Art-by-Alao

INTRO’

So, I originally set this profile up as part of a ‘Professional Practice’ module for Uni’ about 6 years ago…

But having seen out my Art degree with an untimely broken wrist, I slipped straight into full-time work & haven’t really drawn since! - Long story short, I’ve decided it’s time to pick up the pencils again, and produce the kinda artwork that I’ve been threatening to do for so long now!

I hope you can tell from the bits & pieces on here that I atleast have the basic skills to pull off some decent artworks, but these old drawings & sketches still really don’t represent the style of work I’m looking to produce from here on…

Mixing my own stylised take on traditional realism with a matching style of illustration, means that literally anything is possible! – Animals, food, fashion, parodies, ghosts..?! – You name it; Let’s do it!

Colliding surrealism with humour, I basically just want to create the most fun, happy, and stylish depictions of life in 2018 - whilst also perhaps taking a subtle, self-deprecating view of what cool & sexy really is! (See below, for more on the latter!)

That’s the basics of it, but if you want to know a little more, I’ve added some key topics below…

STEGANOGRAPHY

We may even perhaps use some of the steganographical tricks I developed during my degree, to also hide some puzzles, games, or even secret messages in these artworks of ours too!

A key feature of my work, ‘steganography’ - the art of hiding secrets within imagery - has been used for centuries in art, but is far lesser seen amongst today’s more unscripted & off-the-cuff artworks.

Disney still keep the tradition alive though with their infamous ‘Easter Eggs’ – And if it’s good enough for Disney; It’s good enough for me! So why not indulge ourselves in another layer of fun & games..?!

WHAT IS ‘SEXY’..?

I think this is probably an important one to address, briefly .

To my mind, ‘sexy’ shouldn’t just be this narcissistic ‘Glamour’ competition to see who looks best in a bra & heels! I’ve met some amazing people in my life, and my opinion of them was never formed or judged by what they looked like in their underwear, or by how much they turned me on…

Everybody has different qualities that make them amazing, so I don’t see the wisdom in then always judging them by the same criteria – Life isn’t a swimsuit competition…

For me, I think personality makes you sexy; I think a sense of humour makes you sexy; I think style makes you sexy; I think humility makes you sexy! - Mix all of these things together with an amazing aesthetic, a brilliant individual quality, and it simply cannot be beaten ( in my opinion )…

So, let’s take your qualities, and embellish them with imagination, with fun, with creativity – It may transpire that one of your best qualities is actually how great you look in a swimsuit! Fine, let’s use it! But whatever it is, let’s tailor it to you & take it to the Nth degree – Your best, at its best!

Humility. Personality. Individuality - That’s the ingredients for my kinda ‘sexy’!

CONTENT

Riding straight off the back of that ‘Sexy’ debate, let me also be clear: As a former Art Student, I’m far from prudish about the body! But for me there seems to be this ever-so creepy, over-indulged obsession with ‘absolute’ nudity – So, I personally draw the line at what we’d know as ‘implied’.

That of course then means that although I’m certainly not ruling out using near-scandalous amounts of flesh to play around with in a composition, I still won’t be drawing details like nipples etc – Or basically, nothing that you couldn’t happily (and proudly) post on your Instagram, for example!

I’ve also already said above that there’ll be none of that sexually-suggestive nonsense either, and essentially just nothing that takes itself too seriously..! – Let’s just have fun with art!

This isn’t all just some spiteful rebellion against that perceived over-usage of nudity though – I genuinely believe, as an artist, that you can produce a much better, much more interesting result, if you take the opportunity to be creative & have fun with the body and how it’s used/presented.

WHAT I WANT TO DO

So first of all, I want to produce a huuuuge back catalogue of ideas & designs…

Working with people either on specific themes that interest them, or perhaps just general ones that lend themselves to an individual’s character or look - I’ll be mostly working from photographs, which I’ll take and use to edit & re-draw until a finished piece emerges.

Although I’m just wanting to produce ideas at this stage, these pieces will be seriously polished artworks in their own right, which I’ll even use to exhibit – And some in rather extraordinary ways!

I do have a very busy full-time job ( working at a college ), and haven’t really decided the end goal for my career yet, as an artist – All I know is I have complete freedom in what I do, and I just want to see how far this art can go, especially when it’s something I’m able to do truly just for fun!

RANDOM IDEAS & THEMES

I’ve said before that these new artworks are pretty much unlimited in their content – You may even have your own ideas in your head already by this point – But if you’re open to ideas, then see below for just a handful of random themes that might take your fancy…

Cartoons & Characters: I adore cartoons! So if you do too, then we could even produce some ‘cartoon strip’ style pieces, transport yourself into your favourite scenes, or just create brand new ones…

Body Morphs & Illusions: A classic one to be stupid & play about with. We could redraw you with four arms, turn you into a zombie, or perhaps even stitch you together like a teddy bear – Literally anything is possible..!

Animals: I’m a big animal lover ( and a vegetarian! ), so I’m 1,000,000% up for getting creative with animals – The more imaginative, the better!

Sexy & Silly: For me, the absolute Holy Grail of Ying & Yang combinations! There’s little more awe-inspiring experiences ( especially in these all-too narcissistic days! ) than finding someone unspeakably attractive, but also has the humility to back it up! - The World neeeeds more of this..!

Snapchat Filters, on Steroids: Those Snapchat filters can produce gloriously silly selfies. But just imagine if you could essentially design your own..?! – That’s exactly what my style of art is set-up to do!

Parodying Famous Artworks: Reimagining famous artworks, with a 21st Century twist…

Music: Whether it involves recreating your favourite album cover, creating a portrait full of your favourite hidden lyric references, or just picking a song and seeing what ideas come from it – I love using music in art…

SO , quite a ramble, I know! If you’ve made it all the way through to this part, then I’m both very impressed & equally sympathetic! - But hey, if you’re getting good vibes from the whole idea of my work, or just want to know/see more, then get in touch & let’s see what we can do…

Alan/Alão Xx