Kinuko Y. Craft takes inspiration from many strata of the history of art and weaves them together into her own intricate and varied images of fantasy worlds; and isn’t afraid to let the threads keep their connection to the original sources of inspiration.
Looking through a gallery of her work, you’ll find a fascinating display of her interest in the styles and techniques of the Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolists, Da Vinci and other Renaissance painters, Baroque portraits, the Orientalists, 19th Century Academics and some of the great Golden Age illustrators who took inspiration in many of the same sources.
At times she will playfully create a homage to a particular artist or period style, at other times she can fascinatingly intertwine several seemingly disparate sources into an uncanny whole (Henri Roussau and Titian in the same image for example).
Craft is well known as a fantasy oriented illustrator and her clients include National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, The New York Times, and Atlantic Monthly in addition to numerous publishers and commercial accounts. She has received multiple Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators, and several Chesley Awards.
Craft has transitioned away from the demands of editorial illustration and now concentrates on her own themes, and has a successful line of reproductions and art prints that have a wide following. I believe she also continues to work on a line of children’s books in which classic fairy tales like Cinderella, King Midas and Sleeping Beauty are retold.
Her approach varies from elaborate panoramas on which she has lavished intricate detail, to quiet and emotionally focused images of single subjects, with colors alternately subdued or intense.
The image gallery on her site is unfortunately not as extensive as you might like, but it is still a fascinating stroll through not only her own fertile imagination, but also through her fascinations with great artists of the past.
I have always enjoyed seeing Crafts’ work and all the detail she somehow puts into her art; and I really appreciated the presentation she gave at the San Diego Comic-Con on the artist’s panel when I attended a couple of years ago.
Interestingly enough, her name came up in an art discussion over on ConceptArt the other day when a student asked about whether or not professional artists still go to life drawing… One of the responses (”Penumbra”) was: “A friend of mine(her name is Kuniko Craft) who I believe has 40 or 50 years of solid work behind her goes to figure drawing classes once a week. And her work is still improving.”
I’m a newbie to serious art; love it but don’t have the skill. Anyway, this is my first exposure to Kinuko Craft; very intriguing from what I’ve seen and read so far. Please let me know where I can view more of her artworks. Thanks.
I love Kinuko Craft’s paintings. Looking at her work makes me feel like I live in the neoclassical or baroque era, and “Old” Masters are still very much alive.