(Bikini Girls of Shark Island, copyright Kevin Dart)

Mood…it has a great deal to do the perception of art. I had prepared a couple of different artists for Friday Favorites this week and I just was not feeling it, you know what I mean? It just wasn’t clicking. And then I headed over to the Drawn website to see that artist Kevin Dart and another artist I featured recently, Chris Turnham, had finally opened an online store and BAM! there it was: inspiration…mooooooood! I was really craving something fun and the work of Kevin Dart satisfies that craving.

I am not certain what label to affix to the art style of Kevin Dart. There is an animated quality to it similar to artists like Shane Glines and Bruce Timm layered with an illustration vibe that really makes it stand out. In addition, like Turnham’s art, there is a 60’s flair that I really enjoy. It wasn’t surprising to me then that one of Kevin Dart’s inspirations is 60’s and 70’s paperback fantasy and science fiction books. Dart is an artist whose work makes retro cool.

The above picture is inspired by the fantasy paperback illustration of the artisan series featured Frank Frazetta. Another artist that Kevin Dart professes love for is Robert McGinnis (are you catching all the ways this guy ties back in to things I have posted about? If not you should be clicking some of these links for reminders. It is no wonder Kevin Dart’s work thrills me! There’s a pretty strong kinship there). The work of McGinnis actually inspired the Bikini Girls image and I can see the influence in the image below eventhough this piece is actually Dart’s interpretation of an old Tanith Lee fantasy book, seen here (scroll down).

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In reading his site I learned of Kevin Dart’s affection for Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Star Wars, and once I saw a picture of his work studio I actually got twitterpated…I think I developed an instantaneous geek/man-crush on the guy!!!

Kevin Dart has a wonderful sense of design and I really like the color palette he uses for his work.

(Work inspired by the novel Eragon)

He is another one of those artists who can use very little color to great effect.

(Work inspired by Lucy Liu)

Kevin Dart also has work on his site that looks to be the start of some marvelous children’s illustration which I hope means that he has a book of some sort in the works.

(click picture for larger image)

Kevin Dart’s work includes several fun, monster-movie inspired works in the gallery section of his site. Wow, I just love this stuff!

I strongly encourage you to check out all of Kevin Dart’s cool retro-inspired images on his site and on the online store site. The look of Kevin Dart’s site is so cool and really showcases his design talents. If you scroll down on the gallery page you can click on a link to the animated short Gertie Gutless that Dart worked on with Chris Turnhan and Bryan Koszoru. If you didn’t watch it when I linked to it on the Turnham post I recommend viewing it now. It is really entertaining. Kevin’s site also has some good tutorials on how he made some of his images.

I really enjoyed bringing Kevin Dart to your attention today. The many and varied ways that his art and interests coincide with my own likes and inspirations has me very, very excited about following his work. I will be checking out his blog on a regular basis.

Well another Friday Favorite has come and gone. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you’ll visit the site and the store, and I hope everyone has a great weekend. Spend time with your passions this weekend, I intend on doing the same.