Thursday, February 28, 2013

My Favorite Artists #6: joshwmc

I hope you aren't tired yet of reading about my favorite artists because I have quite a few more to come! :) Today's artist is joshwmc from DeviantArt. Josh hasn't posted any new art on his DeviantArt page since the summer of 2011 but he does post on his blog: http://fanartexhibit.wordpress.com/

Kitana
art by: joshwmc
I can't remember exactly which pieces of art by Josh that I saw first but I do know that it was one of two pieces. One of which being a fanart portrait of Mortal Kombat princess, Kitana. I absolutely love this drawing! It's so beautifully drawn. Josh drew her with a strong stance, great muscle tone was brought out and there is real emotion of a warrior in this drawing. It's really nice when an artist is able to do that with a piece of art.


Daffney
art by: joshwmc
The second piece that could have been the first I saw is a fanart drawing of former TNA Knockout, Daffney. There really isn't that much great fanart of women professional wrestlers out there so seeing this piece was a real treat. Daffney has always been a favorite of mine, so this one was immediately added to my faves! I am astounded at Josh's ability to perfectly draw Daffney's tattoos and the type of fabric on her outfit and the strain of the ties in the middle. There is perfect flow.


Now comes my favorite part. Josh did a series of drawings that he called "Disney Fighters" where he drew the Disney princesses as fighters with new stories. Check out this one of Snow White. He turned her story to be Snow as a tough-girl, street fighter growing up in a city run by seven drug lords. I love this because not only does Josh create an interesting piece of art but he also creates interesting stories to go with them.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My Favorite Artists Blog #5: Shannon Denise

Today's featured artist is Shannon Denise, another amazing artist from DeviantArt. I love when I can find an artist that does great work and who is also a sweet person who interacts with their "watchers". I'm not saying most artists on DeviantArt aren't nice. I'm just saying that Shannon finds the time to thank you for comments and faves.

The first drawing created by Shannon, that I saw, was this drawing of my all-time favorite cartoon character, Harley Quinn. The pose is extremely cute, with Harley holding the ends of her hat and I just LOVE the little Joker in the back. It's those little touches that Shannon adds to her drawings that just make them special!
Harley Quinn
photo credit: shannondenise.deviantart.com


Another favorite drawing of hers that I like is this one of Poison Ivy. An attractive pose with her beautiful hair...ahhhh! So pretty! :) One of the things that I love about Shannon's art is that her women have curves. They aren't drawn with stick figure waists. They look like real women should look! I love it!

Poison Ivy
photo credit: shannondenise.deviantart.com

Monday, February 25, 2013

My Favorite Artists Blog #4

Today's blog is on artist, Daniel Kordek from Poland who uses the username, daekazu on Deviantart. He has a HUGE list of deviations (over 500) ranging from "Harry Potter", "Disney Princesses" to "The Hunger Games" and soooo many more. I'm going to be completely honest here...when I first started "watching" daekazu on DeviantArt, I thought he was a girl. Apparently so have a lot of others since he posted a DeviantID with arrows pointing at himself, saying "me". haha I don't really know why I assumed he was a girl. Going by his style and choice of subject, maybe? I don't really care because he is an EXTREMELY talented artist!

I can't be sure of the first piece of art of Daniel's that I saw but it may have been this drawing of some of the Disney Princesses. I am a HUGE Disney Princess fan, so I would have come across this one at some point because it is so bright and colorful.

Disney Princesses by daekazu



In his earlier work, such as this one, all of his subjects kind of have the same face. In his later work, he keeps his style but changes it a little to reflect an almost "realistic" style. Take a look at this little "series" Daniel has where near Valentine's Day, he posts these separate pages of a bunch of couples in different fandoms and series. There is literally EVERY couple imaginable, from Jasmine and Aladdin to Rose and Jack from Titanic. Looking at the top left image, you can see he started with more of a cartoonish style to now, (bottom right) he has more realism while keeping his personal style. There is more shading and depth to his drawings. Very beautiful.

"Valentine Couples"
photo credit: daekazu.deviantart.com 

Snow Whites
photo credit: daekazu.deviantart.com
One of my favorite drawings is Daniel's "Snow White" drawings. He drew it around the time when both, "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Mirror Mirror" were coming out and on one side, he drew Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart's versions of the "Queen" and "Snow White" and on the other side, he drew Julia Roberts and Lily Collins' version while both are in the costumes from the Disney version. Three different versions of Snow White, in one drawing! It's such a great idea for a drawing. What I really like about it, is each costume is the same concept but looking closely, you can see slight differences such as the hair, the collars and each Queen's jewel.

Another fantastic idea drawing done by daekazu, is this "Batman and Catwoman" piece. The drawing is split down the middle with the left side being the Michelle Pfeiffer/Michael Keaton version and on the right is the Anne Hathaway/Christian Bale version. Another very interesting concept. This drawing shows perfectly the style of Daniel Kordek that I love. It has a painterly look to it and drawn in his personal style while still being able to clearly see Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway.
"Two Bats and Cats"
photo credit: daekazu.deviantart.com


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Favorite Artists Blog #3

Here we are again! Another artist who inspires me. Today's blog is about another DeviantArt artist from the U.K., named Emma (username: Catching-Smoke). Emma is a traditional artist using pencils for sketching and I believe she colors some of her sketches digitally.

