That Rabbit is a Trip

Dear ones, I’ll be in São Paulo from this month’s 21st to 23rd. The reason is to admire the sacred International Art Biennial. That was what some pieces of a physics book and a watch made me obtain at the I Festival de Arte da UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco First Art Festival).

It’s gonna be an amazing experience. This blog will lose lots of visitors because of how boringly numerous and long will be my posts about what I see there.

I hope to learn a lot, which actually is my thought in any occasion… From when I smash a cockroach to when I look at a masterpiece. So, in order to make me don’t have just the same old thought, I hope I look at more masterpieces than smash cockroaches, and look at more cockroaches than smash masterpieces. I can never know, I’m very awkward.

Anyway, what I mean is stop watching this blog for a while if you don’t want to read a bunch of nuisances about art during the next week. So long.

Artist of the Week #3: Hans Rudolf Giger

This week I’ll show the work of Hans Rudolf Giger. Hans was born on 1940, in Switzerland, and studied architecture and industrial design at the Zürich Kunstgewerbeschule (Zurich School of Applied Arts). He worked as an interior designer for a while, but soon he started to work fulltime as an artist. He began producing some works with airbrush on the 70’s, and was considered one of the best doing that at that time.

Giger between two of his sculptures.
Giger between two of his sculptures.

It was then he started to work on the concept art, sculpting and set design of some freakish little movie.  Giger, my fellows, is nothing less than the Alien’s father.

A scene from the "Alien" movie
A scene from the "Alien" movie

Giger’s style is unique. He is a master on the manipulation of forms to cause sensations, almost always unexpected sensations… He can create structures which are simultaneously frightening and beautiful, and even comforting… Many times mixing terror with sensuality, which is not the most unfrequent thing to see, neither the hardest thing to do… But with the softness and beauty of Giger, only him can do…

Necronom V
Necronom V
Erotomechanics VII
Erotomechanics VII
N. Y. City II
N. Y. City II
Biomechanoid
Biomechanoid

Today it is possible to find furniture, guitars and even whole bars builded under the “gigerian” aesthetics, which is so easy to recognize and at the same time it’s so rich.

One of the Ibanez guitar models designed by Giger
One of the Ibanez guitar models designed by Giger
Giger-Bar in Chur, Switzerland
Giger-Bar in Chur, Switzerland

Giger manages to be an icon of  both academic art and pop art. If you want to know a litte more about this visual arts’ legend, take a look at his site.

Until next week, and I hope you’re liking this series of posts. I’ve been loving it myself, I always learn a lot while I make searches to write them =).

Dead Is The New Sexy

This wasn’t exactly the best idea among those I’m keeping for when I have the time to do them, neither it was one of the quickest to do – so much it’s not really done by now – but circumstances have made it become the most appropriate for this weekend… Because of nothing less than… Halloween! And that was the only thing out of the ordinary I’ve done in a Halloween… for years :P (we’re not into Halloween very much here in Brazil :\).

Anyway, not only Halloween season made it adequate,  but also I think any other time would make it inadequate… because the illustration have this accidentally and uncomfortably necrophile look. It was accidental because all I wanted to do was another morbidily ironic drawing like so many others I’ve done… But it wasn’t the first one to pass the wrong message… So, children, don’t try to do at home anything you see in my drawings ;P (specially eating brains with hashis, it’s gonna be a mess and it’s not always possible to clean the evidences in time. The best way to eat brains actually is… something I would know if I did eat brains, but of course I don’t, obviously).

So, let’s get to the drawing. It’s a zombie pin-up. I’ve had the idea, and shortly after I found out that, unfortunately, it’s far from being new. There are millions of illustrations and t-shirt stamps with this subject, there are events, and whole sites about it … Usually when I notice an idea I’ve had wasn’t new, I throw it away, but I decided to go ahead with this one. For two reasons: first, to test new illustration techniques – more specifically digital techniques – and second… I realized my idea wasn’t so not original, so it wouldn’t hurt to do it…

Below is the paper version, made with the old pencil and the old eraser.

Dead Is The New Sexy (Sketch)
Dead Is The New Sexy (Sketch)

And below is the Illustrator finished version. I must admit it exceeded my expectations. It took me hours to do it, because I was using the program for the first time and I’m still very awkward with vectors (so much that I’ve done a lot of things with the Pencil tool, instead of the Pen tool… To, believe me, suffer less). There were moment when I stopped, looked, and thought “what a piece of crap”. But in the end I was getting the hang of it, and I think the final results are even acceptable.

Dead Is The New Sexy (Line Art)
Dead Is The New Sexy (Line Art)

Hold on, I’ve said “final results”? Take it easy… I’m still thinking about coloring it… But that’s another story, I’ll have to learn a lot more, and have a lot of more free time… So I’ll leave that for the future…

Oh, and what makes my idea be just a little bit different of what can be seen in other zombie pin-ups is… The fact she says  “Hearts!” instead of  “Brains!”. It’s so cute, it’s so unexpected, it’s so… black widow…

That’s it, see ya…

Notebook Sketches #1

If you really think that when it takes a lot of time for me to post a new drawing here, it’s because I wasn’t drawing anything, you’re wrong… Art is a sickness… which is healed with art… which is a sickness… which is healed… anyway, you got it, I can’t stop. The point is I don’t always have the time to do elaborate drawings like those I use to post here, so I relieve my illness making some sketches in any piece of paper within my reach.

These sketches, for instance, we’re drawn in notebook sheets or other pieces of paper which I eventually used to make some calculations or take some notes. Only “Brain Power”, “Wanna hear a joke?” and “Geomegician” we’re drawn in a proper sketchbook. After all, drawing sketches in a book meant to be used to draw sketches is not much fun:P.

