Artist and illustrator Ty Derk's work has roots in fantasy illustration, but his personal projects stray far from the conventions of the genre. Monochromatic and set against clean, white backgrounds, Derk's drawings present viewers with scientific sketches of alien specimens. Marine life fuses with elements of the human anatomy and even architecture. His creatures are armed with barbs, pincers, and armor-like exoskeletons — definitely not something we'd want to approach in the wild.
Artist and illustrator Ty Derk’s work has roots in fantasy illustration, but his personal projects stray far from the conventions of the genre. Monochromatic and set against clean, white backgrounds, Derk’s drawings present viewers with scientific sketches of alien specimens. Marine life fuses with elements of the human anatomy and even architecture. His creatures are armed with barbs, pincers, and armor-like exoskeletons — definitely not something we’d want to approach in the wild.
Spanish artist Liqen somehow moves between the paper and the public wall without compromising his intricate, absorbing linework. His wild creations often carry surreal sensibilities and a hidden treasure in every corner. The artist's work tends to be influenced by an early passion in nature, and in specific, the diversity of species and sights it provides.
Miles Johnston's surreal drawings bring elegance and distortion to our natural forms. The artist is contributing to the upcoming "Hi-Fructose Presents: The Art of The Mushroom" group show at the Compound Gallery in October, and in this post, takes us through the process of creating his work in the show. (He was also featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 45)
Stuart Holland's stirring charcoal drawings and watercolor works packed Arch Enemy Arts this month in a show titled "Elsew(here)." The Idaho artist crafts quiet, cerebral scenes, each its own introspective and metaphysical exploration. The show ends on June 1.
The tropical worlds of Pedro Varela (b. 1981 in Niterói, Brazil) look like they belong in a psychedelic dream or the pages of a storybook. And while the artist's style builds on fairytale imagery and fantasy, his works also engage with history -- namely, the 17th to 19th century "artist-scientists" who rendered an exotic vision of Tropical Paradise and the "New World" in their travels to Brazil. Blending Baroque still life, colonial iconography, and modern styles such as Neo-concretism, Varela engages with the past to create his own version of "paradise" that is at once alluring and cautionary.
