Hasta La Ideas

Hand-drawn artwork inspired by traditional tattoos and macabre iconography

Creating work dominated by occult imagery, nomadic themes and heavy linework, London-based illustrator Tom Gilmour says he finds inspiration in “black tattoo art and early 80’s skateboard graphics” to achieve a powerful aesthetic akin to something of a morbid blend of Gus Wagner and Jim Phillips. Gilmour draws each piece by hand in ink with splashes of watercolor and digital renderings to achieve certain shading effects.

While the deep gradients and heavy iconography of traditional tattoos are still very much present, Gilmour’s intricate designs tend to lean towards the experimentation of mixed symbolism for a unique depth not often seen in the flash-style tattoos from which he draws inspiration. By designing for paper rather than skin, Gilmour is free to draw without regard to certain contours or the stylistic limits of a tattoo gun, resulting in intricate detail and an unconventional use of space. The full-bleed design style, enhanced by the use of freehand script, helps much of Gilmour’s work make the leap from tattoo sketch to fine art.

Working as an illustrator by profession, Gilmour often lends his artistic abilities to various like-minded enterprises outside of his own sketchbook. Included in the impressive list of music-centric commissions is album cover art for metal band Lay Siege, T-shirt design for Cold Night For Alligators and promotional posters for international music festivals Sonisphere and Download. Gilmour takes such commercial assignments as opportunities to showcase his talents without sacrificing any style or artistic vision.

For a closer look at Gilmour’s illustrations see his personal site and design collective. To see more recent works and for the chance to purchase one-off prints see Gilmour’s often-updated blog and check out Wood & Cloud Publishing Co.

Masterpieces on iPhone

Even from a few feet away, you can see the bold strokes that Sao Paulo artist Roberto Lautert applies to his portraits of iconic art figures, but step closer and you’ll notice that brush lines are strangely missing. That’s because there were no brushes—these works are enlarged versions of the portraits Lautert “paints” by fingertip on his iPhone 3G, using the Finger Draw app. The pieces are currently on display at Loja do Bispo in Sao Paulo in his first-ever solo show.

Lautert, an art and creative director at his own agency, has always loved doing portraits of friends and family, which in the past were made by pencil, acrylic or watercolor. So when Lautert discovered the Finger Draw app in 2009, he knew that his first stab would be a portrait. He painted his wife, who later gave him the idea of doing a six-image series of the artists he admired most—David Hockney, Lucien Freud, Avigdor Arikha, Alex Katz and Elizabeth Peyton.

Painting on such a small screen as the iPhone is challenging in itself, but Lautert finds putting in the details to draw the eyes and the shape of the face the most difficult to achieve. “Every new portrait becomes a drama because it seems like it’s not going to turn out right,” he said. “You suffer until the results start to excite you. But even so, every time you hit save and return hours afterward, you see there’s so much still left to do.”

Because the digital size of the Finger Draw portraits are so small, the images had to be put through a vector process to enlarge them before they’re printed on canvas. “What’s beautiful about Finger Draw on the iPhone is that you can put in your pocket, as if it were a Moleskine,” says Lautert.

Lautert is looking to bring his pieces to other major cities in Brazil, and the current show runs through 25 May 2012.

Kid-commissioned customized toys

Be it a bunny or a bear, there’s often at least one special toy that a child clings to for security, without which their world—and their parents’—might swiftly crumble. Creative mom Wendy Tsao sets out to strengthen that relationship with Child’s Own Studio, which she founded to make custom stuffed plushie toys based on kids’ drawings. “When my son started kindergarten, his school asked for a comfort toy to put in his emergency preparation kit. Instead of sending in one of his favorite stuffed toys or running to the store to buy something, I decided to sew one myself” she explains. “I was thinking of making his favorite animal, but then I saw his self-portrait. He drew it all the time, and it always—more or less—looked the same, with huge eye circles, stick arms and ten long wispy digits. So, I thought, ‘why not?’ And when I was finished, my son immediately recognized it and was very appreciative.”

Tsao realized the potential for child-commissioned toys, and five years later she continues to build whimsical creatures for both children and parents of children who have passed away, like the red Ferrari softie conceived by a boy in the U.K. who passed away, for his brother who missed him. From a stick figure morphed into a peculiar, stringy-legged fellow to a remarkably detailed pizza chef complete with a handful of vegetable toppings, Tsao’s plushies bear a strong resemblance to the 2D masterpieces that inspire them that’s sure to make kids feel both pride and delight at first sight.

Although the name of her company appears to limit commissions, Tsao accepts the occasional adult request, but with caution. “They have to look child-like, not designed nor computer-generated,” says Tsao. “I find accomplished drawings the least inspiring for me. There is no room for my creative input or possibilities of interpretation, which is what I find most rewarding in the whole process.” Tsao says the reception to her craft has been overwhelmingly positive, but admits that sometimes she has to decline requests, “I often turn away orders—usually from adult designers—if I think it’s beyond my skill or patience level.”

While each design is different, most toys take Tsao one to two days to complete. In addition to the one-of-a-kind aesthetic, her creations stand out for their range of vibrant materials that help to bring a child’s drawing to life.

As Tsao makes her way down the waiting list of monsters, farm animals, princesses and heroes, she has let her own imagination start to wander. “I started embellishing my softie projects on my blog with little stories—maybe it’s my interest in stop-motion movies creeping in,” she says. “This is a new direction that I might pursue further if I have enough time.”