Some of these drawings are about one year old, while others we’re made just a few days ago. I found it interesting to show them here at the blog because they present a style which is very different from what can be seen in my “official” works, although it’s a style my sketches always had.

Artist of the Week #2: Peter Callesen

There’s a strong trend lately in visual arts of trying to create works which cannot be properly reproduced in means other than those in which they we’re made. The reason is simple: to make it worth going to an art exhibit instead of just seeing pictures of it, to make it worth buying an artwork instead of printing a digital version and stick it to the wall.

So, many artists are leaving behind conventional drawings and paintings, and are trying to use other visual expression techiniques, involving installations and performances, and other different formats. But some of them have noticed that they don’t need to reinvent the wheel… Milennia ago the sollution was ready: sculpture.

Seeing the picture of a sculpture is not the same thing as seeing it personally, you can’t feel the object’s tridimensionality. Even if you see pictures of the object in every angle possible, still it’s not the same thing. And, of course, gluing a picture of the sculpture on a wall definitively is not the same as having the sculputure.

A kind of sculpture which is very common these days is paper sculpture. There are artists doing unbelieveable things with that. One of them is danish Peter Callesen.

Peter Callesen working in one of his performances
Peter Callesen working in one of his performances

It’s kind of offensive to say that Peter is “one of them”. After all, he doesn’t just make cute, delicate and empty things, like most of other “paper artists”. His works have messages… Sometimes tragic messages, sometimes comic messages, almost always tragicomic messages.

Distant Wish - A4 paper and glue
Distant Wish - A4 paper and glue

But, of course, he doesn’t put beauty and suavity aside. Peter’s paper manipulation skills are unquestionable.

The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow - A4 paper and glue
The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow - A4 paper and glue

More of his works with A4 paper can be seen here. But he does even more fantastic things with larger papers, like in the sculpture below:

Fall - paper and glue
Fall - paper and glue

Bu there’s much more, more than it would fit in this post. See the several galleries of his website and understand what I mean.

Callesen also works with other expression mediums. Apparently he is one of the artists I’ve mentioned in the begining of this post, which try to reinvent the wheel and expand the limits of visual arts.  It’s a dangerous path, and full of failures. But, fortunately, his attempt made him get to the paper sculptures, which, although just a part of his vast artistic production – which involves unusual performances and installations -, are the great responsibles for his success.

Artist of the Week #1: Fred Einaudi

Fred Einaudi is an american artist born in 1971, in Weed Heights, Nevada, and presently lives in San Francisco. I don’t know where he studied, nor what has he achieved, I just know he is amazing.

 

Fred Einaudi and one of his paintings
Fred Einaudi and one of his paintings

 

His art has somehow post-apocalyptic elements, it is filled with contrasts and ironies and covered with a fascinating realist surrealism.

 

The Chocolate Donnut - oil on canvas
The Chocolate Donnut - oil on canvas

 

The paintings are all oil on canvas… And, as, at least so far, I suck with brushes and paints, I tend to find them even more dazzling. I must confess I’ve seen more realistic oil paintings, but that in any way diminishes Einaudi’s merit for achieving such level of mastery.

 

The Mermaid - oil on canvas
The Mermaid - oil on canvas

 

Einaudi is surely one of my most intense influences. Works like Robotomii and the Inner Beauty series are steeped with Fred Einaudi’s morbid irony, and several of them use the photographic references “collage” technique, also used by Fred, although they don’t get even close to the richness of detail of his paintings.

 

Patriot - oil on canvas
Patriot - oil on canvas

 

If someone wants to know more about this great artist… do not take a look at his site =P… There you’ll find other paintings, and an e-mail, but it’s with this interview right here that it’s possible to have a better idea of the biography and what goes on on the mind of Fred Einaudi.

Internal Conflict

A friend of mine in college, Adailson, is the guitar player of a band called Sexto Elemento (“Sixth Element”), and he asked me to make the cover for their new album, Conflito Interno (“Internal Conflict”)… Below is my illustration before all effects, made with my old and good color pencils. It’s a little too colorful I must say :P.

And this was my suggestion of layout (which Adailson may not approve) for the front cover:

As I don’t feel very well charging friends/colleagues/relatives, I asked for payment just a copy of the CD when it comes out, and the possibility of someday, soon or not, if it’s not much trouble, to rehearse and record a song with them xP… I think I may have not told here that I don’t sing very badly (not only in my mother’s opinion xD). As he didn’t hesitate in accepting the deal, then I guess he may not think I’m so terrible too :D…

P.S.: The final version of the cover was already decided. All the effects and stuff were applied by Adailson.

Front:

Back:

An Offer He Can’t Refuse

An Offer He Can't Refuse

The concept is old, I thought of it about the same time I made my first illustrations of this kind, but I just wasn’t able to make it. I hadn’t found a picture of Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone that helped in the process, besides I think at the time I was trying to use the whole quote (“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”), so I gave up (which proves that, despite what it seems – after all, the impression it causes is that it’s possible to fit any phrase to any face making the proper warps – this kind of optical illusion is very hard to do… and among the few times it can be finished, only a few look really good… In my case, for example, I think the only perfect one I’ve made was “Why So Serious?“) . But yesterday something made me remember the idea, and then I miraculously found the perfect picture, full of shadows, and then I made a sketch that today, almost now, has become the image I’ve just showed.

Geneide

Removing the spider webs a little after months without drawing… This is one of the several requests of drawings people made me during last year and only now I had time to do… It’s the first one I’m doing, but it’s probably the most recent request…

Geneide - graphite pencil on paper
Geneide - graphite pencil on paper

This is the Portuguese teacher of the school I was studying in last year. I like her a lot, maybe that’s why I decided to make her drawing before the others people asked me a longer time ago.

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