Artist 145: Luka Va

Hello all and welcome to another one of our trademark artist features where we get to dish the love over the latest up and coming illustrators, we really do have some great artists here on the Rally and our latest feature is no exception as well. Luka Va from the beautiful Lithuania now living in the equally but differently beautiful Melborne is a great breath of fresh air with her unique characters and cheeky animals. Luka has a great sense of composition and how many elements to include in a piece and this as much as her subjects is a defining feature of her work. You can tell Luka draws a lot, she has some great stylistic choices to her work that give her a shortcut into delivering a unique narrative feel. she uses exactly what she needs where she needs to give a great uncomplicated delivery that can't help but to charm the viewer and bring them into her world. She has an eagle eye for colour and this is the final touch to her well formed style that is such a great all round package. I'm sure she will do well in the future and here at the Rally we wish her the best of luck.

Who are you:
(It is probably one of the most philosophic questions...)

My name is Luka Va. I'm an illustrator and a graphic designer from Vilnius, Lithuania, now living in Melbourne, Australia.

What do you do:
I draw animals. That's what I do :)
OK, OK, I also draw people, buildings, patterns... I love experimenting with different techniques and some crafts. Most of them are hobbies of a week or two and then I find a new one, so probably it is not so important.

How did you start:
I drew animals, people and crazy architecture since I could hold a crayon in my hand. And I couldn't do anything else. And it is not finished. I think, I'm just starting.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
Inspiration comes from everyday life. You just need to catch it and capture it in your own way. Every artwork is telling stories and every character becomes alive. Sometimes I can feel them sitting in sketchbooks, hanging out on post-its and watching me. Am I going crazy?

Links: 
www.luk.lt
facebook
flickr
etsy

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Artist 144: Katy Hudson

It's a sweet pastel treat for you now with the delectable work of Katy Hudson. Katy is one of those illustrators who posses that rare property of genuine mechanical skill that gives her so much freedom in how to express herself. The result of course is her beautiful realisations of animals that have character and also believability. Her work uses a gentle palette that compounds her watercolour style and gives a gentle strength to her work. Her work is of course charming, and she achieves this well without becoming to saccharine to believe. She has a great set of prospects ahead of her with this strong and convincing style and we wish her well in the future.

Who are you:

I'm Katy Hudson and I'm a freelance Illustrator based in the UK currently represented by Bright Art Licensing

What do you do:

I work predominantly in ink, pencil and lately watercolour then sometimes piece these drawings together with collage on my mac to produce illustrations for greeting cards, editorial, publishing and advertising.

How did you start:

I was always drawing as a child, drawing characters from storybooks and films I decided from a very young age that when I was a grown up I would work at a big drawing desk with a spinny chair! So after A levels and an Art foundation course I did a BA Hons in Graphic Communication specialising in Illustration at Bath Spa University.

A Personal statement about you or your work:

I love to tell stories and play with the elements within my drawings, animals seem to be a constant source of inspiration possibly for their different shapes and textures. A little obsessed with mark making, my favourite tools are my ink pen and an old paintbrush I've had since college that always seems to give me the right marks.

Links:
www.katyhudson.co.uk
blog
@katyhuds

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Artist 143: Eddie Vegas

Artist feature time rolls round again like the thunder of an English summer's day and this time we delve in to the electric work of Eddie Vegas. Tattoo artist, Illustrator and all over creative dynamo, Vegas produces work that sits in that place between outsider art and Mexican day of the dead chic that is absolutely right on the money in terms of style. As the world crashes down around our ears inspiration shines out with an approachable beacon of easy to digest style wrapping a fiery brick of rich colour and evocative almost primal imagery that smashes into your frontal lobe devouring up the mediocre work and giving the viewer a scorpion bite full of venom and lasting meaning. Vegas has the style and the substance, and you can see in his work the life that it evokes, like an archaeological dig revealing graffiti influence, alt culture and house parties, that bring us to this point in time. His work is ace, no doubts about it and it's great to see the depth of ingenuity behind the "republic of Vegas" which is damn savvy in this uncertain age. As we lurch into the neo dark age Eddie Vegas should adorn your arms and your mind.

Who are you:
I am Eddie Vegas.

What do you do:
I am an illustrator, tattoo artist, and creative at “Republic of Vegas”, a family company solving Left Brain Dilemmas with Right Brain Solutions.

How did you start:
I have always cm wRNãte about drawing and designing different artefacts, since I was a kid to be more specific, however, after studying engineering for 6 years, I decided to go back to my roots and start creating again, it’s been 6 years since I became a professional tattoo artist and today I used my artistic skills in different areas such as illustrating, graphic design and painting.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is mainly the materialization of my philosophical and controversial points of views, I drive words into images, concepts into compositions. I believe we must express ourselves, whether is drawing or painting, sometimes language is not enough for passing on the divine message of inspiration, I love saying it in colors.

