Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Kaethe Butcher Draws Quirky, Complicated Girls

Berlin-based illustrator Kaethe Butcher draws girls with fiercely unique personalities. Written words are dropped onto her drawings, revealing the internal thoughts of young women figuring out the complexities of love and life. Her quirky characters are the kind of girls who smoke cigarettes in bath tubs while contemplating their existence in a chaotic world. Many of Butcher's sweet, sensuous drawings border on erotica. Butcher's women waver between losing themselves in passionate throws and drawing away in jealous suspicion. They question their lovers just as they question themselves. The combination of exacting body language, block text and a monotone color palette reinforce her character's inner world as opposed to her physical actions or being.

Berlin-based illustrator Kaethe Butcher draws girls with fiercely unique personalities. Written words are dropped onto her drawings, revealing the internal thoughts of young women figuring out the complexities of love and life. Her quirky characters are the kind of girls who smoke cigarettes in bath tubs while contemplating their existence in a chaotic world. Many of Butcher’s sweet, sensuous drawings border on erotica. Butcher’s women waver between losing themselves in passionate throws and drawing away in jealous suspicion. They question their lovers just as they question themselves. The combination of exacting body language, block text and a monotone color palette reinforce her character’s inner world as opposed to her physical actions or being.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Digital artist Lek Chan has a series of soft, ethereal portraits that look like they could have been painted by hand, though they were created with the help of PhotoShop. Chan works as an illustrator and game designer, though her personal work has a textured, painterly quality that is more evocative of traditional portraiture than new media. On her blog, she is transparent about how she creates her works and details the steps of her process for curious viewers to follow.
In the series “Marquees Tropica,” illustrator Ardneks crafted works “reflecting different stages” of his personal life, with each completed with a single song on repeat. The result is a set of vibrant, wild works packed with details to decipher. The artist’s practice has included album covers for multiple acts, but this series takes a decidedly intimate slant, as compared to those pieces. The above work, titled "COASTAL JUiCEBOX" was made alongside the tune "風の回廊(コリドー)" by Tatsuro Yamashita.
In a new show arriving Nov. 5, Corey Helford Gallery in downtown Los Angeles hosts “Alessandra Maria & Lauren Marx.” The gallery draws a fascinating tie between the works of the two artists: “In the process of creating her own world, [Maria] and [Marx] each share in their use of powerful and traditional iconography to tell a story.” The show runs through Dec. 10.
Yuko Shimizu’s illustrations continue to captivate, whether they adorn books, magazine stories, comic book coveries, or gallery walls. The New York City-based, Japan-born artist is known for a diverse client list, from NIKE and The New York Times to Library of Congress. As usual, Shimizu shares thorough process documentation online, showing how she crafts her professional and personal work on a granular level.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List