Tag: illustration

Hannes Binder

Scratchboard Illustrations by Hannes Binder

Hannes Binder is a Swiss artist born in 1947. He studied art at a college of arts and crafts in Zurich, worked as a commerical artist in Milan, and then as an illustrator and commercial artist in Hamburg. He lives in Zurich and works as a freelance illustrator and painter.

Hannes Binder’s graphic novel, “Roman in Bildern”, was published in 2002 in Germany to critical acclaim. The original text of the 500 page novel was retold in a graphic format using his dramatic and impressive engravings. This story is also the subject of a Japanimation television series.

Akiya Kageichi

The Artwork of Akiya Kageichi

Akiya Kageichi is a Japanese illustrator who calls himself Golden Gravel, a name which may refer to Japanese rock gardens. His sinister jesters, lazy rulers and clandestine warriors are set within scenes full of chaotic imagery. Astrological symbols, particularly moons, are heavily prominent, suggesting the mysterious forces of dark nights are at work. In a single plane, objects morph, creating dynamic and active scenes.

Yuko Shimizu

Cover Illustrations by Yuko Shimizu for “The Unwritten” Series

Yuko Shimizu is an award winning Japanese illustrator based in New York City. Among comic fans, she is best known for her ongoing monthly covers for “The Unwritten” and her cover art for P. Craig Russell’s comic book adaptions of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman: The Dream Hunters”, published by Vertigo / DC Comics.

Shimizu began getting editorial illustration work soon after she completed her master’s degree, at first occasional assignments from The Village Voice and the New York Times, and soon after semi-regular ones for The New Yorker  and Financial Times magazine. Now, she counts numerous well-known publications, publishing houses, and brands as clients.

Adolf Wolfli

Artwork by Adolf Wolfli

Adolph Wolfli was a Swiss artist who was one of the first artists to be associated with the Art Brut or outsider art label. He was arrested and in 1895 was admitted to the Waldau Clinic, a psychiatric hospital in Bern where he spent the rest of his adult life. He suffered from psychosis which led to intense hallucinations.

Wölfli produced a huge number of works during his life, often working with the barest of materials and trading smaller works with visitors to the clinic to obtain pencils, paper or other essentials. The images Wölfli produced were complex, intricate and intense. They worked to the very edges of the page with detailed borders. In a manifestation of Wölfli’s “horror vacul”, every empty space was filled with two small holes. Wölfli called the shapes around these holes his “birds.”

His images also incorporated an idiosyncratic musical notation. This notation seemed to start as a purely decorative affair but later developed into real composition which Wölfli would play on a paper trumpet.

Jared Muralt

Jared Muralt, “Godzilla” and “Godzilla (Variant)”, Silk Screen Prints, 2015

These silk screen prints were released by Mondo, a gallery and printing house in Austin, Texas. The artist Jared Muralt resides and works in Bern, Switzerland. Though he attended art school for one year in Bern, Muralt is primarily self-taught, and he developed his precision and skill through the careful study of books as diverse as those pertaining to anatomy, art history and comics. Muralt is also co-founder of BlackYard studio, a Swiss illustration and graphic design agency that was honored with Bern’s Advancement Award for Design in 2009.

Raphael Sadeler II

Raphael Sadeler II , “Saint Michael the Archangel”, Engraving, 1604

The Sadeler family were  the largest, and probably the most successful of the dynasties of Flemish engravers that were dominant in Northern European printmaking in the later 16th and 17th centuries, as both artists and publishers. As with other dynasties such as the Wierixes and Van de Passe family, the style of family members is very similar, and their work often hard to tell apart in the absence of a signature or date, or evidence of location. Altogether at least ten Sadelers worked as engravers, in the Spanish Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Bohemia and Austria.

Ray Harryhausen

Detailed Sketches by Ray Harryhausen

As one of the most highly acclaimed stop-motion animators of the pre-digital era, Ray Harryhausen worked on some all-time classic movies, including War of the Worlds, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and the epic Clash of the Titans.

The creatures Ray animated would always steal the scenes from the human actors – he managed to make them gruesome but also emotive. To achieve this Ray would immerse himself in the movie project, creating rough sketches before drawing a scene and then preparing the sequence’s storyboards.

Only then would he construct the models and begin the task of animating the titanic battle that would ensue. Working in clay to create his models, Ray would then painstakingly design the creature’s moveable skeleton before covering the armature in latex and the days of animation could begin.

Tsutomu Nihel

Manga Architecture by Tsutomu Nihel

Tsutomu Nihel, born in 1971, is a Japanese manga artist. His cyber-punk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans overseas where his manga “Blame!”, “Kinghts of Sidonia”, and “Biomega” were published by Vertical Incorporated and Viz Media.

Nihel’s first study was architecture: this influence has shown up in his manga work of depictions of huge structures. This is one of the general themes that make his manga unique.

Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy

Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy, “The Wake”, Graphic Novel

“The Wake” is a 10 issue series penned by Scott Snyder of “American Vampire” fame.  Marine biologist Lee Archer is recruited by Agent Astor Cruz of the Department of Homeland Security, to travel to a secret underwater base. There he joins an eclectic group of individuals gathered together to make sense of a horrific find; a captured merman. The creature has clawed, webbed arms, and a mouth full of sharp, predatory teeth.

In the second issue it appears that, in addition to these terrifying physical capabilities, it has other powers as well. “The Wake” floods the reader with wave after wave of terror, and will fully sate any horror genre lover.  The artwork and atmosphere of the story are impressive; the undersea station has a claustrophobic feel , and the creature looks deadly.