A is for Artist: M

As we journey past the quarter mark of the alphabet some of you may have noticed a slight itching in the back of your eyes. Maybe you’ve felt hunger pains, not in your belly, but at the midpoint of your head. That’s where your visual cortex is found and that hunger signals the beginning stages of art addiction. Other symptoms include: a compulsive need to discover all the names of teachers and friends of a particular well known artist, exploding bookcases due to the weight of too many art books, a deep knowledge of auction houses and their scheduled public viewings. Lastly, hives.

Don’t worry, the addiction is relatively benign and plenty of support groups exist. Just remember, it’s a scavenger hunt which has no list and never ends.

Sergio Martinez
An expert draftsman from Mexico, his drawings contain bold flowing lines with a structural punch and a beautiful, subtle color use. His work is often achieved with an unorthodox technique of drawing on one side of a sheet of vellum with charcoal and blending color pencils with turpentine on the reverse side.

Mobius
A highly influential French comic artist whose distinctive linework, complex perspective shots and boundless imagination came to prominence in the pages of the comic magazine, Metal Hurlant. His work served as an inspiration for Blade Runner, Alien, Tron, The Abyss, as well as The Fifth Element.

Alphonse Mucha
There a good chance that if you push a pencil professionally, you might site Mucha as an inspiration. His name is synonymous with the Art Nouveau movement which prided itself on clean, sinuous line work. A style that was influenced by stain glass and jewelry design, he created everything from soap ads to theater posters to extravagant murals.

Alexander McQueen
An eccentric and daring fashion designer who, sadly, ended his life earlier this year. He was known as much for his extravagant and controversial runway shows as he was for his elaborate and bold fashion designs. If you should be aware of any modern fashion designer, McQueen would be it.

Syd Mead
Originally trained and worked as a car designer, he became increasingly called on to render complex imaginative scenes.This saw him migrate into doing film work where he primarily shaped the legendary look of Blade Runner. He serves as one of the Grand Masters of Concept art.

Nicolaus Marlet
It’s arguable that some of Dreamworks’ recent successes might be because of Marlet’s incredibly appealing character designs. His use of texture, shape and gesture combine into some of the most fun and pleasing drawings you’ll ever see.

C O L O P H O N
Arts & Crafts movement luminary William Morris designed both the background and typeface in this week’s header. The Troy type was one of three designed by Morris for his own Kelmscott Press.

We are Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon. We live in a pocket-sized apartment in Brooklyn where we collect neat, weird things. Our home is abundant with books, old furniture, mismatching tea cups, and a cat named Cipher. We both illustrate stuff for money so we can continue to invent stories, buy shoelaces, watch puppet shows, and eat sandwiches.