David alvarez

When working in black and white instead of a muted color palette, Mexico-based artist David Alvarez (previously) manages to still create illustrations rich in texture and contrast. Layers of graphite and charcoal on white and cream colored paper form complex shadows. Highlights emerge from the negative space and become the light on stone walls, on faces, and on glowing wings and shiny armor. The depictions of creatures from myth and fantasy are personal projects from Alvarez’s notebook that…

David's soft illustrations are out of this world—literally. He is fascinated by working with shadows and light...

David Álvarez produces soft illustrations that seem to glow despite their often limited color palette of black and white. The graphite scenes depict animals either interacting with or as humans, often donning elaborate garments while engaged in activities such as dancing or reading books. “I always found it amazing how artists worked in the earlier days, I think of the technological limitations and how it took talent, skill, and patience to develop works of great complexity,” Álvarez told…

Continually fascinated by the potential of the human figure, Mexico-based artist David Álvarez (previously) illustrates richly textured scenes with a dose of fantasy and surrealism: a bird’s perch transfixes a character who’s sprouted a branch nose, a man writhes on the ground as he grows from a gnarled stump, and a Cheshire cat lifts a blanket to unveil a moon hidden beneath. Underlying many of his works is “the expressive force and the gesture of the human body,” Álvarez tells Colossal…

David Álvarez produces soft illustrations that seem to glow despite their often limited color palette of black and white. The graphite scenes depict animals either interacting with or as humans, often donning elaborate garments while engaged in activities such as dancing or reading books. “I always found it amazing how artists worked in the earlier days, I think of the technological limitations and how it took talent, skill, and patience to develop works of great complexity,” Álvarez told…

Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated adaption of the classic Broadway musical West Side Story is slated to hit theaters on December 18, 2020.

Illustrator David Álvarez (previously) is fascinated by working with shadows and light, finding black and white drawings to be one of his favorite ways to solve the images he conjures in his head. His most recent series, I Dreamed I Was the Night, follows a dark figure as it stalks, sits, and sleeps throughout the countryside. The night-cloaked being is dotted with twinkling stars, and in one particular illustration pulls a bright moon away from his face like a mask. More

When working in black and white instead of a muted color palette, Mexico-based artist David Alvarez (previously) manages to still create illustrations rich in texture and contrast. Layers of graphite and charcoal on white and cream colored paper form complex shadows. Highlights emerge from the negative space and become the light on stone walls, on faces, and on glowing wings and shiny armor. The depictions of creatures from myth and fantasy are personal projects from Alvarez’s notebook that…