Links: 
www.republicofvegas.com

@republicofvegas
facebook

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Special Interview: Alex Mathers

A special interview now with Illustrator Alex Mathers, founder of the amazing Red Lemon Club and Ape on the Moon. He juggles this with a ferocious creativity that drives his illustration and his many epic side projects. Alex has a cool clean style which makes use of strong colour control whilst giving a free and delicate hand drawn style, his lines are smooth and flowing and his semi naive characters have a distinctive charm that is hard to match. Alex developed Red Lemon Club which delivers hot tips of the trade and is a great way of finding out how to make your way in the world of illustration. With Ape on the Moon he expresses his love of contemporary visuals in a super slick site which has to be one of the sweets spots on the web to reside. We have a great interview with Alex here so please check it out.

1. Who are you?
I'm a Tokyo-based illustrator from London, currently here to absorb Japan and learn the language.

2. What do you do?
I'm primarily a freelance illustrator, but I also write for, and run websites.

3. How did you start Red Lemon Club and Ape on the Moon?
Ape on the Moon started as a means to share my own work in early 2009, which grew into a site sharing the work and work processes of quality artists from around the world. Red Lemon Club is a place to share useful information for creative people.

4. You live in Tokyo now, how's life there as a creative?
I really like it here. Tokyo is a very inspiring place, especially for the kind of work I do, and I'm learning and seeing so much every day. There are plenty of events and things for creatives so it's great.

5. What is the plan for the future?
I plan to get vaguely fluent in Japanese, and keep growing my two sites. I'm also planning on creating electronic music as soon as I find a little more time...

6. Any messages for our readers?
Hi readers, keep doing what you're doing, and stick with it if you enjoy what you're making. You will reap many rewards if you stay with it.

For some core ideas on how to win more projects as a creative, have a read of Red Lemon Club's free guide here.


Links:
Alex's portfolio
Red Lemon Club
Ape On the Moon
@moonape
@redlemonclub

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Special feature: Untold Method

It's time for a special feature now on Felice and Daisy from the fantastic Untold Method which has a new issue out tomorrow. Untold Method is a really sweet gathering of creativity, prose and imagery that gives the reader something fun and inspirational. Untold Method has a real quality and some great contributors. So please take a look at the forces behind this wonderful project and make sure to check out the fabulous Untold Method.

1. Who are you?

Daisy: I am a slowly introverting snail who writes too much.

Felice: Don't really know how to follow that…. I'm an artist and the co-editor of Untold Method (with a certain snail as my co-pilot).

2. What brought you together?

Felice: Unfortunately we're related, by blood, and have known each other for far too long (we're sisters).

Daisy: Mutual obsessive qualities tend to rub off on someone when you share a room with them for seventeen years.

Felice: And during that period we shared and sought out new art to impress and inspire each other. As we got older, separated and began our voyages into adulthood, it became clear that despite there being a large distance between us, we needed to collaborate on something creative together.

Daisy: And so, on Felice's wedding (29th June 2011) a big group of people, including ourselves, started to talk about putting together a magazine. At the time it was sketchy at best but it took shape very quickly.

Felice: We had a lot of big idea's to start off (Music/Art /Gaming/Prose blogs with content updated daily across each platform, interviews, tutorials and even more) but as time went on and our separate careers started demanding more time we realised we needed to whittle it down to something simple and close to our hearts. So we cut out most of the content and decided to keep it to a small themed series of free PDF magazines focusing solely on art, prose and comics.

3. What's your favourite thing about Untold Method?

Daisy: From a writing point of view I love being pushed to find new writers and explore different areas I didn't think would yield them, like blogs for instance. There are a whole load of amazing blogs out there with juicy posts ready for the picking.

Felice: Our graphic novel, written by Michael Cooper and drawn by some incredible artists, plus the fact that the magazine is a massive source of inspiration for me.

4. What is your manifesto?

Felice: Real art, no bullshit. That means art that we feel has been made from the heart and conveys some sort of message or idea. We also want to promote things that we find beautiful whether or not it fits with what’s fashionable at the time.

Daisy: We want something that we can look at or read and feel inspired by, that sounds a little vague I know, but we want it to work against trends, taking risks and mixing different media’s or genres. We like to be surprised.

5. What does the future hold?

Daisy: Apart from world domination? Just messing. We're already forming ideas for our next project. After the last issue of Untold Method (Issue 6, December 1st 2012), we want to continue publishing Philistone on its own website and collaborating our own writing and art to make something fun.

Felice: And of course we have our own separate careers as well, Daisy has just finished the first draft of her first novel and will begin perfecting it soon. While I'm preparing for my first solo show in East London next year so we've got plenty to keep us busy!

