Marcin Jakubowski: Otherworldly Moods

Marcin Jakubowski, Purge: World Spoiler Commander, January 2010, Photoshop Image

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Marcin Jakubowski, A hunger after a thousand year nap , March 2009, Photoshop Image

Marcin Jakubowski is a self taught graphic artist who might just be my favorite sci-fi/fantasy artist of  the moment (I'm very fickle when it comes to artists in general, and so I can seldom claim to have a favorite for long). Marcin started thinking about digital art in the early 90's, however, his career as an artist didn't begin until 2002. He has progressed to his current level of mastery of the digital medium through practice and networking with other digital artists. He currently resides in Poland and does work as a concept artist and illustrator for CG animations,  TV shows and commercials.While normally I have a hard time appreciating commercial art I can definitely feel Jakubowski's is inspired by what he does regardless of whether it is his personal work, or commissioned art for a company.

I think Marcin sums up his overall aesthetic well in his about me section, "My works are created in many styles and genre, but the most important thing for me is always the mood and atmosphere". As you can see above, Jakubowski's work evokes immediate and powerful emotions, both positive and negative through his uniform sense of style for each piece. Besides the obviously surreal content, I feel that each scene's cohesive form and palette adds to the wonderful other-worldliness of his work. Throughout many of Marcin's illustrations lurk giant, looming reminders of mankind's frightening ingenuity, and the potential consequences of our rampant progress.

Marcin Jakubowski, Titanomachy: fall of the Hyperion, January 2009, Photoshop Image

In Marcin's other-worlds, I see both the fear and awe that I have for our potential as a human species. In the images Marcin presents me, often with mankind dwarfed by the creations of their own device, I am reminded that even today we are ants playing with guns. The strength of Jakubowski's work is his strong and uniform sense of imagery. I imagine he could stylize a photograph of a kitten in a purple sweater playing with a ball of yarn to be terrifying, or mysterious, or whatever else he wanted you to feel through style alone. That said, I would love to see this artist take a break from drawing commercial art for a year or two, I sometimes feel that the imagery of the work overshadows the content. While this is perfect for selling products, I have seen that he has potential to generate images that are just as deep intellectually as they are visually moving and I would like to see more.