This is Karl Dyer and welcome back guys to another artist reveal with Angels Recommend.
Karl Dyer was born in Chatham, Kent but is currently living in Plymouth and his work is based on fan art. Karl has always enjoyed art in one form or another; from a young age he wanted a career that involved drawing. He wanted to design cinema poster one-sheets. If you don’t know what these think of them as the cover art that you see at the cinema to advertise the film you have been waiting for that will give you an indication of what type of movie you are just about to watch. They are great for inspiration at the best of times.
Karl Dyer when asked what inspires you he replied and told us that he is inspired by artists who think outside the box thinking differently from other people innovators. He likes pictures that are so simple and logical that when he sees them they stand out. That moment of clarity when they are so simple it’s like dam why didn’t I think of that. I think we all think like that from time to time but this is what inspires Karl as a Fan artist. James Hance is a master of this type of art in Karl’s eyes. He likes to see the ordinary made to look extraordinary, but in such a way as that it looks effortless and flows off the papers it is designed on. He also likes looking at work of art created by street artists from around the world, saying that it is just mind boggling in the way that it is created. I agreed completely we also find some street artist such a BLU to be out of this world.
So how does Karl Dyer create his art we here you ask.
“I can range from being a bit OCD when it comes to working, pencils or paints all laid out in proper tone graduation and a clean tidy work area, to being chaotic, messy, and a bit all over the place. I think most people are like that, though.
I’ve worked on T-shirts, Canvases, trucker caps, wood, digital, and various papers with pastels, paints and pencils, airbrush, gouache, acrylics, inks...all sorts.”
Here are a few examples.
Karl prefers to work alone but for the last five years during the summer holidays he has been working for the Lover Summer festival that is held at Newnham Park in Plympton, Plymouth. He works as part of a team helping to design and build/paint signs, Dj booths, and a whole multitude of things to go in the various tents and up around the site. This is completely different to how Karl normally works throwing him out of his comfort zone allowing his art work and processes to grow as he has to think on his feet and finds it to be a challenging environment which he loves.
We ask if Karl studied in his field or if he was self taught as every artist has a different path to walk. This is what he said.
“I did night school lessons in water colours back in the 90's, but other than that I completely self taught. Up until about 6 years ago I was only working with pens and pencils. A friend of mine, who is an amazing artist, let me have a go with his airbrush and that was that.
I spent quite a bit of money on a compressor, a very nice airbrush, lots of paints and a few canvases and got to work.
Unfortunately, I just assumed that because I could draw, that airbrushing would be easy and after spending a few hours working on what I can only charitably describe as a mess, I threw all the gear in a box and dumped in the spare room. After a few months, my wife suggested that I should give it another go before it all ended up in the loft, I don’t know what made me think of it but I started working on t-shirts instead of canvases. Very simple designs to start with so I could ease myself into it, I had, and still do have, a tendency to get a bit ahead of my ability when working with new materials and when it doesn’t work out right I don’t take it very well. Some of the t-shirts that I did after I had been working on them for a year or so we’re very complicated and time consuming pieces, I had one that took 72 hours to complete and another that was made up of a stencil that had over 400 pieces to it. After a couple of years of that, I got back into doing Canvases, and with a better understanding of my equipment and materials, reduction rates, atomization, air pressures etc, I found it a lot easier the second time around. I did start off doing my own work, but I was getting more and more clients supplying me with pictures they wanted me to reproduce for them.
I sort of fell into the trap of getting comfortable doing this, at first I was getting a lot of pleasure from trying to recreate these pictures, but as time went on, and due to a change in work circumstances, it became more something that I had to do rather than something I wanted to. I would always name the original artist when posting pictures on my page and I would go to great lengths to discover the artist’s name of a picture if the original wasn’t signed. What I would do is draw the picture and then colour it in my own way so at least I felt I was having some input into it.
After a time, and a change at work for the better, I no longer had the need to continue working this way and for the last 18 months I’ve been working on more life art and teaching myself how to draw again, one unfortunate side effect of working on other artists work for a prolonged period is that you lose your own sense of style, I don’t regret having done this as it enabled me to hone my skills, but I would have liked to have stopped a lot sooner so I could get started on the things I really want to do which I’m only just doing now.”
Influences and favourite books:
Karl Dyer tells us about his favourites.
My favourite comic book artists are Brian Bolland, who worked on the seminal Batman graphic novel ‘The Killing Joke.’
J Scott Campbell, no one draws women like this guy, his work is almost Disney but with a dark or near bawdy touch to it. I did an Alice in Wonderland piece of his that is my favourite canvas.
John Buscema and Steve Ditko who both worked on early SPIDER-MAN, as did Jack Kirby.
My favourite artist is ridiculously talented James Hance, a Brit that lives in the USA, his art has to been seen to be believed, I love his very British sense of humour running through his work. A really nice bloke that has always answered any questions I’ve asked him regarding materials. His page ‘Relentlessly Cheerful Art’ has over 60000 likes on it.
I was inspired to start my page by the hugely talented Alex Pardee. His work is very dark and kind of reminds me of Gerald Scarf. He has such a recognisable style. Awesome artist
I’ve recently discovered the incredibly talented Victor Garduno, his work with pastels is magnificent.
Jasmina Suzakworks with coloured pencils to a near photograph level of realism, her Negan from Walking Dead is mind blowing.
All these artists have been quick to offer support and advice, all great artists and great people.
So now you know a little about Karl Dyer head over to his social media check out his work. This is how Fan Artist should be he is a great role model in the sense he has never claimed to have done this work without giving all credits and kudos to the original artists. That is the difference between stealing art work and being a great artist yourself as a Fan Artist.
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A BIG THANK YOU TO KARL DYER FOR TAKING PART IN ANOTHER ARTIST REVEAL.