Drawn Together
Juan Solon
Big black lines dominate Juan Carlos Solon’s illustrations—huge jagged marks carved onto the paper conveying aggression and motion. “I’ve always been a huge fan of black line work and shapes, so this was my next step in exploring what I can do with black,” he says. “Color is a huge thing for me, as well. I like using very organic bright and soft colors to help balance the hard edges I use.”
Solon is a weekly illustrator for the Financial Post, who cites well-respected illustrators such as Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, Charlie Harper, Joseph Clement Coll, and Gustave Dore as his influences, as well as vintage French propaganda posters, etchings, and lithographs.
Still, there is something very distinctly comic-book-like about Solon’s work, and with good reason. “My love of art started when I was a little kid, collecting and obsessing over Marvel cards and always admiring the artwork. My evolution as an artist is all interrelated. From a Monet painting I tried copying as a child, to the Marvel cards I so loved, to now. There’s always a little something in all of those in the illustrations I create to this day.”
Maybe that’s why there’s an awesome Brock Lesnar illustration that dominates his front page.
–Cliff Sawit