Emma's "Tonks" drawing
I was first attracted to Emma's work when I was searching for "Nymphadora Tonks" fanart on DeviantArt and came across this drawing. She drew Tonks sitting down, smoking a cigarette. Not only did I think it was a cool drawing of Nymphadora but also, I LOVED the way Emma drew the folds in her clothing. I know that sounds really weird but I'm totally serious! I have soooo much trouble when it comes to drawing natural looking folds but here I sat, looking at this amazing piece of art that looked like it was drawn effortlessly. I was completely envious of her work and hit that "watch" button immediately!


Most of Emma's work is fanart of "Harry Potter" and some of "The Hunger Games",  which is awesome since I love both series! ;) Her drawings are mainly sketches but they look so flawless.  Take, for instance, this drawing of Ron and Hermione from "Harry Potter". If you look closely, you can see a few sketch lines around the edges but each line is blocked in with purpose. She always draws hair with perfection. I just want to latch on to her talent and never let go!!! (Just like Hermione is latching on to Ron, hehe)

"Ron" and "Hermione" from "Harry Potter" drawn by Emma

There are a few "character sheets" that Emma drew of characters from the Harry Potter series and also Johanna Mason from "The Hunger Games". My favorites are the "Golden Trio" from Harry Potter. Each character sheet is drawn with different expressions and movement that you can actually tell the character's personality based on her drawings.
"The Golden Trio" Hermione, Harry and Ron character sketches drawn by Emma


Saturday, February 23, 2013

"My Favorite Artists" Blog Series #2

Are you returning from yesterday? If you are, THANK YOU! Are you a new reader of my blog? THANK YOU TOO! Any reason you are reading my blog, THANK YOU! This is #2 in my blog series about my Favorite Artists. Now, keep in mind that these are not in any particular order. Each artist is equally as talented no matter their "skill level" or medium of choice.

Today's featured artist is another that I found on DeviantArt named Rebecca Blair (DeviantArt username, r-becca.) She is an amazingly talented traditional medium artist, using marker, pen, pencil, and pastels. She now mainly posts her art on her Facebook fanpage.

Rebecca's "Alice Cullen" 
Ravenna
The first piece of Rebecca's that I saw was her fanart drawing of Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen. I have seen a LOT of Twilight related fanart but this one stood out because of how much it looks like a photo. Rebecca's ability to make the eyes stand out and the hair look so realistic is mind-blowing! This is the drawing that made me hit the "watch" button on her DeviantArt page. Another fanart drawing of hers that I fell in love with is her "Ravenna" drawing. It is almost realistic but kind of has her cartoonish touch to it. It's so beautiful!


Rebecca does some realistic drawings and some cartoonish drawings. A few that I love are her fanart drawings of characters like Aurora and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Poison Ivy and Rapunzel. I especially love the one of Aurora because she added tattoos to her arms. :)

Tattooed Aurora, Maleficent, Poison Ivy and Rapunzel
From time to time Rebecca will do a black and white drawing and then add color to it later. I'm not sure if she does it digitally or not but either way, they always turn out to be stunning.



Friday, February 22, 2013

My Favorite Artists List #1

Hello all. I have decided that I really want to keep up with my blog. Well, both of them actually. If you didn't know, I also write a wrestling blog called Girls Like Wrestling Too. So, if you are a fan of wrestling, go on and take a looksie at my blog. :)

Now, I love lists.  I love to make lists, read lists, think about lists...I think I may be slightly OCD. haha Anyway...I figured that since mostly all I have posted on this blog is my art, that I should make my first list as my favorite artists. Each day, I will write about one artist and what I like about them, what got my attention and my favorite works by them.

This first entry will be about one of my ultimate favorite artists that I follow on DeviantArt. Her name is Sanne Krueger and her DeviantArt username is starsandpolkadots. I usually look at mostly fanart and that is actually how I came across her page. The first pieces of hers that I saw were a wedding "photo" of Ron and Hermione from the Harry Potter series. Then after seeing her drawing of Harry Potter characters, Teddy and Victoire I started "watching" her work.

Holly
I hardly ever care to "watch" an artist on DeviantArt if they only post their original characters. Sanne has recently been drawing just her characters and no fanart and I love it! Her little series of her characters is called, "This City Sucks" and they actually have their own Tumblr! I have fallen so in love with these characters, it is crazy! There are so many pieces that Sanne has done that I just look at over and over again! One being of her character, Holly. Holly sports blond hair with pink tips, a lip ring and a septum piercing. She is probably my favorite "TCS" character. Her style is what brings my attention to her. Holly also is featured quite often with a walking stick and just like all of her characters, Sanne has a story behind it.


Charlie and Kieran
Each of her characters has a story behind them, relationships they are in or will be in. Sometimes Sanne draws her characters in relationships that haven't happened yet. Like the relationship between her characters, Charlie and Kieran. They are my favorite of the couples in the "TCS" universe. :) I know that her characters are fictional and are drawn in a somewhat cartoon style but I am sooooo in love with Kieran! Ahhh...he is so handsome! His sideburns...ahhhh, those sideburns! haha





Most recently, my favorite of Sanne's amazing characters is Orla. Orla is Kieran's little sister. She is the youngest of four children, one of which being her twin brother, Declan (who I find to be as attractive as Kieran!).
Orla playing with her twin brother, Declan's hair