Tobias Kwan

Tobias Kwan is a Canadian artist living in California. He is a concept artist for several video game companies. I really admire him and his work because he basically has a job I've always wanted. His work is also very beautiful and dark. 

I really love the colors that he chooses. They are generally very dark and the lighting is very beautiful and not too distracting. A lot of his works also seem to tell some sort of story, or it makes you want to ask questions about what is happening or who the subjects are. 

He also utilizes contrast very well. He creates these beautiful paintings with clear focal points, but it doesn't distract too much from the rest of the painting. The colors aren't too saturated either which I really like. I love contrast but too much can be a bad thing, especially when not using the right colors, I think. 

I also noticed a lot of his works seem to have women who seem to have a lot of power. I find this very interesting because he does it in a way without over-sexualizing them to create this dominance. I think he does this by using proper lighting and drawing these characters in a specific position that gives off this strength. 

http://tobiee.deviantart.com/gallery/

Kaori Sakai

"Encounter"

Kaori Sakai is a Japanese artist who tends to use a lot of watercolors and inks. I was drawn to her art because it was really creepy and it reminded me a lot of one of my favorite artists, Junji Ito. She creates these very lonely and dark looking paintings and illustrations that would probably make most people feel a little uncomfortable. 

I really love the colors that she uses in a lot of her works because they are very muted and dark, but it doesn't look boring or dull. The colors she chooses fit extremely well with the mood she is trying to accomplish. Even with using so few colors, she still manages to create defined details and uses the different tones to her advantage.

She also does some ink works which are really impressive. There are so many details and a lot going on. But it doesn't feel too busy because of the lack of other colors besides black/white. 

I just really love how she incorporates a sense of horror without directly showing it. I feel like she shows fear, or anxiety, or even narcissism in a subtle way. It's just incredibly dark and somewhat mysterious. I don't really have a lot of information on this artist, which is both strange and interesting at the same time. While I love learning about artists I really like, I for some reason also love these unknown artists that have very little information about themselves and the meaning behind some of their pieces are not explained and it's up to you to figure out what they were trying to say.

http://kaori125.deviantart.com/gallery/

Ryohei Hase

Ryohei Hase is a Japanese digital illustrator. His way of describing his works is, "My theme of paintings is to express the darkness of mind which is sad and gloomy but at the same time, it's beautiful and strong." I think this is worded pretty well and seems accurate from the way his pieces look. I think the way he describes this is quite beautiful, because I also find it to be very true.

He adds enormous amounts of detail to his works. When I first saw this painting, I didn't see all the little things at first. But the closer you look, the more details you start finding and it's really fascinating how as you discover these little things, it creates a different feeling in the piece.

Detail:

I really love how he uses color in his pieces. Especially like the one above. It's a very dark and sad looking image, but the colors make it very beautiful and delicate-looking. It changes that feeling from not just dark, but also inspiring. Though this piece would still look very good without all the colors, it gives a different tone to the viewer when there is this strange combination and abundance of colors. I also really enjoy the moment in this piece- the skeleton and the person seem to be moving different directions, and you are just viewing their short involvement with each other in possibly this small, split-second moment. 

http://ryoheihase.com/

Ivan Alifan

Ivan Alifan is a Russian painter who creates these very beautiful works of subjects covered in white paint. It's a very strange idea, but the way it turns out is not exactly what you would expect. He transforms this into something delicate, or something that is a bit frightening. It almost looks like the subject's skin is melting. I love that he choose white for his paintings because it's very neutral, but at the same time can mean something completely different than black. By using, white it looks almost pure or clean, even though the person may look distressed.

Though he does use white a lot, the use of lighting also changes the feeling of the painting. By using warmer colors, like in the one above on the left, it almost feels inviting and peaceful. On the other hand, the one on the right has a mixture of warm and cool colors which gives this strange feel of welcoming, but also fear or anxiety. 

http://www.ivanalifan.com/

Tommy Richardsen

Tommy Richardsen is a Norwegian photographer who focuses mostly on shooting the northern lights in Norway. I've always loved this strange phenomenon and it's really beautiful the way he captures the lights, along with the landscape beneath it. I've always wanted to see the aurora borealis, and his photos just get me more excited over them and I hope that one day I will be able to experience this event. 

The way he frames many of his photos is perfect. As much as I love the stars and the sky, it sometimes almost seems like nothing if it's the only subject in the photo. It also creates this intensity of how large the sky is and how small we are down on earth. It's insane how he is able to capture these photos, and with such realistic and vivid colors. I'm sure it's possible that Photoshop has been used, but even then, it still looks real.

In some of his photos, it almost looks like a view of the sky from another planet. It looks real, but just incredibly beautiful that it's hard to believe it happens here on earth. 

    He also shoots not just the northern lights, but also amazing shots of the night sky and the milky way.

I've only seen the milky way once, and I was really fascinated by how many stars you could see with just the naked eye. It was really amazing since here in Boise there's too much light pollution to be able to see many stars. You have to travel pretty far out to actually be able to see the milky way, which I never had the chance to do until last summer when I traveled out to West Virginia. It's just so awesome how many stars and planets that are out there that you can see just from this little planet in a sea of millions of other solar systems and galaxies.

http://www.trichardsen.com/

Beatriz Martin Vidal

Beatriz Martin Vidal is a Spanish illustrator who creates very intriguing and beautiful artworks.



She does series of works that seem to transform through each piece. In the one above, she creates this stunning movement through her pieces and creates this strange, almost confusing feeling of emptiness by the last piece.



I noticed that a lot of her works involve children or youthful looking subjects. I find this very interesting because children can symbolize many things such as innocence, cleanliness, openness or even creativity. I feel like in her pieces she uses these young looking subjects in a way to show that innocence, and even obliviousness. 



There seem to be some sort of theme going on in some of her works because a lot of them tend to not only involve children, but also some sort of form of nature, like vines or plants. They look very delicate and small, yet they seem to be taking over the subject or showing some sort of power or dominance. 



The way she uses contrast is really beautiful. She uses mostly neutrals or blacks/whites in her illustrations, but then uses a splash of color somewhere to create this contrast. I feel like if the colors were not like this, the pieces would not be quite as powerful or good looking. The concept would be almost hidden by the lack of color or too much of it, I think. 




http://www.beavidal.com/