You may remember our popular post last year about the gorgeous crochet portraits of Jo Hamilton. Well the artist decided to document the process of creation via stop motion animation. Watch as an abstract tangle of yarn gets transformed into a portrait through the power of 300 photographs and a lot of patience!

“This is a stop motion video I made to document my process of crocheting one of my larger than life portraits in yarn from start to finish. In my work I use a traditional basic crochet technique taught to me at an early age by my Gran. I work one knot at a time, from the inside out, row by row. In making the crochet portraits I always begin in the middle with the eyes and work out from there until the piece is completed. I work directly from photographs, using no sketches, graphs or computer imaging. Each piece is handmade, labor-intensive, instinctively composed. Nothing is planned ahead; I make it up as I go along. I spend a lot of time simply looking, unraveling, and reworking until I get it right. To make this video I photographed the work after each new yarn color or two was added, and edited the photos into a sequence. This 30 second sequence contains over 300 photos of the work in progress. The portrait is of my dear friend Arthur Cheesman, who is sadly no longer with us.”

The world of child mafias, gooey relatable beasts, funky leathery space dudes, soft bodies, diseased bodies, and crusty bodies, is the world of DeForge. Toronto-based Michael DeForge is running amuck in the independent comic’s scene. He is consistently putting out top-notch work executed in his very distinct style, a style that allows for plenty of room for experimentation while still being immediately recognizable as the “DeForge touch”. At age 24, with just a few years solidly devoted to comics, it’s amazing to imagine what he will achieve in his lifetime. On top of that, he does prop and effects for the wonderful Cartoon Network series Adventure Time. He has the drive. He has the look. He has it all. He is King Trash.

OK. Let’s start with the Deforge physical specs.

I think I’m 5″8? I’m not really sure. I’m probably like 160 or 170 pounds, but I don’t own a scale. I’m 24, my eyes are brown, I have black hair.

Alright, cool…so how’s that Adventure Time job?…character design right?

Mostly prop and effects design, but sometimes characters and other stuff. It’s awesome. I really like working for cartoonists. I work with Andy Ristaino, and he’s really patient with me and all of my screw-ups.

(from Fred Seibert’s Flickr)

Yea, that sounds really rad…tell me about the toronto comics scene, seems really strong.

Yeah, we have a nice group of cartoonists here. I see the Wowee Zonk group around a lot (Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, Chris Kuzma,) Zach Worton, Johnny Martz, Steve Wolfhard, and a few others. It’s nice that the Beguiling is here, since they’re really supportive of everyone and are the best comics store in the world.

(cover by Patrick Kyle)

Solid group… have you ever not drawn in that very distinct way you draw, it feels like you were born to draw like that way without any hesitation?

I think I purposely try to switch up my style a bit. I think it still always reads as something I’ve done, but something like Incinerator was drawn really differently from the way I went about, say, Lose #2. I like working on multiple projects that are all different from each other. If something is really densely gridded, I’ll want to move onto something airier right after – or if I’m working in black and white for a while, I like having the option of switching to color for something like Ant Comic.

Yea, makes sense…how many comics you got going right now?

Right now, my main projects are Lose #4, Kid Mafia #3 and Ant Comic. I also have some smaller stuff on the side, like my monthly strips and some mini-comics and work I’ve promised to anthologies.

Cool…so how is that 50 cent kid mafia experiment going?…I’m curious about that not so distant future of comics.

It’s going well! Paypal takes 30 cents of every transaction, but I think it at least subsidized the shipping cost of the last batch of minis I sent out. I’m always really late assembling my minis and sending them to stores, so I thought this might be a more efficient way of getting the comic out there for now.

Yea, and you embrace the digital world pretty fully right?…you’re a Cintiq man?

Yeah, I’m scanning my pencils and inking them with my tablet, for the most part. I’ve been working this way a while. If the pages are smaller, sometimes I can lay them out digitally too.

So I’m assuming that you as a comic artist grew naturally out of a lifetime of drawing…when did that happen exactly?

I’ve always been interested in drawing comics, but didn’t really commit to it until a few years ago, before then I was still drawing and did the occasional comic, but was more focused on working as an illustrator and I was pretty directionless with all of it. Like, I knew I wanted to write jokes, and I knew I wanted to draw, but I didn’t know how to put those things together yet. I had a lousy work ethic, too. I’d only draw whenever I “felt like it,” so when I did work on comics I wasn’t really putting my all into it. Anyway, I ended up having a year where I went through a lot of lousy stuff in my personal life, and also realized that I hated all my crappy artwork up until then, and decided to actually double down and try to take drawing comics seriously.

