Filed under: art | Tags: digital art, fantasy noir, henning ludvigsen, review
Henning Ludvigsen is a Norwegian artist who mostly does digital work, and in recent years he’s become one of my personal favorite artists, both conceptually and technically.
Professionally, a lot of his work is for computer game development or trading cards, but that hasn’t stopped him from having some really great personal pieces. I really enjoy fantasy pieces, and while I completely forget how I first found this artist, I always check back to his website, located at http://www.henningludvigsen.com, whenever I’m looking for inspiration for a fantasy character, or if I’m just in the mood to look at some art and don’t feel like wading through the kinds of pieces that deviantART tends to offer.
Of course, as it turns out, Henning has a dA account, which has some art that hasn’t made it to his main website. One of my favorite pieces is just such a work of art:
I think I love this work, which by the way is called Having a Break, so much because it reminds me of some of my favorite fantasy noir characters. For instance, Harry Dresden, Garrett and Vlad Taltos, who I can certainly imagine sitting in their office after a tough case with an empty bottle of booze and a cigar without even bothering to clean up the latest monster they’ve had to dispatch with a combination of ingenuity, guts and willpower. Especially since this picture is appropriately old-fashioned, what with that awesome phone.
The other reason I love Henning’s art is because it’s very rarely idealized. He draws old women, men with body hair and a bit of fat, guys with lines on their faces, ill-fitting clothes, and all.
This is just one example of his work. You should go check out more – and look at the full-sized versions!
