Dan Hillier is a London-based artist and the man behind this tentacled fusion of Victorian engraving and Lovecraftian horror. His “Altered Engravings” bring to mind the surreal collages of Max Ernst.

Dan Hillier sells his prints from a stall at London’s The Sunday (Up) Market, but if traveling there is geographically prohibitive, you can purchase prints or commission work using the contact information on Hillier’s Web site.

More of Hillier’s utterly intriguing engravings after the jump. more…

Like many artists of their generation, English brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman allude to an incredible amount historical reference in their work. This is particularly evident in a series (aptly) named “Hell” (1999–2000), of which portrays an apocalyptic vision of hell on Earth as war, Nazi atrocities, concentration camps, and mass executions with thousands of miniature figures taken apart and put together again. These were arranged in nine glass cases laid out in the shape of a swastika and later destroyed by the artists. Dinos Chapman is reported to have shrugged off the loss, saying, “We will just make it again… It is only art.”

See more from this series after the jump more…

Shingo Shimizu, a Tokyo born, Toronto based illustrator, graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design with a Diploma in Graphic Design. He has worked for various firms in the design industry such as X Corporation and Modern Media.

Shingo started by moonlighting as a DJ in clubs and lounges, and club promoters employed him to design artwork for their flyers and posters. The eye-catching graphic illustrations became popular and eventually Art Directors took notice. Since then, Shingo has moved on to illustrating full time, doing both character and graphic design.

For more info on / works of Shingo Shimizu visit his site.

“Off with Her Head!”

The Wonderlost series is Raymond Sepulveda’s artistic interpretation and dark twist on the numerous characters from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” stories. The theme across the whole series is to give each character the look of a porcelain doll, with very pale bleach white skin and bleached white clothing. To sharply contrast the sterile white throughout the painting, there are elements that are either black or blood red, either on the character’s physical self (as in the form of hair) or in their accessories.

The characters are first visualized and conceptualized using Adobe Illustrator and then executed and painted using Adobe Photoshop. No 3D tools are utilized in the creation of the series, only airbrushing techniques in Photoshop. The final series eventually encompass the a group of major characters in the two stories. When creating these paintings, his palette of choice is mainly whites and mid-grays, with a contrasting dash of red or black here and there. Once a piece is finished, Raymond floods the canvas with an antique wash to add some age and depth in the image.

For more info visit Raymond Sepulveda’s site: Xanthic. Follow the jump to view some additional Images from his fantastic Wonderlost series.

The Queen of Hearts

The Mad Hatter - “Your Hair Wants Cutting”

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Food For Thought

Mike Worral is an English artist and designer. His paintings are a combination of the absurd, surreal and alluring. By combining contemporary concepts with historical content, Mike Worrall evokes a compelling view into an enchanting, dramatic and mysterious world of women wearing elaborate dresses and surreal diaroma backdrops. Worral states:

“I have been painting since the early 1960’s and am almost entirely self taught. I still retain the basic technique and style developed in these early years. I am committed to exploring the subconscious and I like Paul Delvaux and Max Ernst amongst others.”

“I’ve worked in the feature film industry as an Ideas Artist. You can see my work on Alien III website. I was told by Roman Polanski that a painting of my mine he had, gave him the idea of making the film Macbeth. He based the second scene on the painting. I have works in the collections of Victor Lownes, Alan Price of the Animals, Roman Polanski, Nicholas Roeg, Vincent Ward and many others.” - from Worral’s biography

He currently resides in Holgate, on the Central Coast, Australia. Follow the jump to view more of his beautiful works.

Via Beinart.

Requiem

Equus

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Sleeping by day - Giclee print on paper

I was born in London, England on October 26 1958, the youngest of four and much to my parent’s surprise, I was born a dog. This unfortunate turn of events was soon accepted within my family and was never again mentioned in the presence of polite company. I was a rambunctious youth as was natural to my breed but showed a fine interest in the arts as I drew pictures incessantly on anything including the walls and floors of every room of our tiny house. After some trouble with intolerant neighbors, my family was convinced to move to Canada and it was not long before the burgeoning town of Toronto became our new home. - from Ray Caesar’s Biography

Am starting this year with one of my favorite artist, Ray Caesar. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the English born pop surrealist and his impressive, fantastical and whimsical digital images of children, I hope to offer you a short introduction into his mysterious surreal world.

The birth of his ideas stems from working for 17 years in the Art and Photography Department of The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto. Ray documented things such as child abuse, surgical reconstruction, psychology and animal research. The artist explains, ” I often awake in the middle of the night and realize I have been wondering the hallways and corridors of the giant hospital. It is clear to me that this is the birthplace of all my imagery”. These experiences continually haunt and present themselves in his outre images, which draw inspiration from the works of Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Paul Cadmus and more.

Ray Ceasar’s dreamy images are strange and yet familiar, classical but at the same time very contemporary, this creates a contradictory effect on the viewer. When viewing Ray Caesar’s astonishing works you might assume you are looking at paintings due to their unique emotional impact, seamless blending and “painterly qualities” inherent in each piece. However, each model is exclusively created using a 3D modeling software called Maya, and is set up with an invisible skeleton that allows him to pose each figure in its 3D environment. He then wraps them in painted and manipulated texture maps, then adds Digital lights and cameras with shadows and reflections to simulate a mysterious ambiance. The finished piece radiates an enigmatic serenity. His figures are otherworldly, a beautiful fusion of sci fi fantasy, lush landscapes, and Victorian sensibilities.

View more of Ray’s brilliant work after the jump.

+ Ray Caesar’s site

Blackbird & Blackbird Detail - Giclee print on paper

Blessed - Giclee print on paper

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