Drawn in Black

Lions by Wonman Kim

Recently Wonman Kim, a 35-year-old freelance illustrator and graphic designer from Seoul, South Korea, got in touch with me and graciously agreed to answer a few questions I had for him, which I have summarized below.

Growing up in Seoul, Kim is a self-taught artist who majored in business and has had a passion for drawing and painting since his childhood.  After he graduated, he worked as a key and clean-up animator before going into the game industry as a character and background concept designer nine years ago.  He currently works in the book publishing, t-shirt, and toy industry.

Kim loves to describe his thoughts and imagination through his work, and appreciates the effect that art has on people.  During his career has an artist, his simple goal was to do what makes him happy.  While he has always both drawn and painted, he has recently focused more on drawing, a worthwhile pursuit unto itself. Influences on Kim include the old engravings of Gustav Dore, Australian artist Robert Ingpen, comic artist Moebius, Nicolas de Crécy, Enki Bilal, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Phil Hale, Jon Foster, Terrada Katsuya, and Grampa.

You can see Kim’s work on his website and keep up with him on his blog; he’s also got some great pictures on his Flickr account, and his toy company is MadWitch Toy.

"Chinese Juck Tale" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 5)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 9)" by Wonman Kim

"Untitled (Sketch No. 18)" by Wonman Kim

Tags: asian, fantastic, futuristic, imaginative, tribal

Back in Black T-Shirt by Godmachine

Aziz a.k.a. Godmachine is an illustrator based out of Wales, UK, with some seriously nasty skills. Growing up and working as an electrician and bricklayer as a young lad, it was skateboard graphics through which he rekindled his connection to art.  Influenced by artists such as Horsebites, Gieger, Aubrey Beardlsy, Klimt, and Richard James, it is probably fair to say that he does a bit of influencing himself these days.  As a freelance artist Godmachine’s art graces skateboards and band merchandise such as t-shirts, album covers and posters. Even though he considers himself old-school, he does most of his sketching straight on the computer these days.

I think t-shirt illustrations such as the one show above are a great example his work and what I personally like: gory, detailed illustrations.  His work in general is quite dark, and this is the essence of his appeal I think – at least for a certain type of audience.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Godmachine’s website or blog and put some food on his table by buying his stuff from his store.  There are also a number of interview with Godmachine if you want a deeper look at who he is:

Interview with Godmachine on Abduzeedo

Interview with Godmachine on We are the Zombie Nation

Interview with Godmachine on Creep Machine

Interview with Godmachine by Rockett

Sonisphere Poster by Godmachine

Untitled Sketch by Godmachine

Untitled Sketch by Godmachine

Untitled Sketch by Godmachine

I’ve found drawing hands one of the most challenging aspects of drawing the human figure. You can get away with quite a bit when rendering the human figure, but get the hand wrong and it sticks out like a sore thumb.  Once you start learning about the hand in greater depth, you’ll find it is truly amazing just how complex the hand is even though we see it everyday.  Perhaps the following tutorials can help you and I draw better hands. Enjoy.

• Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s
• Videos
• Anatomy
• Books
• Poses
• Photo Reference

Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s

It’s often useful to have a step-by-step guide, tutorial, or “recipe” on how to accomplish a certain task.  I’ve found that following steps is good to grasp basic concepts before going on to experiment and expand one’s understanding.  Tutorials on drawing hands are no different, and the tutorials and how-to’s listed below should be a good starting point.

J. Peffer created some nice step-by-steps for about a handful of hand poses.

Read more »

Tags: cartoon, helpful, inspirational, instructional, realistic

Joan by Anna Shipstone

Anna Shipstone hails from the small seaside town of Cromer, Norfolk, UK, where she lives with her pet dog and family.  On her website you can find some of the truly gorgeous sample work of this pencil portraiture artist – in particular I enjoy her children portraits and the one pictured above.  Joan seems to be almost three dimensional and pops out of the page.  While you’re there, also check out her abstract color work – trippy!

Tags: old, realistic, wrinkly

The characters developed by veteran concept artist and character designer Mike May are anything but ordinary – each inhabits a unique world, suggested not so much by the environment they’re rendered in but by the dress, demeanor, and look of the characters themselves.  Mike is a also a superb caricaturist.  There’re a ton of drawings and illustrations on his portfolio site and additional, more recent, work on his blog, so if you need some inspiration, go check it out.

Tags: fantasy, haunted, magical, organic

Although Illustrator Mathis Rekowski has some wonderfully trippy drawings like the one featured here, he’s got even more illustrations seem to me at once retro and cutting edge. Certainly someone to watch out for. You can purchase the image above at Mathis’ new store, or follow him on his blog

Tags: hallucination, hippy, trippy

The world of Justin Cherry is alien, vivid, and wonderful to inhabit.  Especially if you’re into character design, check this guy out or read his blog.

Tags: feminine, loose, sexy

Jason Chan comic drawings are absurdly nice – crisp, clean, and dynamic. Also check out his blog, especially if you’re into character design.

Tags: comic, cooking, wormview

Illstrator, designer, artist and self-proclaimed nerd Rocky Davies has some pretty slick drawings. Should be interesting for all the comic heads out there.

Tags: caricature, cartoon, comic, fantastic, supernatural

Self Portrait (No. 12 / B5 Series) by Matt W Moore

Although it would seem that Matt W. Moore is currently better known for his color work – he just had a feature article about him in Computer Arts Magazine in which he discusses his Vectorfunk style – I love this guy’s black and white art.  He explores different shapes and uses clear and crisp lines.  I am particularly impressed with his mandalas (drawing these myself) and how well they are executed for the fact that they are hand-drawn (as opposed to using Illustrator as his the case for many of his color works).

Matt just released B5 (from which these images are taken), a collection of black and white prints available for purchase, to complement Alphafont 3.0, a font type exploration done in color.  This guy kicks ass so check out his website MWM Graphics, his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

No. 19 (B5 Series) by Matt W Moore

No. 20 (B5 Series) by Matt W Moore

No. 23 (B5 Series) by Matt W Moore

Tags: clean, clear, crisp, geometric, illustration, sacred