Today we celebrate the art of rodolforever, a Mexican illustrator and graphic designer who developed a passion for comic books and superhero movies – and it shows!
Robot 1 by rodolforever, 2010
Here is a short selection of his posters and illustrations embracing Art Deco and Ancient Greek mythology, Expressionist movies and Conan Doyle, vamipres and robots.
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Dieselpunk Encyclopedia is happy to present: Tim Huhn and his Art Deco Series.
On the Just Looking Gallery website there is a short info about the artist:
After graduating from the prestigious California College of Arts and Crafts with a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts and Illustration Huhn worked as a commercial illustrator for companies such as Disney, Universal Studios, Sony & Mattel. After leaving Los Angeles and the commercial world of art, Huhn began to develop a body of fine art while living on the Central Coast of California. Huhn’s experience as an illustrator has enabled him to work in a number of mediums and styles including photorealism and art deco.
Dawn of a New Age by Tim Huhn
We can add something:Tim Huhn’s artwork bears more than a passing resemblance to the famous WPA murals. It’s fun to see a modern artist who, just like his idealistic forerunners in 1930s, is not afraid of figurative art. An artist whose creations are full of positive spirit.
These days, many good Dieselpunks think about purchasing a pocket watch. Stylish accessory as it is, such watch gives some reasons for a doubt: isn’t it too old-fashioned? Too steampunk-y? Too far away from the Interbellum aesthetics?
OK, the Diesel Era legacy is very diverse. Most pocket watches offered today are loosely based on the so-called “classic” examples, Victorian or Edwardian or even 18th century timepieces. But a closer look at the actual watches made between the two world wars reveals that this useful device can be ultra-thin, ultra-modern and ultra-sophisticated. It can be digital, you know – in a Dieselpunk sense of the word. Here is a small gallery to help you believe in the watchmakers’ genius. Probably it will also help you to make your choice.
Ulysse Nardin Watch with 10 Complications. 1936
Old-fashioned, you say? Just old-fashioned enough to match your pinstripe suit or military-style outfit.
The world will never be the same.
Why?
The answer is simple: there’s a new book, just out of print, 200 pages capable of changing your world forever. You probably thought that Dieselpunk is about bizarre machinery, heroic aviators and cynical private detectives, movie divas and pretty flapper girls, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne aesthetics… But it’s much more than this.
Stefan Prohaczka, the author, calls himself a “diesel powered artist”. We believe it is an understatement: a man responsible for a score of Dieselpunk masterpieces should be called a pillar of the genre. Three years ago he joined the Diesel crowd and since then contributed a lot to various projects, from Dieselpunks Network to our Encyclopedia (see the emblem). After a salvo of pictorial series, covers and stand-alone posters here comes a ‘black box’ containing not only familiar images but also some information – finally deciphered.
OK, now we know when the Diesel Era starts – on November 12, 1918, right after the Armistice. The date is agreed, so let us prepare for the International Dieselpunk Day!
But the date doesn’t mean we cannot look into earlier period for inspiration and information. Here is a gallery – the first in a row of three or four, – inspired by various discussions on dieselpunks.org. With (almost) no weapons, automobiles and aircraft. Just some useful devices and a touch of style.
If 1900s and 1910s are claimed by Steampunk, Dieselpunk can also lay a claim. Actually, it is possible to build a 100 per cent dieselpunk setting from technologies and artifacts available before 1920 or even 1914. First of all, diesel engine is here since 1897.
A perfect example of the stationary diesel engine built in 1915 in Graz, Austria-Hungary. We have to wait until 1923 when a diesel will be put in a truck but the first diesel motor vessels were commissioned in 1903 in Russia and France, and only a year later the French Navy had its first diesel submarine. By the way, do you know what was the first ocean-going surface ship fitted with a diesel?
How do you like your dieselpunk – brutal, greasy and all-riveted or sleek, polished and shiny? No matter. Most probably, it will be served streamlined. Beautiful curves, shaped in wind tunnel, go well with any device of your choice – from express train to desktop radio.
1934 Chrysler Airflow and Union Pacific M-10000 'City of Salina' train
This picture was taken in 1934. First US-designed streamline passenger car and one of the first streamline articulated trains together. Both were inspired by aeronautical technologies. First and foremost, by airships – what could be more streamlined?
In 2007, a series of black & white images was presented to the members of LiveJournal Dieselpunk community. The author, Vladimir Ozerny, explained that most of the artwork was created long before he had been exposed to dieselpunk – or dieselpunk had been exposed to him.
Vladimir Ozerny. Half Self-Portrait
His pictures, rough and expressive, looked amateurish and even primitive when put together with paintings and graphics of Keith Thompson or Dusso. His comments were simplicity itself. But behind this deceptive image was a man of the world inspired by Futurism and Vorticism, Art Deco and revolutionary posters. A man in love with aviation, automobiles and skyscrapers. A visionary who didn’t care much about public opinion.
Vladimir Ozerny. Time to Move
On January 31, 2012, Vladimir had a stroke. And died. He was 49 years old. Let his memory be blessed.
Here’s a small gallery of Vladimir Ozerny’s drawings and compositions, taken from his blog.
Vladimir Ozerny. Air Parade
When we talk dieselpunk, ‘megalomania’ doesn’t sound like an obscenity or a diagnosis. The genre is inspired by the Interbellum aesthetics, and no one can argue that between two world wars size did matter, the bigger the better. In this gallery there are no abandoned projects and paper designs. Only real giants.
Let us begin with an undisputed dieselpunk icon, the airship. Not just a dirigible but a flying aircraft carrier:
Flying aircraft carrier (PopMech, May 1942)
The concept was already obsolete when this picture was published but carrier airships existed a few years before – see USS Macon and Akron.
Another nice try to increase the operating range of piston-engine aircraft: the Mayo project:
Short S20 Mayo 'Mercury' & Short Empire 'Maia' flying boat
The Short Empire Class S.21 Maia was not the largest flying boat of the period – but large and powerful enough to carry a four-engine floatplane.
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