I've been hanging out with Brian Ewing lately. The guy is so nice, it's absurd. Well-known and established as he is, I keep finding it hard to believe that he's as open with information about the business side of things, design and illustration tips and stories, and friendly life advice. Much less to little old me. I've met few artists who are as personable, genuinely giving, and helpful as he's been to me. Graham Erwin immediately comes to mind, actually. But few others. He's definitely the kind of guy you can just shoot the shit with for hours, losing track of time reminiscing about girls, jobs, and art. [accordion] [accordion_item title="Swans : Song For A Warrior (Feat. Karen O)"][/accordion_item] [/accordion]
I recently bought one of his (now sold out) Swans (with Xiu Xiu) prints because I thought the design was just eye-popping, jaw-dropping, and unlike anything I'd seen from him before. He one-upped my purchase by throwing in the even more recently printed Bubblegum Colorway Variant of the same design. Normally, I wouldn't dedicate a blog post to the work of another artist, but these prints are just too fucking cool to not share.
Half-toned photograph mixed with air-tight brushwork. The gold appears to darken or disappear depending on the lighting in the room, and what angle you view it at.
We talked at length about how far you can push printing, exemplified by transparent flourishes and metallic inks.
Subtleties galore. I adore how different parts of the drawing ricochet against one another in the light.
The Bubblegum variant is far less sensitive, opting instead to burn itself into your eyes with amped-up process chroma.
The anatomical labels are far more visible in this version. Additionally, I think the colors on this one make it far more "Terminator," looking, which isn't not cool.
Just for me. One clever thing I learned is that not every copy an artist prints has to be signed and numbered. Not everyone cares about that. In fact, if you leave a print blank, you can suss out if and where they're being resold from by examining illegitimate signatures. Pretty clever insight.
Looking at the two of these side-by-side is like bouncing back and forth between both hemispheres of the brain. Can't stop geeking out over them!
Give Brian a Google. His work is a delight!