Untold Method Issue 3 WAR is out today!

Links
Untold Method
facebook
@UntoldMethod

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Artist 140: Marian Boo

A nice big hello to our latest artist feature Marian Boo. Based in sunny Israel, Marian has a fun and quirky style that combines bright colour and vivid imagery with a real love of different media. Her work has a great sense of fun with a wide variety of subjects. She has a range of styles which shows a willingness to explore different ways of presenting her ideas and working methods which will give her the best chance of developing her work and strengthening her technique as she moves through her career. She has a strong inventive streak, full of ideas and ways of looking at the world, her use of colour is strong and this is where she is at her most successful, so I hope she continues to embrace her love of bright strong tones in the future. Wishing her the best in all she does we give you Marian Boo.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 

I'm an illustrator and an animator from Israel, and currently working on my final project in animation as an illustration student in the frontal communication department in Shenkar college of engineering and design in Israel. I've been drawing For as long as I can remember my self, and been an illustrator only feels natural to me. I never work in just one technique or format. I believe in the power of invention, and the need to experiment, and draw in any format comes my way. 

Links: 

www.marianboo.com

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Artist 139: Maria Herreros

We have another artist feature for you now, lucky for us we have the lovely Maria Herreros with her unique and characterful illustration. Maria started out at six with a mercurial instinct and a pocket full of crayons and her love of drawing has strengthened over time. She has a great and instantly recognisable style that not only showcases an epic talent for capturing the essence of her subject but also gives the viewer a great sense of life and animation. Her faces are expressive and have a real joy to their expression. She creates some great likenesses utilising obvious mechanical skill but she takes this and twists it through her own lens. She has a unique sense of composition that gives a great candid feel to her subjects backed up by her soft warm palettes. Maria brings us a distilled version of her subjects that have a wry gentle sense of fun and both compliment them and give the viewer a new perspective. We are really lucky to have her so please give Maria Herreros your support and check out her interview!

Who are you:

I am Maria herreros, an illustrator based in Valencia, Spain, but open to the whole world! 

What do you do:

Work my ass off as an illustrator.

How did you start:

When I was 6, I realised I had to to sell my work to my parents (business is business, no family there) so they would appreciate it, so I used a pseudonym, "Mariasso" (a mix between Maria and Picasso). They always bought them, but then, after a few days I used to find them stored in drawers. I took them out and sell them again (higher price), so I suppose, I started working as an illustrator at 6.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 

I am very open to any project or proposal that passionates me, when it is work. There is no frontier nor barrier for me, when it is doing what I do. Only thing I dont like about this profession is people not realising its a profession. Now I am preparing my first commissioned book, illustrating for publications, and exhibiting my work national and internationally.

Links:

www.mariaherreros.es

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Artist 138: Zagny S. Ormut-Durbin

A brand new day and a brand new spring feature over here in the land of eternal rains.. Though we are currently in a drought. We have a brilliant young artist for your delectation now with the exciting Zagny S. Ormut-Durbin. Zagny is a Tel Aviv based artist with international roots and a great sharp style. Her work is strong both in flavour and character, the smoldering eyes and charcoal chagrin expressions etching her characters into life and into the realm of fantasy that makes such fertile ground for current artists. Her work is skilled and has a genuine craft and penmanship that elevates her, with both the technique and artistry to give the images she wants to the viewer and put force into her work which gives us reason to take note. She has a way of making dark yet intriguing work that has a great tension to it. The perfect counterpoint to a still hot afternoon, there is a certain icy tone in her work that gives it a real edge. So without to much further ado, it's the wonderful Zagny S.

Who are you:

Zagny S. Ormut-Durbin - a 24-year-old someone resulting from being born in Hong Kong with Canadian parents, jumping between Canada and Australia and lucky enough to visit a bunch of other places along the way, only to currently be living in Tel Aviv.

What do you do: 

I think a bit too much; the rest of the time I spend trying to get illustration jobs which, if I get them, I try adding my own twist. The remainder of my time is spent with some dear ones, which include a rather insane little dog. And if there's time, I even manage spending some time out of my little world or finally drawing something of my own.

How did you start: 

When extraordinarily bored once as a child, I began drawing headless people with funny dresses. Then, discovering a fascination with MAD magazine caricatures, I copied their odd faces in a crappy sketchbook mixed with inanimate objects around the home. Discovering Edward Gorey was perhaps the biggest turning point. Between his works, and an art teacher from high school telling me, basically, "you're doing it wrong! those are illustrations, not art!" I started filling my longer-imposed time filling sketchbook after sketchbook with ink drawings. Then, finding out I could do an imitation of what I had become so obsessed with doing for a degree and job was the ultimate punch.

