Tag: illustration

Source unknown – Title unknown (201X)

The use of line in this is truly exquisite–the way outer edge of the body is firm and between subtle shading and softer lines, a sense of the softness of the feathery hair and skin are embodied.

Compositionally, I’m not sure the top drawing works on its own. There’s too much negative space to the far right of the frame–the eye scans past the face and doesn’t return.

Yet–in combination, as a diptych–there’s a range of strangely authentic, unselfconscious experience presented that is fascinating.

A strange thing that I experience is there are times when my empathy is running hot or something and an scared emoji can make me worry about the poor thing’s well being. Most of the time–I really am phenomenally bad at interpreting expressions.

However, looking at these I’m certain that the top drawing might best be a depiction of the feeling we term ‘pensive’; while the lower one is almost certainly ‘abandon’–in the sense of something letting go as opposed to being let go of. (’Abandon’ a strange word that encapsulates both the experience of the subject and the object, depending upon contextual deployment.)

I sort of feel like this is an accurate depiction of the extreme poles of the spectrum upon which my own feelings exist.

Source: devourgod

Musubu Nakai – Untitled (2012)

I really like this guy’s style. His compositions tend to be too busy but he has an interesting way of parsing things so that although his stuff is frequently overwhelming, it does surrender to a sort of implicit ordering structure after the initially dismaying over-stimulation.

Consider the variegated pointillism of the color here, the green red and blue of the wall, the complementary cover of the book from which the boy is reading. The subdued pink and blue of her skin; the blue of his shorts and the bluw in the pants of the person standing at the edge of frame. The red, blue and hints of green in the floor tiles.

I am, however, not 100% on-board with some of his content. The cat–which seems to be the way he inserts himself into his paintings and the young woman with her eyes closed are almost certainly a veiled reference to Balthus. (Which is very much in line with the work he’s done… notable projects include illustrating The Story of O and a lot of stuff that looks more or less like a cross between Sailor Moon and Alice in Wonderland.)

I don’t have a problem with artists depicting age appropriate sexual curiosity. Some of the aspects of this strike me as unsettlingly suggestive. The way she is naked and he isn’t suggested a sexual freedom, whereas he’s forced to hide his erection behind the book. It’s presented as a sort of seduction.  I don’t think I need to explain why that’s problematic.

But what I find unnerving is the orderly type figure standing off to the side. As if this exchange is being monitored somehow? Which given what is shown–there’s no way to spin that in a slap on the wrist sort of way. I’m not going to say that this crosses a line but it’s definitely toeing it in a way that feels irresponsible to me, somehow.

Hiroko Shiina AKA C7 – Conium maculatum (2015)

I could opt to digress about the gorgeously filigreed line work (which to my eye is on par with Albrecht Dürer); or, I could rant about Shiva‘s multiple arms.

And speaking of multiple arms–it’s wonderful and rich with meaning the way the hands embracing her for a second appear as if they are hers but at least two of them belong to the person holding onto her (in a mix of comforting or perhaps more accurately sharing of sorrow) but also at the same time there’s a unsettling fondling feel to things. (The two hands on her body are clearly signaled as masculine.)

But what transfixes me, I’m talking hypnotically mesmerizes me is the way she’s catching her heart with her dress–her heart appearing as if it’s exploded out of her chest in a bursting bloom of Baby’s Breath, looking less like an organ and more than a little like a plant trimming left soaking in water long enough to begin to form root structures.

The way she’s catching the heart reminds me of that scene early in Twain’s Huck Finn where Huck dresses as a girl to attempt to gain information from a local farmer, his disguises is quickly seen through thanks to the gender essentialist tests of Mrs. Judith Loftus. (In particularly, the woman asks Huck to thread a needle–he fails; hit a rat with a lump of lead–he succeeds; and, to catch something tossed toward his lap–he slams his legs together to protect his testicles, whereas a young lady would spread her legs so that the surface of her dress would act as a trampoline to aide in catching the object.)

But really I’m kind of just so completely in awe of this because everything about it speaks to me on so many freaking levels–especially as a non-binary trans girl who (personally) has no interest in medically transitioning. I suspose that means I’m officially out to you, dear followers…

The resonance is so strong, in fact, that I am seriously thinking about getting this as a tattoo on my left tricep…

Source: g77gallery.com

Chunae – Title unknown (2017)

There are hundreds of reasons I LOVE these two illustrations.

The first image recalls Tammy Rae Carland’s Lesbian Beds series. So that’s automatically #AllTheFeels territory.

But the attention to detail is just so beyond on fleek in these.

Let’s just start with the first image. Note: the pictures on the walls. Two of the two women as a couple. The no smoking sign. The succulent on the window sill. The slippers toe-to-toe. The discarded socks. The position of the cat. The iPhone on the night table.

Everything is so perfectly balanced between an idealized, stylish living space that is just lived in enough to not appear staged.

The second image is less economical but offers two additional bits of information. These women are married–that’s them in their wedding gowns on the wall. Also, the brunette is supportive of the blond’s creative streak. (Also note how the light from the window casts their shadows against the far wall.)

Sequentially, I’d wager that the second image came first but I prefer it the way I have it here because for me I feel like you have the have the intimacy suggested by the first image for the sharing of space and time to be as meaningful as it appears in the second image.

Also, to use the vernacular: this is #goals for me. Maybe one day I won’t be so irrevocably alone. (Probably not though.)

Apollonia Saintclair – 605 – Les béquilles [The Third Auxiliary] (2015)

Each time I re-encounter Saintclair’s work, my appreciation of her talent expands.

Like Mœbius–who’s syncretism of sacred (attuned to the rigorously established precepts of classical drafting and design in high art) and profane (explicitly graphic depictions of sexual activity) is almost certainly a major influence–Saintclair almost always releases work that is both salacious and eminently refined.

I adore the image above. I appreciate the fact that I actually sat here for ten minutes decoding the fact that the hands depicted here belong to four different people.

Further, I love the way her treatment of cross hatching and shading render appear to be almost art nouveau-esque when you are examining the piece close at hand, and then when you zoom out and see it at a distance, the stylization diminishes to affect a sort of photo-realistic look.

Compositionally, I can’t see how anyone could look at this and not appreciate the careful balance between highlight and shadow–I mean this illustration is, after all, a gradient from top to bottom (light to shadow). But like the yin-yang symbol, the shadows in the light area balance against light in the shadow areas. It’s masterful, really. (She’s probably also riffing on Escher here.)

Lastly: for three years–give or take and excluding guest curatorial stints–I’ve insisted on alternative between B&W and color images every other post on this blog. (I know, I know–your mind is blown.)

It’s not especially easy to pull of. There is a dearth of B&W stuff, a surfeit of color. So it’s refreshing to have an artist whose work successfully scratches a particular itch in such a virtuoso fashion.

(Disclaimer: this Tumblr was high af off Cali’s finest medical edibles while writing this post.)

Source: ayzenmyoo