Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Uncategorized

Exhibition at Gallery Nucleus in California Exploring the Versatility of ‘The Line’

Philip Dennis — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:16:08 +0000

If you happen to be in California over the next couple of weeks, be sure to drop by Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. They’re holding the second of their exhibitions devoted to the use the all important line in art, ‘Line Weight: An Exploration of Line Work’

They have a great selection of contemporary artists involved, such as AOTM previously featured artists Josh Cochran, Raymond Lemstra, and Brooks Salzwedel, plus Greg Ruth, Robert Valley and more. The show is on now until the 26th of February, and here’s a little more about the concept of the collection.

“The element of line is perhaps both the most basic yet most limitless of all of the elements of art. It communicates emotion to us through its character, direction, implication and value. It can stand alone or even combine with others to create intricate patterns and textures.”

“Gallery Nucleus is proud to reprise its exhibition, ‘Line Weight’. This second installment welcomes a new roster of widely diverse and notable talents exploring the versatility of ‘the line’ in compelling ways.”

Lora Zombie’s Ink Splats

Katherine Holt — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:48:39 +0000

Working with watercolour and ink on paper as well as spray paint on walls, Lora Zombie’s pop-culture influenced pieces are knock-out. Working with unicorns, pandas, Superman and Spiderman, and accompanied by her trademark paint splats, the self-taught Russian impresses with her thoughtful take on modern culture.

As a big ink splat fan myself, I love the almost neon colours Lora uses as an accent to her well-observed drawings. With a nod towards comic-culture, Lora also makes use of speech bubbles to add an extra dimension to her work.

From Sketch to Complete: The Work of IC4DESIGN

Alex Mathers — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:52:26 +0000

I’m very glad to show you the work of Hiroshima, Japan-based illustration group IC4DESIGN who make fascinating, lively and intricate illustrations for clients all over the world.

I was fortunate enough to meet Daisuke and Hiro, the people behind the designs at their studio in Hiroshima in March of 2010. Meeting them and seeing their work was one of the most memorable experiences of traveling to Japan. These guys seem to be the world’s hardest working illustrators!

Hiro and Daisuke show us their work process from start to finish of a New York Times Magazine brief below.

New York Times Magazine Cover

‘We meet clients in a variety of ways: face to face, phone, Skype and email. The process is often slow at first. I draw many small sketches that will eventually make up the larger illustration.’

‘After this we’ll do a rough sketch in a lower resolution. Once this is done, we draw a more complex line in higher-resolution.’

‘We refer to various documents and images of things like buildings and cars. Knowing the details is very important to the illustration work we do.’

‘For big illustrations, the work will take between 30-60 days. Usually about a week before finishing, we will continue drawing and working for 18-20 hours per day.’

Thank you Daisuke, Hiro and the team at IC4DESIGN!

Contemporary Characters at Mojizu

alexmathers — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:11:00 +0000

Mojizu is a great site for those of you interested in contemporary character illustration, particularly if you intend on designing your own characters. The site actually kick-started my passion for digital illustration and I have a look through it for inspiration and laughs.

The site enables illustrators to submit characters that can be voted on by the general public, engage in battles and even lead to merchandise being sold, featuring their artwork.

First Post Ever

alexmathers — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Hello moon ape enthusiasts!

This is an exciting moment because this is the first post of my new blog. I hope to post regularly here with quite a mix of illustration-related things that are of interest to me and things that I think will be of interest to you. The content will be focusing on illustration news and stories, illustrators, typography, photography and graphic design. This sounds general, but I’m hoping the more I write here, the more some kind of a theme and focus will develop.

We’ll see how it goes…

Be sure to check out my work and be sure to comment regularly if you feel the need to.

Alex