Art In Me...

Recently like I have said, there have been a spark that is tingling around my mind especially in the area where art ideas and interests are coming from. Part of the reason is I was fortunate enough to meet two things in my life recently. One living, one well... not alive you might say. First would be a book, I've never said anything about it before but there are a few artists, whether it may be fantasy artists or comic artists, but there are a few of them that I really really admire and I do follow their work. No... I don't remember their titles and stuff, but just from looking at them I know it's their work.


One of them would have to be Alex Ross. There really is no set of words that can describe his work. Basically he is a comic book artist, or rather a comic book painter to be more specific. The interesting thing that sparked my interest is his airbrush works. Seriously, you have not seen The Flash, Shazam, Justice League and many other famous characters till you see his artwork. Most of the time, they pretty much look alive as if it was a photo. I remember when I first see his work it took me a while to realize they were drawn and colored instead of a photo with effects. Really really amazing artwork from him.
Some example artwork in Wiki

Second guy would be Imperial Boy. Nope it's not his real name... d'oh. I am not very sure what his real name is, been looking for it but failed. Probably because I don't read Japanese. Yup the guy is a Japanese manga artist. His work is breathtaking and detailed, the colors are usually very milky soft tones, Wow... just wow. Basically what really makes me go nuts over his work is the background. His landscape and background work is amazing. Usually his artwork consist of characters drawn in a pretty normal and dull way but the background is simply amazing which really makes me speechless sometimes. Now when I say drawn in a pretty dull and normal way doesn't mean his character sucks, just that his landscapes/scenery/background really just makes me speechless each time. In fact I stumbled upon some of his work in a famous book that I wanted so badly last time in MPH. Bought it and it was great. The book is titled Robot Volume 2. Basically it's a collection of works by many young current manga artist with they really really really amazing work.
Some example of his work in Wiki
Some example artworks from robot magazine/book
Another site with robot magazine/book stuff


Another artist caught my attention recently and I have practically downloaded his tutorial videos and I watched it and it was really really great. The guy I am talking about is Carlos Cabrera. Practically the guy does digital artwork mainly most of the ones I saw was using Photoshop. Really amazing work. Most of his videos which are an hour to two hours long shows how a blob of nothingness turns to an amazing art. Don't really know much about him but he seems to have a lot of projects from pretty famous companies. Some of his works are in fact for games and advertisements. His works are usually concept art, fantasy themed, monsters etc. That kinda stuffs. And the artwork really looks amazing.
Example of his artworks in his portfolio

I wish I am as good at these artists. Hopefully one day. Living here, specifically in this country really doesn't spark much motivation for me to come up with ideas on what to draw in the first place. I don't know why but everything seems so geometrically straight and dull and artificial. I want curves and a sense of nature. But then I still try my best to get myself going sometimes. Just want to be a bit more hardworking in it, that's all I ask for.