Ashley Wood: Part Comics Artist Part Machine

Are you looking for inspiration? Do you want to see some amazing art? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Last week I spoke about one of my favourite graphic designers Tom Muller This week I’ll be talking about an awesome comics artist whose worked side by side with Tom Muller. His name is Ashley Wood. Now, this guy is no average JOE, his style resembles more of a contemporary artist as opposed to a comics artist. None the less his work is original and in a league of its own. Everything he puts his hands on turns into a work of art. The moment you pick up one of Ashley Wood’s books you’ll be instantly addicted and will want to own everything he’s done. Now, before I start talking about his work let me bring you up-to-date on who exactly Ashley Wood is:

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wood

Ashley Wood (born 1971) is an Australian comic book artist and illustrator who is well known for his cover art, concept design and his work as an art director.

Wood generally works in mixed media, often combining oil painting with digital art making. Ashley Wood is an award winning illustrator who worked for many years in both the U.K. and international comic book worlds (working on characters such as the British icon Judge Dredd), before breaking into the U.S. market where he worked for such companies as Marvel and DC. Wood later worked for Image creating graphic novels and cover art for the various Spawn properties of Todd McFarlane. More recently, he has been pursuing projects with IDW Publishing.

The best way to describe Ashley’s work is expressionistic, it’s as almost as if he took a chapter from Van Gogh’s book and combined it with his own style. In most of his pieces you’re able to see the thick brush strokes and the heavy oil paint applied to his canvases. This is usually in combination with dynamic line and ink work. He plays around with different subject matter that range from military robots to nude females in his popbot series. He exaggerates, distorts, and manipulates his forms to create contrast. His layout skills are phenomenal, sometimes he utilizes the full working space while other times his subject matter is clustered and strategically placed to create intrigue and focus through his negative space.

He has expertise in working with different mixed media, tools and digital software. He’s not only skillful with a brush, give the man a black felt tip marker and watch him draw you a masterpiece. Check out the video below to see what exactly I’m talking about:

The great thing about Ashley Wood is that he’s a machine, he’s like a one man factory producing quality work at an amazing pace. His works includes comic books, art books, sculptures/toys, and many more projects inside and outside of the comics industry.

For an extensive list of works done by Ashley Wood visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wood

Also, check out this crazy trailer he did for the Metal Gear Solid digital comic:

As an artist his style keeps on evolving. He keeps on experimenting and pushing the envelope and involving himself with different projects in different industries. In the last few years Ashley Wood developed a toy company called “threeA Toys”. I’m not talking about old school He-man figures or Fisher Price toys here, No, not-at-all. His toys can’t even be considered toys, they are more along the lines of fine-detailed sculptures that take on realistic representations of the work in his books.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Ashley Wood’s work visit his sites at: http://ashleybambaland.blogspot.com/  and http://ashleywoodartist.com/  or check out his toy site at: http://www.threeaonline.com/

If you’re interested in purchasing some books by Ashley Wood, they’re available through Amazon:

About the author

Philip Defina wrote 62 articles on this blog.

Philip Defina is the Art Director and co-founder of Septagon Studios Inc. (est. 2003) and Work In Comics (est. 2009) He is a design junkie with a passion for contemporary and graphic arts, photography, and architecture. He`s also a contributing writer for the Septagon Comic Blog with articles that focus on inspiration, art, and productivity. He studied Graphic Design and Advertising Design and quickly became fond of the word KERN.

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