In this world of pop surrealism and particular combinations there’s always room for more. Take Nico Kos‘ zeppelins & bunnies series as the latest example of an absurd narrative style taken out of a James Bond movie from the 60s. Who are those bunny-masked engineers, what are they posing for, which Asian hidden island and most important… what are they building all those zeppelins for?
Untitled2 by Nico KosiUntitled4 by Nico Kosi
Clearly influenced by his time spent in Japan, dutch-painter and teacher Nico Kosi has been producing some exotic landscapes over the past year, and while we haven’t heard about any upcoming exhibitions in his native Bergen or Amsterdam, we’re really looking forward to it. More info and bunny secrecy on his webpage.
One last soul to remember from Drawing Now (with all those Rulliers, Carrasquers, Bezanics, Zsakos or Rumseys) was a Valencian artist represented by the Madrilian gallery Fernando Pradilla (one of the very few foreign galleries to attend the event). We’re talking about Moisés Mahiques’ Double-blind paintings.
Pencil, ink & acrylic compositions with an undefined number of individuals represented in the most chaotic (and often erotic) situations, vicious circles of homo fantasies, sexual excesses and hyper-violent states of mind captured in their purest forms… radicalism was never so beautiful and relaxing, maybe that’s why his paintings are so popular within hospitals and waiting rooms?
Liberal, charming, well-educated and exquisitely respectful, that’s how many will remember Antonio Mingote‘s artwork, but also his persona, character and image.
We finally have simultaneous translation in the senate - find the 7 differences - Mingote
The Catalan-born, Madrilian-adopted legend who died last Tuesday was considered by many the most successful cartoonist in Spain, whose contemporary history couldn’t really be understood without him. 80 years dedicated to the art of political & social satire and whose tramps, bourgeois young men and easily-shocked women have covered one of the oldest Spanish newspapers (ABC) for over 59 years.
Mingote - 1962 - drawing related to the NASA expeditions
Being 13, in 1932 he published his very first drawing on the ABC-supplement Black&White, prior to joining the newspaper in 1953 for a long & fruitful relationship… he even got to draw many covers for the Madrid-based publication, something rarely seen on Spanish newspapers.
When arriving to the capital (in 1944) he quickly became friend with Rafael Azcona who introduced him to the most successful humor publication at that time: La Codorniz. And even if he had a promising career within the army, as soon as he could live from his drawings he didn’t hesitate to leave it. After collaborating with other local publications and signing with ABC he definitely made the jump in 1954.
Mingote - Translators - Dad and mom speak each their own autonomic language, how about I play to be their translator and we laugh a lot
Needless to mention the large number of awards, novels (also some graphic ones) and even a 1978 film he produced during his career, Spanish cartoonism is a little bit emptier now.
Mingote - They're taking down all Franco-related statues, hopefully we don't have to remind them we were here before
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Ralph McQuarrie was one of those extremely bizarre humans gifted with the power to see and talk to aliens. He was so lucky that being a kid, and way before he moved to California in the 60s, these invited him for a few extraterrestrial trips.
I think the rest of his story, achievements and career, from Boeing & CBS to his latest work with Spielberg, are worldwide known by pretty much every sci-fi fan, especially Star Wars ones.
Starworks artwork by Ralph McQuarrie (image from Starwars.com)
Unfortunately for us all McQuarrie just passed away at the age of 82 yesterday in his Berkeley home. The artist considered by many the co-creator of George Lucas’ famous saga had not only won an Academy Award for his work on Cocoon but inspired and pretty much imposed a way of conceiving the outer space, the bad aliens but also the most likable and chilren-friendly ones…. (*batteries not included, E.T….).
Starworks artwork by Ralph McQuarrie - 2 (image via Starwars.com)
We always say… they keep getting younger and younger, or maybe the industry looks for them. Who could care less for a 60 y.o. artist when you have someone as talented as the 24 y.o. Carla Fuentes!
Henry by littleisdrawing (Carla Fuentes)
Miss Fuentes has become one of the latest referents in Spanish illustration, one of the few who’s got enough credibility and resources to keep signing month after month new artistic contracts with local & international brands … Pull & Bear, Amnesty International, Myspace, Absolut….
Jim Jarmusch's "Night on earth" by Littleisdrawing (Carla Fuentes)
She has no qualms about promoting her own porfolio & blog littleisdrawing whenever she has the opportunity (or interviewed) and even though she hasn’t done any animation yet (and while she prepares 345345 other projects + finishes her studies…etc) she definitely has big animated plans ahead.
THE R.G MORRISON by Littleisdrawing (Carla Fuentes)
So while we wait for the new enfant terrible of the Spanish indie illustration scene to make her debut with flash and after effects we’ll just keep visiting her “whatever” blog.
Julia Pott’s newest animated short “Belly” isn’t available on-line yet; it’s still doing a world festival tour (we wish her the best of luck). So we thought… why not talk about all her previous animal love stories?
