Tattoo

Patrick Nagel has been an inspiration to me ever since I saw his work for the very first time. I remember seeing his work displayed everywhere during the late 80's. It wasn't until I was much older that I found out who he was and why everybody seemed to be trying to imitate his style. He illustrated the pages of Playboy for many years and he also made an album cover for Duran Duran. Even in the Spider-Man comic book you could find a homage to him, Peter Parker had an original Nagel in his living room that MJ had given him as a gift. It would seem that every beauty salon would have his prints hanging on their walls as well. He painted and screen printed the most beautiful faces of the day back then, top models and celebrities would appear as his models.

He had a very particular style, a blend between Art Deco and the simplicity of the Japanese wood prints. Although his work seemed clean, simple and very stylized there was a lot of energy coming through the canvas and screen prints. The amount of colors used in every piece would be limited and yet he knew how to find a perfect way to bring life to his work.

My illustration didn't start out as a Nagel drawing, actually, it wasn't until I finished that I realized that it reminded me of his work. I don't think it looks very 80's though, especially with the combination of the tribal tat and the Angry Teddy Bear street design. I think you can find very similar things today all over the place and maybe a big portion of all the material out there was influenced by Nagel.