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      Watercolor Illustrations by Steeven Salvat Cloak Natural Specimens with Elaborate Metallic Motifs

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      Art
      Illustration

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

      August 6, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Steeven Salvat, shared with permission
      History, science, and nature converge in the watercolor and ink drawings of French artist Steeven Salvat (previously). Whether encasing beetles in ornate armor, rotational gears, and antique dials or rendering vast entanglements of flora and fauna, Salvat’s works exquisitely apply a fanciful veil to wildlife and insects. Each piece, which is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking linework, stems from biological studies and 18th-century engravings, two themes the artist returns to as a way to allude to the precious qualities of the natural world.
      Salvat’s Nymphalidae series will be on view from August 14 to September 12 at Haven Gallery in Northport, New York. Find a multitude of videos detailing his process on Instagram, and shop limited-edition prints and originals on his site.

      #beetles
      #butterflies
      #drawing
      #insects
      #watercolor

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      Silky Flowers Spring from CJ Hendry’s Enormous Hyperrealistic Drawings in Colored Pencil

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      Art
      Illustration

      #colored pencil
      #drawing
      #flowers
      #hyperrealism

      July 26, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Red Poppy,” 45 x 45 inches. All images © CJ Hendry, shared with permission
      Previously drawing giant strokes of oil paint and fruits, fish, and other edibles with remarkable depth and detail, Australian artist CJ Hendry shifts her focus to the soft, silky petals of peonies, roses, and tulips. She uses colored pencils to render individual florals and small bunches at an immense scale, magnifying their thin layers and sticky inner organs. The hyperrealistic drawings enhance the dimension and delicacy of each flower as they appear to blossom from the paper with exquisite detail.
      Hendry lives in Brooklyn and is working on similar botanical pieces for an upcoming exhibition in a dilapidated church in Mile End. Until that London show, follow her works and keep an eye out for limited-edition releases on her Instagram.

      “Peony Peeping,” 65 x 65 inches
      Detail of “Red Poppy,” 45 x 45 inches
      “Pink Fluffy Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “Pink Fluffy Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “Light Peach Rose,” 41 x 41 inches
      “Light Peach Rose,” 41 x 41 inches
      “White Peeping Peony,” 45 x 45 inches
      Detail of “White Poking Peony,” 41 x 41 inches

      #colored pencil
      #drawing
      #flowers
      #hyperrealism

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      Layers of Cut Paper Foliage Fragment Christine Kim’s Collaged Portraits

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      Art
      Craft
      Illustration

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

      July 8, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Christine Kim, shared with permission
      Obscured faces peek through tangles of leaves and stems in the ethereal portraits of Toronto-based artist Christine Kim. Her mixed-media collages layer textured graphite gradients and mesh-like cuttings into splintered depictions of her subjects. “‘Fragmentary’ is one word that I return to again and again because I think portraiture is an act of catching glimmers of a person,” she tells Colossal. “I like the idea of not being able to see everything. Having multiple layers partially conceals but the patterns of foliage, (which) also act like a kind of shelter.”
      For each work, Kim first illustrates a single figure—the subjects shown here are models Yuka Mannami and Hoyeon Jung—and then digitally draws a corresponding botanical pattern. Those motifs are cut with the help of a Silhouette Cameo machine before they’re built up sheet by sheet. Graceful and at times surreal, the resulting portraits portray fractions of faces and hands that are duplicated or filtered through colorful webs.
      You can dive into Kim’s process in this studio visit, and find a larger collection of her tiered illustrations on Instagram. (via Supersonic Art)

      #collage
      #graphite
      #mixed media
      #paper
      #portraits

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      A Trio of Colorful Characters Expand Jean Jullien’s Installation in a Nantes Botanical Garden

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      Art
      Illustration

      #installation
      #public art

      June 29, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Jean Jullien, shared with permission
      Three new faces join the quirky cast of characters at Nantes’s Jardin des Plantes. Part of artist Jean Jullien’s Filili Viridi project that’ll be on view through November, the colorful trio is spotted reclining in the grass, perched in a tree, and plunged in a small reservoir. Joyful and slightly mischievous, the new additions, which are made of painted steel, join six others that have been hanging out in the botanical garden since last summer. See more of Jullien’s illustrated ensembles on Instagram, and pick up a poster in his shop.