A Personal statement about you or your work: 

Am not really sure how to talk about me or my work - always been a rather problematic feature of mine. I try doing what seems right and true to me in my work, and have an interesting amount of stress when I don't. Am apparently a tad old-fashioned in many way (not least of all in choice of techniques). I've an ever-present fascination with nature and the man-made, and try to regurgitate the witnessed and felt into some other semblance, through imagery.

Links:
facebook
flickr
portfolio on cargo (under construction)

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Artist 135: Daisy Hardman

It's the exciting gestural work of Daisy Hardman now and this up and coming student has a real strength of both image and purpose, bringing her strong tonal compositions out to the viewer with more than a hint of dark visceral themes. Daisy has a way of gathering the energy of motion and spilling it out onto her work in an almost fervent manner that creates an inner tension in her work that puts the viewer on edge in a tense and excited state as their eyes scan her work to unlock the hidden detail, half created in the viewer's mind, half intentional, her work forms a backdrop to a constructed mindscape that allows the viewer in but not out. Her work having the great and instant effect of stealing some of your body heat and bringing you nervous energy in return. An exciting artist who has a great progression in her work and a bright future ahead.

Who are you:
Daisy Hardman, I am currently studying illustration at Kingston university.

What do you do:
I work in a number of mediums, but mostly as many as possible at the same time. I am interested in creating work that has a material quality and a sense of urgency in its creation with a huge input from accidental spillages and smudges (I am painfully clumsy!)

How did you start:
I have an awful memory, but I suppose I have always been interested in drawing with anything I can find and making a mess. Although it was only on foundation at Chelsea college of Art that I realized I was interested in illustration in particular.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I work from life, primarily in black and white and I try and stay as far away from the computer as possible when it comes to creating. I don’t often plan anything I make, as I like creating work with a tactile quality and spontaneous marks that you only really work out through the process of making. At the moment I am finding printmaking, particularly etching, the best and the most enjoyable way to do this.

Links:
Portfolio
@DaisyHardman

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Artist 134: Philippe Debongnie

 

A great artist feature for you now on the impressive Philippe Debongnie. Philippe has a great style. His work is easy to read and has a loose but effective quality. He can bring the viewer into his world of soft tone and strong features with his engaging yet light use of colour and an effective but restrained palette that helps not only to set his work up against vibrant collage imagery but also to provide his subjects with the right amount of context that means they are never overstated but nor do they fade into the ether. He has a great skill level and a draftsman's touch, able to capture both expression and form utilising as few strokes and lines as possible. He brings the viewer more visual treats when he uses his on trend patterns and graphics in juxtaposition with his figure work. All in all Philippe has an impressive style and will doubtless head from success to success but either way it is always a pleasure to feature highly skilled and dedicated artists so without further ado it's Philippe Debongnie!

Who are you:
Well, that really depends on which hour of the day (or night) we are talking about. But most of the time I am a Belgian illustrator living and working in Brussels (a city I love very much). I paint, draw, print and Photoshop images. I have three sisters, a beautiful wife, two young children and no pets. I traveled a lot, held numerous jobs and finally settled on teaching. I teach art and graphic desing in two different schools in Brussels (Saint-Luc and l’IHECS). When I do not teach, I draw and paint or I run the blog: jazzanddraw.com

What do you do:
I draw, I paint, I letter words, sentences, titles, I love drawing letters and I love portraits. I find the human figure to be so full of everything, I could draw portraits for the rest of my life and not be done with it yet. The way people think, behave, dress, talk, sing and all they do inspires me a lot and that really makes me want to portray them. That and I also love to trace lines on paper and see them coming to life. You can find the same tension, the same fascination in a good drawing as you do in life. Hopefully sometimes, I catch that. I'll keep trying anyways...

How did you start:
I have always been fascinated by books and more particularly picture books. It is not like I was always drawing, it is more like I was always thinking up stories and ways to render them not only with words, but also with images. And then when time came to choose my studies, I honestly hesitated between medicine and illustration. In order to take some time and choose, I went to the US as an exchange student for one year and during that year all I did was Art. This naturally brought me to study illustration for four years. I then worked as a graphic designer for a long time. I am now going back to my first love, illustration and I am happy with the way things turn out but every now and than I still question myself as to wether I made the right choice. I could have been a good doctor. Why not?

A Personal statement about you or your work:
I do not like to talk much about my work since I do consider I am not the best person to say anything about it but I'll say something here about what I aim for with my work. I draw, paint, doodle, sketch and paste it all together in Photoshop trying to keep a handmade look but also to bring more to it by digitally retouching it. The feeling I want to convey with these images is something like:"great, he drew that, well done, but how did he get that look? How does that work?" Handmade yet slightly disturbing in the end. You can see this in my Agnes Obel image attached.

Links:
portfolio
facebook
@pdebongnie
flickr

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