Mark Ryden

 ‘I believe in letting imagination thrive in my art. I am not afraid of nostalgia or sentiment. I value taking the time to make a painting “beautiful. I want to breath life into my paintings.’

Mark Ryden came to preeminence in the 1990’s during a time when many artists, critics and collectors were quietly championing a return to the art of painting. With his masterful technique and disquieting content, Ryden quickly became one of the leaders of this movement on the West Coast.

Upon first glance Ryden’s work seems to mirror the Surrealists’ fascination with the subconscious and collective memories. However, Ryden transcends the initial Surrealists’ strategies by consciously choosing subject matter loaded with cultural connotation. His dewy vixens, cuddly plush pets, alchemical symbols, religious emblems, primordial landscapes and slabs of meat challenge his audience not necessarily with their own oddity but with the introduction of their soothing cultural familiarity into unsettling circumstances.

Viewers are initially drawn in by the comforting beauty of Ryden’s pop-culture references, then challenged by their circumstances, and finally transported to the artist’s final intent – a world where creatures speak from a place of childlike honesty about the state of mankind and our relationships with ourselves, each other and our past.  

ALEX ROSS

Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book painter, illustrator, and plotter. He is praised for his realistic, human depictions of classic comic book characters. Since the 1990s he has done work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics (e.g. Marvels and Kingdom Come, respectively), as well as being involved in creating independent works featuring superheroes (e.g. Astro City and Project Superpowers). Because his painting style is time-consuming, he primarily serves as a plotter and/or cover artist. Comics Buyer's Guide Senior Editor Maggie Thompson, commenting on that publication's retirement of the Favourite Painter award from their CBG Fan Awards due to Ross' domination of that category, stated in 2010, "Ross may simply be the field's Favourite Painter, period. That's despite the fact that many outstanding painters are at work in today's comic books."

Ross' rendering style, his attention to detail, and the perceived tendency of his characters to be depicted staring off into the distance has been satirized in Mad magazine.

Alex Ross firstly felt in love with superheroes as a child, when he saw Spider-Man on the children's TV series The Electric Company. Many of the trademarks of his art style were learned from his mother, a commercial artist. He studied Illustration at Chicago's American Academy of Art.

Artist books

On February 4th there was an event in our school.

It was an exposition of artist books in small sizes from artist from all around the world.

There also was a part with books of asturian artists.

Most of them contained more illustrations than text, this makes to books understandable by anyone, fully accessible.

The topics were from serious things such war or social criticism, to nature, literature or funny things.

There was a high variety of styles and techniques, but the most peculiar was the formats the books were shown like statements, pop up or extra mini-sized.

This is a way to know better how the art is interpreted in each country.

Nearly to the closing there was a presentation of books made by students of the school.

It’s the first time that we made a collaborational work, and it won’t be the last time because was a success.

This collection of 12 books were short tales from Hans Christian Andersen, with illustrations of the alums of 2nd of Illustration, edited by the students of Art Edition, and exposed with the help of the department of  Ephemeral Art.