Ash me no more questions

The artist of this post is Ashleigh Mefford.

Ashleigh Mefford is a California born, up and coming artist. 

Even though she is only in her second year of schooling at The Art Institute of Inland Empire, she is certainly going places with her art. A game designer to be, Mefford has plans in the making. Big plans. (All the plans.) What she has revealed, and what she has hinted to in her drawings across the internet is a horror survival game, called Other World, and already from the top picture, she shows that she has skills in designing in a 3D environment.

She also makes My Little Pony keychains and sells them online.
http://ryukiwolf.yolasite.com/

The first two pictures are made entirely in UDK, Unreal Development Kit. 

The third picture is made in Photoshop 7. 

Heeey, keep it up, Cruz

This week's artist is Noel Cruz.

Noel Cruz is a professional portrait artist, specializing in the repainting of dolls and action figures to look like real people. His love of repainting rose from his childhood love of drawing portraits, which he still does to today, but he is more known for repainting in resemblance of actors who played characters, like Lord Voldemort and Audrey Hepburn.

For the actual repainting part, Cruz uses Golden brand paints, painted on by ultra fine brushes. Afterwards, he will adjust the hair too to look like how it was in the movies. Any other supplies he uses to "repaint" at this point vary from doll to doll. Some dolls require more work depending on how much he needs to adjust the outfit. Some dolls are repainting with entirely new outfits too.

Alas, dear Katsuyo, I knew ye well

http://katsuyoaoki.s1.bindsite.jp/

Katsuyo is a japanese born artist, born in Tokyo in 1972.

Most of her childhood was kept private but it is known that in the late 1990s, Katsuyo went to Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan, and in 1998, she received a BFA in Painting there, and two years later in 2000, she received an MFA in Ceramic Art.

Her art focuses around porcelain sculptures now, the majority made to look like the most elaborate skulls, others are vases, chandeliers, and a few dragon sculptures too. Katsuyo makes her sculptures so elaborate because she wants to express a mood and atmosphere. Though certain patterns do allude to certain myths and legends, or sometimes even movies she saw.

Both skulls here measure to be around 200mm x 150mm x 220mm. Neither is individually named, but they are both projects from her Productive Dream collection.

Rackham Up!

This week's artist is the old Arthur Rackham.

Arthur Rackham was an artist from the mid to late 1800s. He started out as a clerk, and on the side studied art at the Lambeth School of Art. He made sales of his illustrations to the local magazines and news papers for extra money. He didn't really want to become a full time illustrator, wary of the pay and other aspects of the job, and instead, later on, got a regular reporter job at the Westminsiter Budget. Later he started doing more art, this times for books, yet his style varied so much from book to book you wouldn't be able to tell it was the same artist.

To make most of his illustrations, he would outline in pencil then erase as he marked everything in pen and india ink. Afterwards he would paint in layers to make transparency and thickness.

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/rackham.htm

Mozart? Sorry, I'm talking about Mozdzen

So this week's artist is the lovely Joanna Mozdzen.

http://www.joannamozdzen.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/JoannnaMozdzen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GH5Eri5pGW0#!

Mozdzen is a sculptor originally from Poland. She has studied to be a midwife from at the University of Midwifery of Wroclaw. Some time afterwards, she found herself in Rome, surrounded by art, and after a year and a half there, she moved to Canada and studied art at Beal Secondary School and then at Fanshawe College. She is now a full time sculptor/mask maker.

The sculpture of the human bust is a sculpture she made in 2011(no exact date). The material is I believe to be clay and then baked.

The mask featured here is from 2011 as well(no exact date). It is made of neoprene( a durable, rigid, rubber compound), then painted with acrylics. 

Beaton on the tempo

Ok, so this week's artist is the very historical Kate Beaton.
And by historical, I mean she draws historical figures in a fart joking manner.
Brilliant.

http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=300

Yes, so Kate Beaton was born far up north in Nova Scotia, Canada. She obtained a history degree New Brunswick. In her time, she has worked and lived in several places, but is currently presiding in New York, North America. Art is mostly her hobby, though now is it a hobby that makes some dough, as she has a website with lovely t-shirts with historical figures on them. Isn't that grand?

Kate Beaton's work is....as shown, mostly comics, and also uncoloured. She has a focus on lines, since well, that's all there is. The comics she does on Hark! A Vagrant, were doodles she did while she was at work and she had spare time. It was all clearly for the laughs, because clearly, history is rip snorting hilarious! 

http://harkavagrant.com/

http://beatonna.tumblr.com/

Alien Art

That wasn't even a pun.

But anyways, today's artist is Emy Bitner.

http://introducingemy.deviantart.com/

Bitner is the creator of the web comic series Trying Human(ongoing) , the short web comic Alternating Current (completed) along with some horror anthology comic collaborations and an upcoming gothic horror art book EMpathy. Bitner is very convinced in the existence of aliens and so much of her art is filled with extraterrestrials, and delves into part of the genre of aliens that is not explored much, which is romance between aliens. Bitner's gothic horror art also delves into romance, though it is a bit on the dark side.
The pieces featured here are titled Rain and A Million Bright Ambassadors. Each is an example of her more favored art subjects.