Favourite Non-Fine Artists And Why?

Who are your favorite artists who would not be considered "fine" artists? Perhaps their work is considered to be too commercial or mainstream, or because their work is derivative in some way or the techniques that they use aren't considered fine art techniques?

Body artists, street artists, illustrators, caricaturists, comic artists, product designers etc.

also, why?

Here are a few of mine:

comic artist Mike Mignola



I fucking love Mike Mignola, not only are his stories excellently written -a fantastic blend of cosmic horror, Gothic tradition, pulp action and deep-dive European folklore, his art style is incredibly striking. He takes the slightly simplified characters and has them looming out of these pools of total black shadow. It's like if Caravaggio started doing linocut, I dig it.


Chris Riddell.


Chris Riddell pretty much illustrated my childhood with his work on the Edge Chronicles and Neil Gaiman's books. His style is playful and he builds characters by accentuating their idiosyncrasies. Plus his maps and building plans are just beautiful.


Frank Quitely.


Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison are my all-time favourite comicbook team. Quitely manages to take the traditional square-jawed superman type and do something really unique with it, imbuing every panel with emotional depth and every subtle facial expression with narrative meaning. He also rejects a lot of the structural body-typing common to comic books- each character's shape is unique and their idiosyncratic movements are effortlessly brought to life- Seriously, I've never seen another artist do movement so well.

Hunt Emerson.....


.....and Martin Rowson



I discovered both these artists because my local library had a really eclectic graphic novel/comic section (with really adult stuff in it). In both cases, they are British artists who did illustrated versions of classic works of English Literature, In Rowson's case it was "The life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen" and in Emerson's case it was "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" (Which I learned almost by heart as a child since I loved his book so much). When I picked them up as a kid, I had no idea what Tristram Shandy was about and I had no idea that what Rowson was doing was a really sophisticated pastiche of Hogarth, but I found the illustrations totally captivating. Hunt Emerson worked for the Beano and The Fortean Times, his anarchic style was totally awesome to me, and the way he broke the Rime of the ancient Mariner down into thousands of visual puns was hilarious. It remains one of my favourite poems, due entirely, I'm sure, to having Emerson illustrate my first encounter with it.

Horror poster artist Graham Humphreys


I got to interview him about a year ago and he's a lovely bloke. His work was the first introduction most people got to 80's horror films, he introduced the world to Freddy Kreuger and pretty much brought the punk rock sensibility to film art, particularly horror. His paintings have that lurid B-movie style but more aggressive, with bright neon elements and carnivalesque, dynamic movement.

Thomas Kuntz

Just because these are mainly comic artists and I needed to go 3D, Kuntz makes automata, his work is often featured in gothic horror films (like Crimson peak). I really dig his stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5XyTL7KdX4


Particularly this one which combines cam-work with illusion to create a tableau of the French poet Paul Verlaine being haunted by absinthe hallucinations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqL-w3sQhEU&t=38s

 

M.C Escher is definitely on my list - I think his work is so unique and interesting

 

Ralph Steadman

There something he does that is amazing with the India ink he uses with his lively paint strokes and bubble bursting effects. His work is very truly. He painted for Hunter S. Thompson.

 

My favorite two pieces of art on this thread so far are the first Mike Mignola piece and the last Steadman piece.
Art is like what Chris says. I whole heartedly agree....making you feel something.....no matter what type of art it is.

 

Ah, I knew Steadman would make an appearance in this thread, his work and style are so iconic. In addition to Hunter S. Thompson and Will Self collaborations he has a lot of children's books that are great. I have two signed by him.

A lot of his work shares characteristics with Gerald Scarfe, political cartoonist who also did some of the Pink Floyd artwork:




He has that same boldness of style and expressionistic use of inks (sometimes) but doesn't go quite as far as Steadman.

I also want to bring Dave Mckean's collage illustrations (particularly for Neil Gaiman's books) into the mix, they kick serious arse:





These first two images are from the newly released Folio society edition of American Gods. A more beatiful book you couldn't ask for.