Alex Murawski Illustration

So, here are some of my classic images. This is the sort of thing  I did from 1972 until I couldn't take it anymore.  As you can see these images are based on an ink stipple technique that is traditional to scientific illustration. It can be laborious and time consuming. I did some of my first work for a new edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica and liked the look and feel of stipple so I kept at it. My intention was to take it from the fairly flat interpretations I was familiar with and impart a sense of visual drama though the use of high contrast and extreme perspective. These characters were created for a software company and their products tackled office  management problems. They specifically didn't want any copy on the cover, just images that  would scare the clients into looking inside for a description of all the issues their  product could remedy.   Nemonic devices and their power to shape public opinion. That was the point of departure...

                                                                         At some point stipple became to time consuming to be practical in the marketplace with its ever faster turn around time. Deadlines that used to be several weeks were now several  days from start to finish. Just not doable! So for quite a while now my commissioned  work has been produced as graphite or ink wash drawings modified in Photoshop.  "Black Night Is Fallin'" for the annual Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival in Thomson Georgia. "Off The Top" was inspired by a trip to central Kentucky where there was a lot of  strip mining and poverty right next door to horse farms and wealth.   I was invited to do "The Web Spinner" as part of an exquisite corpse for an online  literary site.  "Don't You Talk...