Due to volume Child’s Own is currently not taking additional commissions for the wait list, but Tsao recommends similar services in her “Softmaker Showcase” on the website.

Gary Panter and Joshua White tune you in and trip you out with an array of mind-bending works

Meeting Joshua White and Gary Panter is like stepping back in time. Not because White is responsible for creating the Joshua Light Show—the beautifully psychedelic backdrop that entertained thousands at Fillmore East concerts for Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, The Who and more in the 1960s—but because they continue designing experiences with the same childlike nature they likely possessed as creative young kids decades ago. This skillful, ingenuous approach is evident in their retrospective-like exhibition currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, where Panter’s playfully simple illustrations and hypnotic graphics glow under White’s tightly orchestrated theater lights.

While kindred in spirit, the two are actually from slightly different eras. Panter neatly sums it up when he says, “Free love didn’t happen to me.” White began synthesizing music and lights in the late ’60s, making a name for himself among the rock ‘n’ roll crowd in New York shortly after graduating from USC. Panter, who grew up in Texas, read about the Joshua Light Show in magazines at his local drug store. A trained painter and genuine magpie, after graduating college Panter moved to New York and began hosting small shows at record shops in Williamsburg, where he would wiggle a flashlight behind a shiny piece of film while making weird noises with abandoned beat boxes. White saw one of these shows, thought he could help Panter streamline his production, and their friendship and working relationship began.

We recently visited Panter’s studio, an airy space on the top floor of his Brooklyn home, filled with random shiny objects, stacks of records, acrylic paintings, sculptural mobiles and around 200 sketchbooks. The duo calls much of this miscellany “light show potential”—things that can be thrown in the mix to modify the already trippy liquid light show. At its foundation, the spectacle’s lava lamp quality is as simple as colored water and colored oil continuously moving around on top of an overhead projector.

As the MoCAD show demonstrates, their approach has expanded in concept and size over the years, but really only in a sense of refinement. The DIY vibe still lingers, evident in the shoebox mockup, sketches and sculptural models Panter created for the exhibition. The fun house effect Panter lends the show is likely a nod to his days working on the sets of Pee Wee’s Playhouse, which now provides the perfect environment for White’s immersive light show installation at the museum. Whether in a slightly more static setting like the Detroit exhibition or in their performative light shows that reflect the music playing at the moment, White and Panter’s work always stems from their art first.

Their candid analog style isn’t without any digital elements—they often distort computer-generated imagery in their light show performances—but you definitely won’t catch them doing a laser light show. “I have two problems with lasers,” White explains. “One is that it is a very strange repurposing of something that is so magnificently pure. And the other thing is the colors—well it’s not a rich palette. Kind of cold.” Instead they employ a “less is more” approach to their work, which keeps the shows from becoming what White calls “too soupy or too speedy” while allowing the audience’s minds to wander. “We have people coming up to us going ‘were there camels carrying giant bears?’ or something, and we always say ‘You saw that? Good for you!'” They toy with synesthesia, giving freedom to the people watching to interpret the visuals how they like.

Together they continue to put on performative light shows, working with bands whose musical style closely matches their own experimental nature. Separately they both work on personal projects, and soon Panter will begin a residency at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library, which is funding the third installment and paradise version of his Divine Comedy graphic novels. Panter painstakingly dipped a chopstick in ink to draw the first two intricately detailed books, “Jimbo in Purgatory” and “Jimbo’s Inferno”.

The most obvious realization that comes across after spending any amount of time with White and Panter is that they are both highly intelligent and their work is a distillation of their hyperactive minds. Their ability to funnel ideas into various artistic forms speaks to their innate creative talents, and the results are entertaining as well as enlightening.

“Joshua White and Gary Panter’s Light Show” is currently on view at MoCAD through 29 April 2012. Panter shows his fine art work at Fredericks & Freiser gallery in NYC and performs with his band, Devin Gary & Ross at venues around Bushwick in Brooklyn.

Photos of Panter’s studio shot by Charis Kirchheimer. See more images in the slideshow.

Macabre drawings modeled after discarded photographs from Scott Hunt

Artist Scott Hunt turns flea market photographs into modern-day allegories. In his new series of charcoal drawings currently on view at Schroeder, Romero and Shredder Gallery in New York, Hunt presents images that are enigmatic, humorous and occasionally discomforting. The black-and-white figures of “Then Darkness Fell” draw inspiration from turn of the century realism as well as film noir.

Hunt’s preoccupation with discarded photographs is driven by his desire to “save” anonymous people and objects from obscurity. By identifying elements of each photograph that he finds intriguing, Hunt removes them from their original context and uses them to create a new drawing. This creative process gives a second life to other people’s forgotten memories. “My subconscious narratives often reflect a dark, mysterious, and intrinsically Gothic view of America; suburbs leach danger, authority figures evince moral turpitude, nature threatens, and the surface of all things belies the more messy, complicated realities of being human,” explains Hunt.

Hunt’s aesthetic borrows heavily from the 1940s-60s, and is often fueled with an underlying dark awkwardness. Themes of alcoholism, racism, violence and exhibitionism can be found throughout the collection of highly composed drawings. Despite their macabre nature, the works are saved from being unrelentingly gloomy by a consistently wry sense of humor. “Then Darkness Fell” will be on display through 17 March 2012.

Schroeder, Romero and Shredder Gallery

531 West 26th Street

New York, NY 10001