I react several ways to art. It usually goes like this. At the lowest scale I think 'Good for them, they're trying to do art.' Stick figures and such fit here. In increasing level of skill, it goes: 'Ow, that's not good at all' 'Someone needs to work on their skills' 'Eh, not bad.' 'Huh, this has possibilities.' 'Very nice' and 'Dammit, that just makes me angry. ANGRY!'
Here are the artists who make me jealous and frustrated, even as I admire their work.
Moebius - Ah Moebius...also known as Jean Giraud. Probably my favorite artist. His work is incredibly imaginative, very well drawn with a clean, fluid line that makes even a scribble of his something to admire. He's mostly known as a comic book artist, though he's done a lot of design work for various movies. Ever since I discovered him, I've had his work up on my walls, and even after all these years, I love him to death.
Imperial Boy - 帝 国 少 年 - Here's an artist I only found out about recently. I first saw his stuff in a manga anthology called 'Robot', and thank goodness his name (well, nickname) was in English. Because of that I was able to find his website...and his stuff is simply amazing. Mostly his art is cityscapes, though I really have to admire how he spends times designing even the smallest pieces of his environments. His main page doesn't show a whole lot of his stuff, but I was able to find this page...and it's full of artistic goodness.
Bill Sienkiewicz - Ah, Sienkiewicz. If Moebius isn't my favorite artist, it's Sienkiewicz. Just thinking about him makes me sad. I first discovered him when he was doing the art for New Mutants. He was supposed to have done stuff before that, but New Mutants is where he really shined. His work was...frantic, full of energy, full of fire, yet showed an incredibly strong artistic foundation. His stuff didn't look like the current art at the time; in some ways it owed a lot more to earlier illustrators. And that's just his black and white work. His paintings were very experimental, with angular outlines, forced perspective, and collage elements that several artists at the time tried to copy, but no one was able to capture his look.
He went on to do a lot of great stuff, especially 'Elektra: Assassin' with Frank Miller and his own mini-series, Stray Toasters. Then... he pretty much disappeared. And just when he was about to do something that I think could have been one of the best comics ever made. It was a series called 'Big Numbers', and was written by Alan Moore. Some people say Sienkiewicz got too overwelmed by Moore's notoriously long and detailed panel descriptions, but I've read some things that indicate it's more complicated than that. Still...it breaks my heart to think of what could have been, and I miss seeing his artwork in comics. He still does things from time to time, but honestly it doesn't seem his heart's in it.
And when I have more time, you'll learn about:
Dave McKean
Seth
David Mazzucelli
Range Murata
Naohisa Inoue
Lebbeus Woods
