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Art Illustration

Vintage Ephemera Backdrops Mark Powell’s Intimate Ballpoint Pen Drawings

From playing cards and posters to envelopes and postcards scrawled with notes, the untraditional canvases holding Mark Powell’s artworks are tapestries of memories and experiences past. The Brighton-based artist (previously) sutures scraps of vintage ephemera and draws in ballpoint pen, rendering intimate portraits, birds, and scenes brimming with emotion in realistic detail. Some of his most recent works include monochromatic etchings that capture a heron’s fine, wispy feathers and a diptych of hands, two softly grasping a tulip and another wrapped taught in a rope.

Powell shares glimpses into his process and studio on Instagram, and you can find originals and prints in his shop.

 

Workshops

Join Us for A Colossal Workshop on Playful Character Drawings with Mattias Adolfsson

Grab a pen and paper, and join artist Mattias Adolfsson (previously) and Colossal on March 11 for a virtual workshop on small character illustrations. In this one-hour session, Adolfsson will teach students how to draw a few of his signature quirky characters in ink and color and how to utilize those principles to keep sketching.

Register here, and if you’re a Colossal Member, be sure to use the code in your account for $5 off. Ten percent of the proceeds for this workshop will benefit Chicago Books to Women in Prison.

Art Illustration

Scratchy Pencil-and-Ink Drawings by Jon Carling Conjure Mythical Beings and Surreal Sorcery

From his studio in northern California, artist Jon Carling summons the metaphysical by scrawling scenes tinged with magic and whimsy. He works in pen and pencil, layering lines and wispy markings into a wave of florals enveloping a levitating figure or a beam radiating from a woman’s eyes. Many of the works feature an element of hidden sorcery, veiling the largely natural subject matter with mysteriously powerful energy.

Although devoid of color, Carling’s drawings capture the trippy, psychedelic imaginations associated with the rock music that dominated the Sixties and Seventies and provided the soundtrack for his childhood home. “I have been drawing every day since I can remember,” he shares. “Drawing has always been a therapeutic and comforting activity for me, and I grew up spending vast amounts of time in my room filling up sketchbooks.” His subject matter and style reference these early years of his life, evocative of the video games, cartoons, comics, and illustrated books he found himself immersed in.

Shop originals and stickers on his site, and follow Carling on Instagram to keep up with his latest works on paper.

 

Art Illustration

Dense Cross-Hatching Adds Deceptive Volume to Albert Chamillard’s Geometric Drawings

On vintage ledgers and notebooks, artist Albert Chamillard (previously) harnesses the power of crosshatching and simple outlines to render flat, geometric shapes that appear to emerge from the page. The meditative works utilize varying densities to add depth and volume to clusters of cylinders or undulating, ribbon-like forms. By rendering each piece in a monochromatic palette of black or red, the artist draws attention to the meticulously laid lines and deceptive dimension of the forms.

Currently, Chamillard is preparing for a solo show opening on December 3 at Etherton Gallery in Tucson, where he lives. He’s also been collaborating with Hermès on a series of works soon to be released, and you can follow updates on those pieces and find an archive of his painstaking drawings on Instagram.

 

Illustration

Enchanting Vignettes Illustrated by Melpomeni Chatzipanagiotou Nestle Inside Small Wood Cuts

Encircled in roughly textured bark, thin woodcuts become canvases for the whimsical landscapes and scenes illustrated by Melpomeni Chatzipanagiotou. The Greek artist uses a combination of pen, ink, gouache, and acrylic paint to draw outdoor vignettes cloaked in pattern and cosmic details. Nighttime skies are brimming with snowflakes, stars, and light trails that illuminate the natural subject matter and add a dose of fantasy to the heavily patterned works.

Chatzipanagiotou has a number of illustrations on wood and paper available on Etsy, and you can watch her at work on Instagram. Her third coloring book, Enchanting Earth, is slated for release in February, and the previous two, Circle of Life and Nature Mandalas, are currently available on Bookshop.

 

 

Art

Memories Rendered in Ballpoint Pen and Oil Paint by Nicolas V. Sanchez Recall Moments of Belonging

Through ballpoint pen drawings and hazy oil paintings, Mexican-American artist Nicolas V. Sanchez (previously) conjures childhood memories, instances of intimacy, and a sense of yearning. Sanchez, whose works vacillate between the incredibly realistic and the dreamlike fog associated with recollection, finds his subject matter in the unassuming and every day. He fixates on the texture of a horse’s short coat and wrinkled neck, the way sleeping children hang their limbs haphazardly off the edge of a couch, and how sunlight permeates sheer curtains scrunched together on a rod.

No matter the medium, Sanchez’s works often evoke his upbringing in the Midwest and his experience as a child of Mexican immigrants. Many of the pieces shown here are included in the artist’s solo show belongings at Sugarlift, which considers connections to histories, ancestors, and geographies. “‘Belonging to’ is always in relation with an enduring sense of to ‘be longing’ for connections that transcend singular explanation,” a statement says.

belongings is on view through June 16 at the New York City gallery, and you can peek into Sanchez’s painstaking process on Instagram.