Julia Pott's mammoth
You’re probably recognized those soft animal drawings…. “aggressively cute” creatures who tend to fall in love too easily, too quickly. We got to know her style with those bit Etsy titles a couple of years ago, and she hasn’t stopped receiving advertising proposals ever since.
For someone willing to become a balloon and still addicted to sugar her anthropomorphic animals have become some sort of East-London icon; something she’s apparently going to try and export to New York. Wonder if she’ll still be part of our other favorite local studio… Treat, when she moves out.
The good thing about Julia is that she’s not only an animator! She obviously sells her stuff on Etsy, has her own personal blog on top of her on-line book, a flickr, a vimeo…. and has a loong portfolio of artwork you shouldn’t miss. This way.
You know how public places are… always suitable for a quick shag.
Public place
And either Nj Sung loves practicing it, looking at it or he’s just obsessed with exaggerations of the dirty act. Like the famous pornographic comics & animations his neighbors have been growing up with for a few centuries now.
Public Place - Taste Good
All the way from South Korea, Sseongnakjin has kept developing his dirty pop art after graduating from Hanyang University and dedicating big part of his time to body adoration. Some of his works (mostly from his Public place series) can now be bought as prints via SO but you can always visit his blog for his other less carnal fantasies.
Last Monday Mattias Adolfsson’s first personal book started shipping (yuppi!), and all those carefree monsters we’ve come to love are finally compiled under a unique physical publication… 160 pages of Namiki Falcon & watercolors published under the also Swedish Sanatorium förlag for around $38 + shipping.
The first in line
The book was presented earlier this month @ the Swedish festival SPX 11 (Kulturhuset Stockholm) and although it’s a very Swedish thingy you can also get it from his Etsy page.
The first in line
The particular character of Mattia’s characters has been requested by several of publications & artists (Tank magazine, Die Weltwoche…) and now that his first work is finally out there we really hope his sketches & doodles get way more renown than before.
And in between concert & inspiring talk a bit of Google & a bit of tarot I suddenly got very hungry last Saturday during Dazed Live. So popped into that overpopulated bar called “Hoxton kitchen or something”. The nice surprise wasn’t the chicken & avocado salad but Stevie Gee‘s works wallpapering those big walls.
Dead Clams
So i grabbed my phone and took a couple of pics of the bottom right corner with Stevie’s tumblr address (seems like the guys @ Techcrunch are right… Tumblr is taking over the world).
And who’s that guy?
Well Stevie is one of those illustrators you know… with a dark surfer side & passionate for Karate, surreal 70s zombie films, sharks, vampires… all the good things! (and his children too).
Witty and trashy, Stevie started developing that style while producing a zine and screenprinted book at St Martins art college which he graduated from in 2004. 1950s looking men, voluptuous women, crazed clowns and wild man beasts have always featured strongly in the personal work he produces under the pseudonym Dusty Wolf.
And because we aren’t gonna bore you with all his clients (Nike, Nokia, Coke… etc etc) we thought you’d prefer to visit his blog, his profile @ Stem agency (where you can have a look at all this Hoxton bar wallpapers) oooooor help him by buying some of his prints over here. We would have loved many more Frankensteins mr Wolf.
Jean Jullien is one of those graphic illustrators highly popular these days with all those big brands and publishing companies asking for his simplistic but highly attractive cartoons… Continue reading The Republic
After a couple of e-mails with Oleg Uhloy we’ve just come to the conclusion that this Ukranian guy from the coastal city of Odessa has an innate talent for drawing despite the fact that he has never studied or had any artistic education or background….
What kind of immigrant are you not? Joaquin Secall‘s illustrations are quickly reaching every design blog since he started working for EP3 (the young-trendy supplement edited by left-wing Spanish newspaper El Pais).
Checking out our old files & posts from a long time ago we’ve realised what an awful lot of artists we’ve come across and barely dedicated a few lines. Like Rebecca Dautremer.
JJ Villard became some sort of underground animation hero many years ago with his student films (Son of Satan, Someones getn fucked tonight…) and then ended up working at DreamWorks for a while (Shrek, Monsters vs. Aliens…). But we’re going to focus on his Moleskine drawings today…
Jorge Gonzalez, the Argentinian comic master is pretty well known in the European comic scene and especially appreciated in the Spanish & French markets. He moved to Spain more than 15 years ago and since then he’s been working for local editorials such as Norma, Dupuis or Glénat…
Nook mixes 3D & 2D with a pronounced modern manga style (or American manga style)…. reminding us of Kazuhisa Takenouchi’s work. A Brookly-based illustrator who’s worked for IdN, DGPH, Popular Mechanics….
Johan Thörnqvis is a Swedish illustrator famous for his miniature cities & characters drawn over photographs… ah if gnomes really existed and have emigrated into our cities they probably would have moved into these new type of construction.
What you can’t draw in a Moleskine, you can’t draw anywhere else. It’s impressive the amount of artists who keep using these tiny books not only as sketch books but actually as communicating tools for their art. Today we talk about James Jean latest great sketches & works…
