Featured Artist: Ryan Humphrey
Ryan Humphrey has about as much fun with a moleskine sketch pad and a box of Faber-Castells as anyone possibly can. Take a look at his portfolio, but prepare to feel a little funny afterwards: The haunting juxtaposition of surreal images and some pretty sweet tonal work is sure to send your brain on a bit of a bender.
Many of Humphrey’s works depict scenes from fairy tales, myths and movies. Others are portraits, or striking, sometimes amusing, beasts from his own imagination. All works, however, reveal a playfulness that the artist exercises to bring characters to life on the page. This is achieved by building a mental collage of a variety of second-hand images and deciding how these will come together in the final product. Quite a mental feat, really, but Humphrey has the technique down to …well, a fine art.
Speaking of which, Ryan Humphrey studied at the University of Creative Arts in Farnham, UK, and used to express himself in paints before concentrating on these brilliant illustrations. He draws inspiration from the likes of Van Gogh, Phil Hale, Lucian Freud and James Jean.