Kezeff ~ featured artist

I’ve really been taken by the work of Kezeff, another artist I found on DeviantArt.  I’ve only been following them for a short period, but even in that time I have been fairly impressed not only by the quality of their work but by the creativity behind it and the seemingly highly effective execution of that creativity.  Kezeff uses super-sculpey in creating their sculptures, a hugely popular material (and something I’ve been itching to try myself) and I believe paints them up with acrylics for the most part. You can find more of their work here.

Face Parts Study

Aspiring artists and sculptors would do well to take a leaf out of Kezeff’s book and do some studies of whatever their preferred subject matter is. I’m sure it’s something that I would benefit from, even where your intention is to twist it in some fashion understanding the basic anatomy of your subject can be hugely beneficial.

Much of Kezeff’s work appears to consist of busts either in a more realistic fashion as with this piece here:

Battle Chasers Knolan Bust

Or something a bit more corrupted like this fellow:

Zed

Kezeff has also worked to create some the more quirky pieces such as these wee characters here:

Snoogle

Pumpkin Carl

I really enjoy viewing the sculptures that Kezeff creates, but what keeps me coming back for more (aside from the cool subject matter) is the attention to detail that he puts into the sculptures. Look back over the images above and notice the wrinkles and creases in the skin, the underlying bone structure, the attention to making moist elements appear moist and the variation in skin tone and texture. It’s each of these elements that add up to make some rather great sculptures and I can’t recommend enough that you take a look at their DeviantArt account to see more of their work.

With luck I’ll have one of my own sculptures to share with you soon, I can’t promise it’ll be as refined as these but it will be in my own particular (shouldn’t that be peculiar?! – ed.) style!!

Helen Rich – featured artist

I first became aware of Helen’s work a few years ago when I began dabbling with papier mache and was just beginning to see the possibilities it offered beyond what we traditionally think of when we hear about this much under-rated material.  I had tried my hand at making a mask with mache and Helen (a mask maker) happened to comment, something that led me to view her DeviantArt gallery.

Helen seems to have become a mask maker of some repute, something that is certainly confirmed from what she has featured online, these masks are created most usually from papier mache or leather.  In honesty it’s the papier mache work that interests me most given my own experiments with that particular medium, and her talent here can be seen in these two designs:

Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh.

Gilded Pleasure

 On the latter mask, above, Helen says this:

I’m not sure what it says about my maskwork, but whenever I try to create something pretty, it usually ends up looking sinister.

Something which I admit made me laugh!  Indeed not all of Helen’s masks are sinister, or even black for that matter.  From what I’ve seen though it’s when Helen is working with leather that a form of organic beauty comes to the fore and it’s in working with leather where her skill for mask making is most apparent.

Social Butterfly

If this, and it’s counterparts, don’t fall into the ‘pretty’ camp then I don’t know what does.  Helen herself sees much more of the gothic in these than I believe there is, yet as she created them I guess we should cow down to her opinion on the matter, either way these are fab … to see more like these follow the links at the end of the article.

Steampunk inspired mask

Steampunk is something of an artistic movement that has gathered pace in recent years and has now pervaded almost every genre you might think of from it’s early literary origins and it’s something I’m a bit of a fan of myself, perhaps that’s why I’m a fan of this piece.  Yet it’s the little details that really set this mask apart with the attention to detail around the edges and the textured finish given to the mask.  Subtle, but it works so well.

I’m not quite sure if this counts as a royal endorsement but Prince Charles, below, certainly seemed to take a shine to her popular ‘welsh dragon’ mask! 

Come on Charlie, put it on ... you know you want to!

Not content with mixing with the royals Helen has also been commissioned to do make masks for the theatre and this music video for Ebony Tower and their White Rabbit track:

Something a bit different, but check out that mask!

Whether you’re a fan of masks or just seeing great pieces of work created by a true artisan then I strongly suggest you visit either Helen’s deviantart account, or better yet, check out her website (where you can also make purchases if you’r eso inclined).

Karolina-g ~ featured artist

For those who don’t know DeviantArt is a massive online artists community which spans the globe and contains the work of many thousand artists and crafters, amateur and professional alike.

I recently came across Karolina’s work while browsing through the submission feed and I’ve got to say it simply knocked my socks, her gallery is fabulous.  Karolina is an artisan hailing from Poland and whilst I can’t necessarily read her comments about her work it doesn’t mean I can’t fail to appreciate her work.

Just check out some of these sample pieces from the range of pieces that Karolina makes:

Karolina makes wonderful brooches which seem to be largely based on birds and bugs, I must say I’m developing a particular fondness of the bugs and strongly suggest you go and have a look at the ladybirds in particular.

Clearly taking a great deal of inspiration from the natural world around her, unless I miss my mark, Karolina also creates a range of beautiful ceramic pendants in the form of leaves and flowers like this one featured below.

Finally from this small selection of her work is an intricately sown necklace featuring another of her ceramic creations.

Aside from these types of items Karolina also creates a range of ceramic tiles featuring floral designs that are also worth a look and a range of photography which shows a keen eye for a good picture.  It’s this good eye for a picture which really makes her work stand out as she presents it in an attractive and informative fashion, highlighting details and elements of her work in an eye catching fashion.

It’s great to see well presented work on the web, it bothers me when people who have put a lot of effort into making something fail to put in an equal effort into presenting it.  Not the case here, check out karolina’s gallery, do it now!

You may also find Karolina at her blog, http://karolina-g.blogspot.com/.

~00OO UPDATE OO00~

You can buy Karolina’s work from either of these sites:  Decobazzar.com and Wylegarnia.com. 

These sites are in Polish, don’t let that put you off though, you should be able to get google to translate them for you, just enter the url into the google search bar, also you can use xe.com to convert prices.