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Post by commandax on Nov 9, 2008 13:14:26 GMT -8
João Ruas is a 27-year-old illustrator who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. He's just starting to show in galleries, and has a few drawings in the Thinkspace "Drawing Room" show. Andrew tells me the gallery will be getting more work from him in the coming months. João's blog is here: souvlaki.jp-ar.org/...and here's little writeup I did on him on my blog: commandax.blogspot.com/2008/11/joao-ruas-haunted-world.html"Haunted #16"  "Self-Portrait"  "Haunted #11"  "Downtown"  "Disco Dance"  "Senhora Rhino" (in progress)  |
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Post by sleepboy on Nov 9, 2008 16:11:09 GMT -8
I liked his stuff as well. Reminds me of James Jean. Looks better in person.
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Post by virtu on Nov 9, 2008 16:48:47 GMT -8
I liked his stuff as well. Reminds me of James Jean. Looks better in person. Just saying the same thing to Josh not an hour ago! Spooky.... |
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brobt
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Post by brobt on Nov 10, 2008 20:00:14 GMT -8
This was the one artist i walked away from the exhibit wanting to see more art from, having never seen or heard of him before.
Would love to see more paintings from him.
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ill
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Post by ill on Nov 10, 2008 20:07:45 GMT -8
Some of that looks digital to me, but I like this guy's style. So far he's not quite clicking with my taste, but I can easily see him releasing something that floors me in the future.
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Post by commandax on Nov 10, 2008 21:19:03 GMT -8
João is apparently trying to concentrate more on hand-painted personal projects for gallery exhibition rather than just the design and illustration work that are his bread and butter. Certainly some of his illustration work has digital elements, but I can vouch that "Haunted #16" and the two pencil sketches are completely hand done, and I'm fairly sure "Self-Portrait" is, as well. Not sure about "Disco Dance," but it's clearly mostly done by hand. "Downtown" is a combination of pencil, watercolor and Photoshop, as he describes in this tutorial he did for ImagineFX: "To create the picture I am going to start it traditionally, sketching and cleaning the lines with graphite pencils, and afterwards applying a watercolour wash on it. Then I’m going to do most of the painting work using Photoshop, while trying to avoid that ‘clean’ digital feel that seems to be the curse of nine out of ten digital painters. In order to achieve that, I will use textured brushes and scanned watercolour washes among other things."www.imaginefx.com/02287754330019057739/rainy-downtown-workshop.htmlHere's a description of his technique from an interview from last year: "Even though I use digital tools more often than anything else, my true passions are pencils, watercolor and gouache, most of time combined together. Pencils are the most basic, forgiving and, at the same time, it allows a line full of expression to intricate details. When I use watercolors it seems I am not alone, the ink is alive. You can’t do the same brush stroke twice, it reacts to everything, from the humidity in the air to the age of the paper you picked. I really enjoy the sensation of trusting your senses and intuitions while painting with watercolor. I started using gouache when I realized I couldn’t use acrylics properly (still can’t) and needed some opaque media to complete my watercolors. Gouache is a favorite nowadays, it gives me a great range of opacity, even impastos, and it mixes really well with the watercolors on paper."www.designfederation.net/interviews/interview-with-joao-ruas/You can see some of his process here: flickr.com/photos/feralkid/sets/72157606678079074/ |
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Post by commandax on Nov 30, 2008 11:02:42 GMT -8
Here's Joao's latest, for Thinkspace's show at Art Basel. Looks like these characters come from the same world as the ones in "Haunted #16"... some place inhabited by strange rabbity creatures and people who wear triangulated dots on their skin. "Scowrers"  |
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Post by commandax on Dec 21, 2008 0:03:58 GMT -8
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irsk
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Post by irsk on Dec 21, 2008 6:45:56 GMT -8
I'm a gigantic Fables fan so this makes me very relieved and happy
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Post by sleepboy on Dec 21, 2008 7:34:22 GMT -8
wow, nice choice.
i was thinking Ruas' work was a little james jeanish. these covers should fit right in. man, what a break for Ruas...this will make his career for sure.
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Post by solar77 on Dec 22, 2008 18:58:53 GMT -8
The Fables covers look like top quality James Jean knockoffs. I'm sure he wouldn't deny the heavy JJ influence, but I just don't see much originality there. The personal work is cool though.
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Post by thecreep on Dec 23, 2008 2:33:52 GMT -8
It is really close, but the work is so beautiful I think it's a great choice
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Post by shelly on Dec 23, 2008 2:44:28 GMT -8
When james announced that he was no longer doing fables cover, me and my friends picked who would the fables people pick to continue. We knew that fables had to pick someone in the same genre, they couldn't make a 180 degree turn. It had to be someone with similar styles or else it would look something other than fables. Joao came up on both of our list. 1st in mines and 3rd in my friends.
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Post by comiconart on Dec 23, 2008 17:25:55 GMT -8
I was actually thinking Sam Weber would be a great fit for Fables. I love this work...but I feel the same way Solar does. If I wanted a James Jean, I'd buy a James Jean. All of this art is beautiful...but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see James' name at the bottom of any of them.
And I am sure that Fables will do wonders for his career...but I would worry about even more JJ comparisons now that he is following in his (rather large) footsteps.
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Post by commandax on Jan 6, 2009 0:11:56 GMT -8
A couple of recent sketchbook pages I thought were interesting:   |
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Post by commandax on Apr 5, 2009 21:36:58 GMT -8
Sneak peek for the Thinkspace "Fresh Faces" wall next month, May 8th... "Enkindu & Gilgamesh"  |
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Post by commandax on Apr 20, 2009 15:51:18 GMT -8
Here' João's latest for Thinkspace next month.  |
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Post by commandax on Nov 2, 2009 22:35:48 GMT -8
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Post by LeBasse Projects on Nov 11, 2009 9:08:59 GMT -8
Joao was awesome in NY at our 'Go East' show. He had 4 amazing pieces and we released a print of Haunted #20 which should go on sale at Paper Tiger next week. Can't wait to work with that guy again, although I have a feeling he is not going to want to hang with Team LeBasse until the hangover goes away sometime next year. |
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Post by thinkspace on Nov 11, 2009 11:52:21 GMT -8
Look for Joao's big solo with us coming up in May of next year as well as new works this December down at Aqua in Miami and then a piece for our endangered species benefit in Jan. A 2-person show with him and Tran Nguyen is on lock for fall 2011 as well in our main gallery which I can't wait for. They both have some big plans in place for that. Look for some other big news from Joao soon as well as a print for "Enkindu & Gilgamesh" (pictured above) that's set to drop next week on our site.
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Post by papertiger on Nov 18, 2009 13:02:58 GMT -8
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Post by commandax on Nov 24, 2009 20:57:07 GMT -8
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Post by commandax on Dec 28, 2009 7:54:58 GMT -8
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Post by commandax on Apr 12, 2010 23:02:51 GMT -8
João just gave me a great interview, which you can read at Erratic Phenomena. His next solo opens at Thinkspace on May 7th.  |
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Post by heidialamanda on Apr 13, 2010 10:39:18 GMT -8
They're all gorgeous. I saw some of his works last year. They looked even better in person
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