Chris Buzelli Illustrates His Characters with Magical Realism

New York based illustrator Chris Buzelli paints character-driven images with a marvelous sense of realism. Working primarily in oil, Buzelli renders different concepts that are based on the real world with a common acceptance of magic. Often, his subjects seem to enter a supernatural realm, as if caught between two realities in a dreamlike state. Inspired by literature, particularly his commissions for book reviews, Buzelli’s work makes references to fables and myths, featuring hybrid creatures and impossible scenes from the likes of Little Red Riding Hood and Finnish writer Jean Sibelius’s The Swan of Tuonela. In these works respectively, we find the characters Little Red and the swan in a highly detailed and realistic setting offset by something strange to believe; Above Little Red’s head lingers floating heads of the wolf gorging themselves. Meanwhile, a skeletal swan floats gracefully in a pond. Take a look at some of Buzelli’s work below.