The Wizard
24" x 18" Oil on Canvasboard ©1978 Don Maitz
Since the 1970's Don Maitz created countless fantasy and sci-fi illustrations for book covers, album covers, commission, and advertising. His most widely viewed illustration is no doubt the captain on bottles of Captain Morgan Rum. I'm sharing his work this week because I believe this is were my interest in art all began. Some of my earliest memories I have, from when I was one to two years old, were of his illustrations in his book First Maitz. I would sit and flip through pages of wizards, mythical creatures, fantasy landscapes, and characters. I've always taken an interest in fantasy and sci-fi art and character designs throughout my life. His oil and acrylic paintings were the first thing that exposed me to this side of art, and it left a deep impression on my life. Now I'm at an art school studying illustration. My goals for the future are fairly open. I'm happy with either freelancing or working with a team of designers, but one day I would like to work with a team of concept artists for the movie and gaming industry.
I was in the same boat, I loved fantasy and sci-fi art especially during high school where it was my main inspiration and my main concentration during portfolio week. By looking at these kinds of work I was able to develop the skill of taking realism drawing techniques and apply it to my cartoon fantasy artwork to make a similar sci-fi illustration. Though once I entered college I started falling back to cartoon drawings. These types of illustrations take a lot of time, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good choice... I was unfamiliar with this guy and unaware that he did the Captain Morgan character - which is great. I never saw this stuff as a kid but I generally gravitated towards this type of thing... eventually leading me to discover surrealism. You can see the surrealist qualities in this composition... seamlessly blending the ordinary with the dream-like extraordinary. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteI like this one, its very odd.. because from far away it is very realistic looking. But once you get up close you can see all the painting techniques use, and in a sense it creates a whole new image to look at. But its the subject matter that I really like. This image makes a story and a character just by the use of the props in the composition.
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