Artist Research (Ludwig Holwein)

So this dude (Ludwig Hohlwein, 1894 - 1939) was a watercolorist, but he started out as an architect and it is a good thing that he did not stick with it because DAMN these are some find pictures. Also, he was German, which automatically makes him some kind of guy that you do not want to fuck with or else he will spray language-spit all over you. There is not a lot of information about him that I could find (because people are IGNORANT) but from what I can tell, he made a name for himself as a poster artist (posterist?) mostly because people could instantly recognize his style. And it wasn't hard, 'cause you'd see that shit everywhere. By 1924 he had already designed over 3,000 different posters.

Note to self: Draw more and less shittily.

Artist Research (James Montgomery Flagg)

BITCH YOU'D BETTER GIVE ME MY GODDAMN MONEY

AND GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN

SO HERE WE HAVE JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG (1877-1960) who was, like most of the people featured on this blog, A BADASS. Remember that drawing of Uncle Sam that's in every single high school government history book where Uncle Sam's pointing at the viewer and going UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU or whatever? Yeah, well, creepy thoughts about this country's anthropomorphization aside, JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG drew that picture. He's famous mostly for his propaganda posters because he was SO GOOD AT THEM the boys would line up to check that shit out and go DAMN I WANT TO JOIN THE ARMY ALL OF A SUDDEN GET A DAPPER UNIFORM AND BITCHES EVERYWHERE.
He studied FIIIIINNNNE art in London and Paris because America wasn't good enough, and when he came back started drawing all kinds of shit. Cartoons, posters, magazine covers, all that good stuff. Purportedly, at the height of his career, he was the highest-paid illustrator in the United States.
P.S. You want to know what he looks like? Check out those Uncle Sam posters. He used his own (aged) face as the model, although the goatee and white hair and all that was kind of made up.

Artist Research (Edmund Dulac)

I like Edmund Dulac (1882 - 1953).

Reason being that Edmund Dulac was a badass motherfucker, despite his Frenchiness. He started out illustrating the collected works of the Bronte sisters but pretty obviously (if you look at the pictures above ARE YOU LOOKING YOU'D BETTER BE LOOKING) that wasn't all that he did. He illustrated a collection of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry (goth before goth was cool) but what he's really known for is his fairy-tale illustrations. KIDS WENT APESHIT OVER THEM. Did I mention that this motherfucker drew stamps? HE DREW STAMPS FOR THE QUEEEEEEN. 

Anyways, after a while he was like MAN BEING AN ILLUSTRATOR KIND OF SUCKS LONG HOURS SHITTY PAY NO SNOW DAYS THIS IS BULLSHIT I'M BOUNCIN' and did, although he continued to draw, like, newspaper cariactures and ornamental chocolate box lids and shit like that. He died working on an illustrated version of Miltons Comus. (Heart attack! His body was like HNNGH I CAN'T TAKE IT THIS PICTURE IS TOO VISUALLY EXCITING FOR ME TO HANDLE)

Artist Research (Dean Cornwell)

CHECK OUT THIS MOTHERFUCKER

this dude is named Dean Cornwell (1892 - 1960). He's an oil painter and a muralist. YOU THINK THESE IMAGES ARE BADASS IMAGINE THEM TWICE YOUR SIZE ON A BRICK WALL SOMEWHERE

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but pretty soon enough he was like Y'ALL BITCHES KNOW THIS TOWN AIN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR ME and moved to Chicago. Which he conquered, and then went on to annihilate New York and London. And if that wasn't enough, he then became president in 1922. President of the Society of Illustrators, 'cause if you think this dude's going to calm down long enough to run a country then you be trippin' pokeballs. This guy was a demon with a paintbrush!

Artist Research (Will H. Bradley)

TODAY I AM HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT WILL H. BRADLEY

who was an art nouveau illustrator working in the early 20th century.

Most of his work seems to be magazine covers and that sort of thing, especially for something called 'The Chapbook'. His style is considered art nouveau even though by the time the man was born art nouveau was already kind of out of style (after the whole English Aesthetic movement went up in flames). His work is considered to have been heavily influenced by Aubrey Beardsley. Although he worked for several publications, his primary 'medium' was that of posters.

Artist Inspiration

I wanted to do a post about Yamamoto Takato today! He is one of my favorite artists, although biographical information is difficult to find on him. His style has been described as 'Hesei Aestheticism', which I can kind of see in the way that he uses negative space within his composition.

One of the reasons I like his illustrations so much is because some of them get INSANELY COMPLICATED, and you can walk around for DAYS without noticing tiny details...or even huge very noticable details like PENISES because they get lost within, like, a sea of fish scales or something. The level of intricacy in his drawings is insane, it reminds me a little bit of antique medical illustrations.

Illustration Facial Exercise and Texture Thumbnails

These are two painting exercises that we did in class recently. The assignment was to paint different expressions using yourself or a classmate as your model. For the majority of these, I used my housemate Fidencio, but the ones with the facial piercings are my housemate Melinda. I think they turned out alright, considering that I don't have very much experience with non-digital painting.

Textures!