So last semester I chose Mark Ryden as my Master Painter to practice his painting style and drawing style. I found it to be both fun an frustrating. I have always admired his work and how everything looks absolutely effortless. He was an artist that I had never seen copied by anyone at my school and decided that this would be a new and exciting challenge not only for me, but for other artists to see. I noticed the art I was drawn to (Pop-Surrealism/ Lowbrow which ever you prefer) was not something that was very popular do to it only recently being recognized since the early 90′s. You probably are thinking thats over 20 years, well yes it is, but an art movement such as this started underground taking years to really build its power in the art world and Mark Ryden is one of the movements most popular and recognizable pioneers.
I also felt testing my skills in painting and drawing with Ryden’s style would really test my ability and determination. I always looked at his work and thought I could never do that, so I will leave that style to him and admire from afar, but when the master painting assignment came along I decided that well maybe I should bite the bullet and do it, so I did.
The first two pictures are direct copies of Ryden’s actual work, and the rest are my own creations in his style.
