JOHAN POTMA

It is not usually the main image or character that I find the most pleasing in these illustrations, it is everything else going on around it. There are always tiny little bits of detail or interesting things to find if you look properly, and the more you look at his work the more attached to it you become. Johan Potman always adds in charmng little details like the wings on the back of the monster in the first image that you dont see straight away but when you do notice these little subtleties then you begin to like the work more. Other nice bits such as the line drawing of mountains, the text, stamps and found materials make the image more pleasing. On first inspection of these images they appear to be averagely drawn, slightly weird illustrations (which would have appealed to me a few years ago) but when you spend longer looking at these images and you notice little sketches or bit of text that the artist has put in the background, or little layers of texture or secret shapes drawn in and it adds a whole other level to the illustration. This work has something cute about it, something weird, something interesting, and the guy knows how to use different surfaces and textures. This is the kind of work that you might not like the first time you see it, but you will like some of the things you find when you look closer.