Fantastic quirky tote bags by Mogu Takahashi via Japanistic
(The cat is asking [Who are you~?] or [huu ah yuuu?]
Shinzi Katoh
What does it mean to "draw well"?
As Shakespeare says "There neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so."
When I was a young art student at SVA, I would've probably condescended to art like this. My opinion at the time that they would have been "Nice but not that good."
I was into very illustrative, anatomically correct artists, like Arthur Rackham, Windsor McCay, Ryoichi Ikegami, Titian, Rembrandt and Jacques Louis-Davide.
Isn't it amazing how your tastes can change 180deg? Lately I'm obsessed with artwork made up of simple line, simple graphics, and clean design.
Recently I'm into the work of Dave Shrigley and James Victore (I regret never taking a class with him at SVA! RGH!) - examples:
Dave Shrigley
James Victore
one of my fav comics "In Me Own Words by Bigfoot" by Graham Romieu
I think in the limitation, the artist can do more. Limitation of color, line, space - I think it makes the image better, more focused.
And it's not as easy as it looks to draw like Shinzi Katoh. You can tell these were drawn by adults and not children: there is a confidence to it; there were probably many trial and error sketches to get these characters right.
It's all about the idea.
If the idea is good, how you execute it is just icing on the cupcake.
Many artists strive to make themselves technically good but can't cultivate a strong idea.
I'm one of these people.
I've never been clever enough for illustration, but I'm workin' on it.