benefit.

What I find especially captivating, is the difference in style that she is able to communicate within her work. One image could be full of fascinating details and simultaneously expressing a variety of emotions (The Village 2008), but another could be purely composed of the subject planted in the centre of the composition, with a limited variation in tonal variation, but newer the less provoking questions.