Ashley Wood
Posted by Alex
Australian artist Ashley Wood does some incredible work. He blends traditional painting technique with digital imagery to create some truly imaginative scenes. His world may be dark and ominous, but for some reason I want to find myself inside. I want to fight alongside the World War Robot. I want to trudge through the snow with a giant metallic companion. I’m sure my sentiment is just the result of seeing such unbelievably creative work.
Be sure to check out Tom Muller’s excellent book design for Wood’s Popbot. Dedicating the rest of my night to tracking down an actual copy. (Muller also designed Wood’s website.)
18 Comments Leave A Comment
journeyagent says:
December 2, 2010 at 2:54 amOne of my favourite artists. I adore the work he’s done for the Metal Gear games.
JimmyViola says:
December 2, 2010 at 7:27 amI’ve been a huge fan of Wood for a number of years now. His work is truly inspirational. On top of the awesome painting he also produces a lot of self-published books of his art (or at least he used to) that he would sell in his online store http://www.bambaland.com. I love everything about his style
adam says:
December 2, 2010 at 7:31 amSaw this guys work long time ago, really awesome.
Garrett Haas says:
December 2, 2010 at 8:17 amAshley wood, has been a huge inspiration for me not only for his painting and illustration, but his story of becoming an illustrator and painter. He briefly talks about it in one of his earlier books. Great post Alex.
Tim says:
December 2, 2010 at 12:51 pm@ Garret
You have any more info on his path to becoming an illustrator/painter?
I read he was in advertising for a short while but can’t dig up anymore than that.
NAVIS says:
December 2, 2010 at 4:53 pmGreat art. It looked familiar but I couldn’t place where I’ve seen this style till the first commenter mentioned Metal Gear and then it all came together. I love this style of art. There’s so much motion in this simple, unrefined way. Would love to have one of the first three as a large print.
Bobby Chombo says:
December 2, 2010 at 4:59 pmAshley’s work on the Spawn annuals, maybe 8 years back, was absolutely mind blowing. Makes some of his more recent stuff look less dark and ominous too…
urbanfu says:
December 3, 2010 at 10:51 amI adore ashley wood! I even have a popboot book autographed my him. Great reminder! thx n love from lisbon, Portugal
Tom Muller says:
December 3, 2010 at 11:26 amGood luck tracking that book down! The original softcover I designed sold out years ago. There is a hardcover version floating around but thats not my design (Ash remixed it).
For those interested, I also designed the WWR logo for Ash
http://www.hellomuller.com/work/2007/wwr.html
(and much, much more)
Alex says:
December 3, 2010 at 11:47 amDrat! Thanks for the heads up Tom. I’ll search for the softcover. Will not give up!
(the WWR logo is one of my favorites)
MHagan says:
December 3, 2010 at 12:20 pmWow really cool, I get a kind of Cowboy Bebop feel from it.
Mastodon says:
December 4, 2010 at 1:19 pmbest be careful in this area…
you’re likely to get addicted to his amazing robots, like me.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wwr/pool/page5/
wei ming says:
December 5, 2010 at 6:53 pmI just woke up from a dream, its was about me and a bunch on my friends stranded on an abandoned island. The dream ended with a sunset and than i woke up feeling depressed.
Listening to music via your blog now :)
cheers from Penang Island , Malaysia
Striclty Kev says:
December 6, 2010 at 4:15 amLove his work, although he rarely uses computer techniques with his paintings these days, opting for a purer approach.
He’s currently doing a drawing a day through December on his blog
http://ashleybambaland.blogspot.com/
and he makes absolutely the best toys in the world, his company, 3A, is thing with what they are doing
http://www.threeaonline.com/blog/
Garrett says:
December 6, 2010 at 4:58 pmTim –
I am shaky on some details, that’s why i was reluctant to share, but here is the gist. He was in school to be a graphic designer. He told his faculty he wanted to do illustration. They laughed at him and said he sucked. He said screw you (might have dropped out, can’t remember) and taught himself to draw paint and illustrate, and has a remarkable career.
Tom Muller says:
December 8, 2010 at 10:05 amTim —
He’s never worked in advertising as such, but he does get commissioned quite regularly to do ad work.
Garrett —
Thats kind of the public version he puts in his books, but yeah, he basically ditched graphic design in order to become an artist.
Kevin says:
December 8, 2010 at 4:25 pmI just bought this book, it is awesome. It just draws you in. You don’t just look at the scene he creates, you feel it.
Jonathan says:
December 12, 2010 at 4:45 pmI have always liked his work, but much of WWR owes to the influence of the amazing Kow Yokoyama and the world of Machinen Krieger/ma.k/SF3D