      #installation
      #public art

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      Whimsical Illustrations and Motifs Dyed with a Traditional Wax-Resist Method Cover Caroline Södergren’s Eggshells

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      Art
      Craft
      Illustration

      #animals
      #eggs
      #insects
      #wax

      June 22, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Caroline Södergren, shared with permission
      Formally trained in glassblowing, Stockholm-based artist Caroline Södergren transfers her experience working with a delicate, fragile material to an ornately illustrated collection of eggshells. She adapts the traditional Ukrainian craft called pysanky, a wax-resist method that involves drawing a design on a clean, empty chicken, turkey, goose, or ostrich egg with hot beeswax. The shell is then dipped in multiple baths of dye and the seal washed away with oil to reveal the colorful, layered design—you can watch the entire process in the video below.
      The technique often is combined with folk art, although Södergren illustrates her own botanical motifs, beetles, and mythical creatures that stray from traditional designs. “You have to think before you start a pattern as the different color layers must come in the right order,” she says. “If you make a mistake with the wax, it is not possible to change, and a written line is where it is. A constant challenge that makes it so fun to work with!”
      Konsthantverkets Vänner, an organization dedicated to supporting Swedish arts and crafts, just awarded Södergren a scholarship for her batik designs. Browse available eggs in her shop, and find a larger collection on Instagram. (via Lustik)

      

      #animals
      #eggs
      #insects
      #wax

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      Minimal Lines and Colorful Geometric Shapes Compose Luciano Cian’s Portraits

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      Art
      Illustration

      #digital
      #portraits
      #posters and prints

      June 21, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Luciano Cian, shared with permission
      Rio de Janeiro-based artist Luciano Cian (previously) has an affinity for the bold blocks of color that compose his minimal portraits. Although he recently expanded his practice to include acrylic paintings and collage, Cian works primarily digitally, rendering anonymous figures with thin lines and vibrant, geometric shapes like in his MAGNA series. “It has this name because it is big, both in dimensions and in purpose,” he tells Colossal. “I always work with images that allude to ethnicity. This series, like the others, talks about the miscegenation of races and peoples, with diversity as the central focus.”
      Cian teamed up with the nonprofit Prints Against Poverty to sell a collection of 15 works, and you can purchase more of his available pieces on Saatchi Art and Artsper. Find an extensive archive of his portraits on Behance and Instagram.

      #digital
      #portraits
      #posters and prints

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      An Annual Exhibition Features Over 1,000 Illustrated Coasters at Nucleus Portland

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      Art
      Food
      Illustration

      #coasters
      #home

      June 14, 2021
      Christopher Jobson

      Top left: By Kelly Louise Judd. Top right: By Lydia Nichols. Bottom left: By Mariya Pilipenko. Bottom right: By Molly Egan. All images via Nucleus Portland
      Each year Nucleus Portland tasks hundreds of artists with creating original works on a miniature canvas usually reserved for dewy beverages. Salut! harnesses the friendly camaraderie associated with the word and gathers more than 1,000 coasters illustrated in an expansive variety of styles, including minimal color-blocked toucans, trippy starscapes, and dreamy, candid portraits. See some of Colossal’s favorite 4×4-inch pieces below, and browse the entire exhibition and available works, which are up online and in-person through July 5, on Nucelus’s site.

      Top left: By Zoe Persico. Top right: By Sam Kalda. Bottom left: By Shinyeon Moon. Bottom right: By Vin Ganapathy
      Left: By Megan Wood. Right: By Catherine Ho
      Top left: By Juliette Toma. Top right: Chris Uphues. Bottom left: By Jennifer Davis. Bottom right: By Jialun Deng
      Left: By Edward Cao. Right: By Hayley Powers

      #coasters
      #home

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      Sentrock Captures the Sights of Chicago’s Pilsen Neighborhood in a New Series About Mental Health

      by

      
      Art
      Illustration

      #birds
      #Chicago
      #health

      June 3, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Sentrock, shared with permission
      In honor of Mental Health Month this May, Chicago artist Joseph Perez, who works as Sentrock, created an illustrated series celebrating the people and scenes around his studio in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. “I started doing it just for myself, to take an hour or two and share my thoughts or reflections for that day or the day prior,” he tells Colossal.
      Lively, expressive, and deeply empathetic, the resulting illustrations draw on Sentrock’s background as a graffiti artist and his connection to those around him. They tell a story about the neighborhood that’s historically been rich with Latinx culture and portray the sights and experiences shared by the community through a distinctly personal lens. The artist explains:
      I started allowing myself to reflect on the past, present, the current situations I found myself in. I allowed myself to reflect on my everyday life, whether boring, exciting, or just my imagination of the moment. I started to capture the people outside my studio, whether friends or strangers. My purpose for this was to initiate a connection with the people around me, the community.
      Sentrock began with reference photos of friends, family, and community members before reinterpreting them in bright, vivid renditions of his signature bird character. Usually depicted as a beaked mask, the recurring image is Sentrock’s analogy “to humanity: a person who is able to find or escape to their freedom by placing them in a different reality.” In the new works, the character travels from person to person, sometimes worn by kids skateboarding down 18th Street and others by the artist himself, like in the moving portrait of him and his mother.
      Head to Instagram to see the full series and original images, and if you’re in Chicago, keep an eye out for the designs, which Sentrock plans to wheat paste around the city.

      Portrait of the artist with his mother

      Self-portrait

      #birds
      #Chicago
      #health

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