I get the feeling you love science, all the microscopic and interior views of life in your work…this right?

I think I love fake science. I like making things up, and diagrammatic drawings, but I’m actually a big dummy with those things, and lately I intentionally try to ignore information I hear or read about insects, since I don’t want too many actual “facts” to influence Ant Comic.

(for more visit What Things Do)

You got any pets?

I don’t!

Ok…do you have any interest in androgyny? That one comic in Thickness #2, and some of your interests on your Tumblr hint towards that…certain rock stars ‘n such.

I think it shows up in my work – definitely in some of my character designs. I’m not sure if it’s androgyny specifically that I’m interested in, but I’ve drawn comics focused on identity and ornamentation and body transformation, and gender definitely becomes a part of that.

Right on…any comic recommendations to the folks out there?

I really like The End of the Fucking World by Chuck Forsman right now. it is currently my favorite ongoing comic. Lately I’ve also been liking comics by Andy Burkholder, Katie Skelly, Alex Schubert, Patrick Kyle, Noel Freibert, Jane Mai, Edie Fake and Michael Comeau.

Anything you dieing to say right now?…or did we cover most of the Deforge?

Hahaha! Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything like burning inside of me to say!

Cool, that’s that then. THANKS MAN!

Sweet! Sounds good, dude!

Thanks for your time, I appreciate the patience.

Not at all! That was cool, it was nice talking to you!

CF, offspring of Fort Thunder, and Providence-based artist/musician has consistently created some of the best comics in the underground genre. His work in undeniably his own, and although it is often duplicated, his work remains distinguished from the rest. The delicacy and humor of his masterwork, POWR MASTRS (1,2,3), puts him easily in my top 10 for contemporary comic artists. He blogs and twits, he is a Picturebox regular, and he performs under the moniker Kites while he blasts out sonic booms. He is a gem.

Jean-François Lepage’s fashion photography has a mysteriously surreal feel that you don’t usually find in fashion photographs. With complex non-traditional sets, makeup that is more often seen in horror films, and hand drawn line drawings directly on the photos surface, Lepage creates a world that lies at the intersection of art, film stills, theater, and fashion. (via bumbumbum)

Australian illustrator Stuart McLachlan works in a variety of styles but his cut paper pieces for fashion and editorial are the most powerful.  These intricate hand made pieces have been used extensively on the fashion runway and have been published in Vogue, Karen magazine, on book covers, posters, editorial and commissioned art.

“Paper is a medium without boundaries, it can be molded, formed and cut into almost any form imaginable, I endeavour to push its physical boundaries and create imagery and art that is not expected from such a delicate structured material. The goal of art is to surprise and excite, to bring something new to the table.

Art is our universal language, one which all of us relate to in one way or another, be that sculpture, painting, film, music or even sport. The practice of ‘hand making’ my work is integral to what I do as I believe this is what fascinates people, they love rediscovering that it is still possible to create arresting objects and images by hand, and I get great joy from the challenge of bringing them to life.”

Recent Manchester Metropolitan University  graduate Abbey Watkins mixes detailed pencil drawing with just a touch of digital coloring to create hip and sexy fashion illustrations with a surreal and occult twist. (via pulmoniare)

As a result of Moebius‘ recent death, the interent has exploded with the man’s masterful works, and surely the sci-fi and art community is in need of great talents to fill this void. While not at Moebius’ level (which seems nearly unattainable), Kilian Eng is nonetheless incredibly imaginative and prolific, and it is certainly possible that he may one day too become a master of his own sort. He brings his own brand of funkiness to these far-off worlds, and each image holds either countless narrative avenues, or mind-clearing abstract pleasures. The future, his future, his futuristic future, is a bright and promising one (a past interview and a world of goods and greats).

Saga Sig is an Icelandic photographer with a colorful, quirky, and fantastically narrative vision. Though, surprisingly, still a student of  fashion photography in London, Sig’s delightful photos have already been sought out by major commercial clients like Topshop, as well as trendsetting publications like Dazed & Confused and I-D. You can read up more on Sig’s fashion fairytales through her blog, The Neverending Story.