I’m a big fan of movie titles, particularly of those that are very graphic driven and reminiscent of old, classic Hollywood from the 60s. Continue reading
Category Archives: Illustration
Rajacenna, Drawing Princess
Its’ always great to see a visual artist having a strong direction, specially if it’s a young artist. Continue reading
Airbrush Master Hubert De Lartigue
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When it comes to artistic expressions, it’s always great to view technology and trends being pushed aside by traditional media and hand interaction. Continue reading
Rolf Nesch: Fine Art Printmaker
Rolf Nesch was more than an innovative fine art printmaker, he was a man who committed himself to his art, even to the point of inflicting himself a serious injury on his left harm just so that he would not be enlisted in the German army during WWII. In spite of some limitations with his arm as consequence, Nesch continued to immerge himself in very serious experimentation with the printing press that ultimately led him to discover some innovative techniques with metal printing. For Rolf Nesch, his obsession with printing began in 1919 when he started to work on his first lithographs, and ended abruptly due to a serious brain stroke in 1972 with his last metal prints. Nesch died in Oslo, Norway, in the fall of 1975. Nesch was born in Württenberg, Germany, 82 years earlier in 1893. By 1912 he entered the art academy but was forced to suspend his studies in order to be enlisted in the army and fight in WWI. In 1920 He resumed his artistic education, which he completed three years later in Dresden. Nesch was also a serious painter and even experimented with sculpture all throughout the 1920s, however, by the end of that decade, political issues of the time made Rolf Nesch move to Norway, and from that point forward, he concentrated more on printing. A couple of years after his self inflicting injury, Nesch met his wife, an actress by the name of Ragnhild Hald, in 1945 Nesch was granted Norwegian citizenship, and by 1951 he had settled his family at a country farm in Hallingdal where he established his print studio and produced an incredible collection or vivid graphic work that has always been well praised by art lovers all throughout the world.
Peter Sève: American Illustrator & Character Designer
Even though his style is very reminiscent of a simple sketch, NY based Illustrator Peter De Sevè actually has an incredible reputation for being a huge perfectionist, and his perfectionism may be attributed to him being born colorblind. Much of his early work was solely done with ink and pencil, De Sevè only began to apply color to his work later in his career, and for that purpose, he works exclusively with watercolor, which proves that Peter De Sevè is actually an insightful illustrator who refuses to relay on tricks or gimmicks; he focuses only on the actual story. A Parsons graduate since 1976, De Sevè has done many illustrations for magazine covers, such as the New Yorker, a publication for which he was done some now very recognizable works. In recent years he has also began to expand his impressive draftsmanship into character design, he is a driving force behind the characters of very popular flicks such as Ice Age, Finding Memo and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Today, Peter De Sevè is embarking on a new direction in editorial illustration, he’s beginning to illustrate children’s books.
John Wesley: An Artist Who Has Fun
John Wesley began his adventures in visual art as an illustrator a little over 40 years ago. By the early sixties, Wesley became more interested in modern art and moved from California to NYC so he could gain connections to the modern art scene of the time. Today, John Wesley is a prominent contemporary artist whose work has been recognized and admired in many well known galleries throughout the world. As I was reading a retrospective biography on the artist and absorbing his aesthetic approach, I began to wonder how other important figures in the creative arts today may be indebted to the work of Wesley. I in particular, admire how the paintings by John Wesley are rich with intelligent humor and eloquence in spite of his simplistic style. Like Roy Lichtenstein in the 60s, John Wesley began to experiment with the appropriation of newspaper comics in the 70s, Wesley also finds a great deal of inspiration for his paintings in mundane, ordinary advertisement clippings; proving that as far as John Wesley is concerned, Pop Art remains alive and strong.
Raynold Brown: An Adventurous Artist
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Raymond Brown was a prolific illustrator whose career expanded for over 30 years. Born in California, he was also a conservative, quiet family man. Raymond Brown attended art classes all throughout his high school years and only attended art school for six months due to his father’s sudden death. He worked as a production artist in the comic strip industry in order to support his family, and two years later, thanks to his perseverance and skill to draw planes, Raymond Brown was hired as a technical illustrator by North American Aviation. His wife, Mary Louise Tejeda, a fellow illustrator who also worked for NAA and with whom he became father to eight children was a great supporter sometimes posing as model for many of his assignments. Brown would also use his children as well as himself as models in many other opportunities. Soon after WWII ended, Raymond Brown moved to NY, where he worked as a freelance illustrator for a little over four years. During that time, Brown illustrated about 40 paperback covers and nearly 200 magazine covers. Once he grew disenchanted with the publication industry, Brown returned to California, and for a short period of time worked again for NAA in additionto starting his teaching career at Art Center; where he taught figure drawing for over 26 years, and many of his students have become established Art Directors, recognized Sculptors and admired Architects, in addition to famous fellow Illustrators such as Drew Struzan. Soon after becoming an Art instructor, Raymond Brown was presented with the opportunity to illustrate a movie poster, and thus, Raymond Brown began his impressive movie poster career that covers over 300 movie posters in total. By the early 70s, once his children had become adults, Brown quit illustrating movie posters in part due to his dissatisfaction with the type of explicit material he was requested to produce. Thanks to the encouragement of his wife, Raymond Brown started to paint Western Art, his paintings -which sum up to about 600 in total- continue selling very well. Despite becoming very fragile due to a severe stroke that limited his sight as well as the left side of his brain in the mid 70s, Brown continued to paint with his right hand. (He was born somewhat ambidextrous and Dyslexic) He died in Nebraska in 1991 and all of his work, both commercial and none commercial, depicts his very strong sense of adventure, real qualities of a natural born story teller.
Grace with no Motion
Inevitably, poster design is now a major art form. Museums from all over the world are paying big bucks for original prints. After all, how can any museum call itself modern without a descent poster archive? What follows is a conjunction of quotes from Taku Satoh, a Japanese Designer who’s interview is featured in Graphis 2010 Poster Annual:
These days, where the media is usually in an interactive form, I feel that a two dimension poster has a power of its own (…) A motionless media can be full of grace, and it spells out determination
Diego & Frida:Variations on a Theme
I was really impressed with these posters, my favorite being the one in the middle; I really like the duality played by the elements in the composition. The poster on top comes second; is amazing how the typographic treatment is reminiscence to Frida’s fashion style. The fluidity, childlike quality of the third poster is also quite striking. Overall, what I like most about these posters is how a simple message can be delivered in so many aesthetic forms. I found all these concepts in the current volume of Graphis Poster annual, they were done by different designers from around the world to honor Frida and Diego’s retrospective year long exhibition hosted at The Fine Arts National Institute of Mexico.
Light Fiction: Vintage Novel Covers
Mills & Boom, an English publisher, have been famous for the publication of romance novels since the early 1900s. Their business began to take shape just about the same time when the need for book jacket design was becoming more popular. Like other publishers, Mills & Boom standardized their packaging design in order to stabilize and promote their brand. Through a book cover, publishers can target a particular audience or specify a particular literary genre.
Here are some of my favorites, each one of these was created in the 60s, I particularly found it interesting how these book covers not only resemble movie posters, but also movie stars of the time.