Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Kawaii in the right direction


  On my recent escapades through the sea of art known as dA I stumbled upon a gallery that proved to be a treasure trove of inspiration and potential. Much like the Bats up there I'm tailing this Catwoman like there's no tomorrow.

  The artist behind the heart pumping adorable chase above goes by the name...the name...Wait! What do you mean he doesn't have a name...

Unfortunately there isn't much information behind the clever mind who created the cute gland bursting image above. What I can tell you is that he goes by the dA handle "Karioks".


  That's right Karioks...I may not know your real name but I will hunt you down... I swear it O_O
<insert creepy breathing and fierce lighting here>


 Now I first discovered Karioks when I saw the piece above. Fool thought I wouldn't stalk an artist who drew such a stylishly cute Chun-Li

WELL HE WAS DAMN WRONG!!! Mistake #1 Karioks!

The piece just put a smile on my face when I saw it. There's nothing mind blowingly amazing about this rendition of Chun-Li. It's just subtle, cute and stylish. Enough to send me on a psycho stalker journey to find the artist responsible.


  I mean just look at how adorable all those girls are. When I saw Supergirl and Morrigan I seriously wanted to smash my face into a jar of jelly beans and snort the glass sugar blood mess that followed. Their expressions are so cheek numbingly great. Really love how timid Poison Ivy looks in between Catwoman and Harley.

Peering through Karioks gallery I found myself as bubbly and giggly as a school girl devouring jelly beans.



When you get to the chemical breakdown of his work you discover that the main ingredient in his smile inducing art is a great understanding of anatomy being smoothed down to simple eye pleasing shapes. I mean are you seeing those ti-knuckles on Morrigan

Talk about eye pleasing shapes...

  The ability to simplify things in your work (even in life) is a lesson that can be easily overlooked. It happens to me all the time. However you can see through out his gallery that it's the core of his style which is of course coupled with fantastically kawaii facial expressions.
  
  His color work is de-saturated most of the time through the body of his work. It clearly doesn't take away from the vibrancy of his characters though, it enhances it. Soft and huggable.


  While the majority of Karioks gallery is adorable pinups the work that most inspire me are the few pieces that are like the ones above. Amazing shots that looked ripped from a cartoon or comic strip. Pieces that tell a story.

  Being able to tell a story visually without words is something that I've been really trying to incorporate into my work. It takes artwork to another level and it's clear as day that Karioks has a knack for it. I'd love to see him create more of these.

  I chose to write about Karioks this week because from what I know (which is basically nothing) he seems like an artist still in the early stages of his development. My good pal Sweez had suggested that I write about an artist who showed great potential and he reminded me of Karioks. To shed light on someone who might be overlooked when they clearly have a great set of work to show.

  While I don't know if he's an industry professional or an up an coming kid working his way through school I can recognize the great potential and skill that he's showcasing to the world on dA. I greatly admire his talent.

In conclusion...

  If you're having a hard time drawing or just having a rough day surf on over to Kariok's dA gallery. It's a guaranteed smile and your imaginations will thank me for it :D

Karioks changed his dA icon after I made the images of above CLEARY TO SPITE ME. Click on the angry albino penguin above to visit his dA gallery.


Check out my pal Sweez's dA too, he's got a level of style that will make you understand that you're two banana's short of a pineapple. Click on that wacky little head ;D


And of course if you have a moment stop on by my gallery (Click the cool shark above) and let me know what I can do to incorpate some of Karioks kawaii-ness into my own work. :3




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2 comments:

  1. Saw your comment on the artist's DA page, and yeah, I really love all of his work, too. Gonna try to get a commission from him, I think.

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    1. Awesome. Thanks for stopping by, if I had the coin I'd definitely pony up for a commission as well. :)

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