I follow a lot of different artists on Instagram. I follow a lot of photographers, from friends I made in college to some of photography's greats like Kirsty Mitchell and Levi Jackman Foster. I follow a number of novelists, most of them self-published like myself, self-marketing their book and looking to build a community. I follow a lot of digital artists, like Carlos Quevedo, who manipulate photos and drawings in photoshop to create incredible pieces. And of course, I follow traditional visual artists, painters, sketchers, inkers. As an artist it's important to have a steady stream of inspiration and often artists are inspired the most by each other. But of all the different types of art, traditional visual art seems to capture my eye the most – probably because it's the one art form I'm not too good at.
My journey into art started with visual arts, with painting, drawing, sketching, and I loved it. I remember in grade school being so deprived of art (we had it one class a week), and it was not even close to being enough to satisfy my hunger for creating and learning about art history. In high school I was invited into a visual arts program, the first of it's kind in Ontario, the program offered specialized art courses, and a heavier "art" course load than someone would normally take, and it did a lot to help me hone my skill for drawing and painting. But I never defined myself as a strictly visual artist. I've always been a good writer, creative with poetry and fiction; in high school I started shooting with a camera and slowly eased into that medium; during college I was introduced to photoshop, photo manipulation, and using a tablet to draw using photoshop. For me, an artist is someone who creates unique and imaginative works. But man, I wish I was better at painting and sketching.
Below, I've listed (in no particular order) 5 of my favourite artists on Instagram. Their work continues to blow me away, and I always look forward to seeing their work-in-progress and final pieces. They always make me want to grab a sketch book and pencil and sit down and suffer for a couple hours. You DEFINITELY need to be following them!
Jess Hrycyk
I'm starting with Jess Hrycyk, because she's the only one on this list who I have met and talked to. She's an illustrator and artist based in Ontario who, according to her website: "cloisters herself in the verdant forests of myth, fantasy, and folklore. Drawing upon the rich soils of old world ornamentation, engraving and medieval calligraphy, she exhumes an ancient aesthetic to give new life and meaning to her explorations of nature, as well as her understanding of undying, existential themes." And that's probably the most accurate description of her and her work that I've ever read. I've been a fan of Jess's for years now. I first saw her work at FanExpo (which is like the ComiCon of Ontario), the first year I went I stumbled across her booth and was mystified by her illustrations. They were detailed, ornate, intricate, with slightly dark undertones and themes that immediately drew me in and captivated me. I remember, during that very first FanExpo, I casually walked past her booth a couple of times, because I thought it would be less noticeable than standing there gawking at her work for hours on end.
It was a few FanExpo's after that first one that I finally got the courage to speak to her and tell her how much of a fan I'd been over the years, and I'm super happy I did. Jess is an exceptional artist, and one of the kindest, most humble artists I've ever met, I could've spent the entire expo talking with her about art and her techniques, watching her sketch. She's a gentle soul packed with incredible talent and I cannot praise her enough. Check out her work, and make sure to head over to her etsy shop and get a pin or print or some stickers! They'll make a great addition to your art collection!
Yoann Lossel
Lossel is probably the most famous artist on this list, and one of those artists you can't help but be in awe of for their work. He is a French artist who masterfully blends paint, pencil, and gold leaf. He is... absolutely incredible. I am so envious of his work. He blends together fantasy and surrealism with a Renaissance-style. The pencil work makes his images feel hazy, almost like they're foggy with mystery. He creates entire worlds in his works that are beyond anything I've seen, where the landscape is as important as the characters depicted within them. He's actually inspired a new photography project I'm about to begin, which integrates the use of gold leaf.
Those who know me know that, when it comes to art and colour, I have one major weakness... gold. The shine of it, the texture, everything about gold leaf fascinates me. And I think I stumbled across his work accidentally while googling about gold leaf. He is constantly inspiring me with his dark imagery and haunting pieces... Whenever I see his work, I just think, "Man... I need to sketch more."
Annie Stegg Gerard
Known as Annie Stegg, this American artist is known for her whimsical, childhood paintings. She works with a number of different mediums, most notable paint, and creates very beautiful, lush, and soft portraits and fantasies that tell the stories of young children in fairytale lands. There is something very charming about Stegg's paintings, she captures youth and imagination so well in her work, and her soft brush strokes and pastel-like pallets fit the medium and the mood of her paintings to a tee. While her work may not be as dark of Lossel's, or as stylized as Hrycyk's and Williams's, it's very peaceful and calm, and incredibly whimsical.
I stumbled across her work relatively recently on Instagram, and fell in love with the innocent portraits and intricate attention to detail. I've been meaning to try my hand at this more whimsical style with a couple of painted portraits of my nieces... but whenever I think about them I get flustered and think they'd just turn out monstrous. Still though, Stegg's quiet beauty in her work is inspirational and definitely something I'd like to learn to harness, whether with visual art or through photography.
Erica Williams
Another American artist, Erica Williams is an illustrator and designer and a relatively new favourite of mine. Williams has a rather impressive client list, she's worked with a number of bands, creating posters and designs for their shows. To me, her work is in the same... genre, I guess you could say, as Hrycyk. Their work both features heavy line-work, beautiful colour, and darker themes. While Hrycyk has a much more medieval and symmetrical feel to her work (and I DO love me some symmetry), Williams is a little more all over the place and has a much more comic-style to her drawing, compared to some of the more classical artists on this list. Nevertheless, her line work is extraordinary, her colouring is psychedelic, and overall her work is just aesthetically pleasing and detail oriented.
She also has a shop on her website and has some enamel pins that are definitely worth getting, ESPECIALLY if you're like me and have that enamel pin fever.
Rebecca Yanovskaya
The last artist you should be following on Instagram is Rebecca Yanovskaya. Like Hrycyk, I first stumbled across Yanovskaya at a comic convention, this time, Toronto's ComiCon a few years ago. She's an Ontario-based illustrator who, like Lossel, works heavily with gold leaf and graphite. I didn't really get a chance to speak much with Yanovskaya at ComiCon, but I definitely ogled over her gold leaf illustrations. Primarily, she draws scenes heavily influenced by fantasy, science-fiction, and horror and her images have a very neo-classical feel to them. Which I DO love.
One of the areas where Yanovskaya excels in the human form. She's a master of capturing muscles and movement in her work. She also designed a coin for the Canadian Mint for Canada's 150th this year! And that's pretty impressive! Definitely check her stuff out!
