About me

Since childhood I found the most joy in drawing, painting and doing crafts. In primary school I got into a small group that has been selected for an opportunity to enrol into an art school, learning the basics of fine art, art history, painting and ceramics. I achieved a couple of awards in both ceramics and drawing.

In my teenage years I had to choose between continuing learning art and possibly follow an uncertain path, or choosing information technology which brought a lot of opportunites and something I could build my life on. Although took breaks for a couple of months to focus on my studies, I never quitted taking out my pencils and pens to sketch ideas.

As I got involved into IT in deeper levels, I attempted binding both areas in the form of learning Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which came very handy. In the 2000s I picked up designing branding, websites and flyers both in work and for friends and family.

Later on I got involved into all sorts of creative projects: illustrating a book cover, creating design for a guitar pick making company, making stage costume for a heavy metal band, and designing tattoos for friends to name a couple. 


Style

Style-wise I don't seem to fit into any particular classic category. I love trying different ideas, different tools and instruments to achieve balance that is visually appealing. I like smuggling unusual patterns, a bit of weirdness and sometimes eerie atmosphere into my works.

I assume the phase when kids are drawing eyes everywhere sticked with me for a bit longer, as I love portraying emotions, feelings and something otherwordly with putting an eye here and there on my works.

Besides creating faces and characters, I like drawing sections like stained glass, geometric forms and dividing my subject into smaller parts to play with the details.


Inspiration

My best friend recently asked a question that actually no one asked before: what inspires you? 

Well. Whatever I find beauty and uniqueness in. As I love art history, I like the world of ancient Greek and Roman statues, medieval codex illustrations and paintings, and also a big fan of cubism and surrealism. To mention a couple of masters: I adore the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Andrea Mantegna, Caravaggio, Lonardo da Vinci, Vasilij Kandinskij, Salvador Dalí, and Zdzisław Beksiński.


The Brand

Although I had many ideas during the years for a nickname I can use just to have something to showcase my works under, I decided that Material Darkness Art will be the final one, and I started to use it on both DeviantArt and Instagram in 2017. The logo consists of a calligraphic MD ambigram - just to add an extra twist ;) -, a Material Darkness Art title and a 100% Human Art slogan.


Goal

I came up with the idea of selling prints, stickers, t-shirts and other products with my designs a bit late, in the time of algorythms and the super fast flourishing era of artificial intelligence. Mostly because of the negative changes on the classic social media platforms I said goodbye to my Instagram, Facebook accounts and DeviantArt profile, and started to build a portfolio on non-centralised platforms like Pixelfed and Bluesky.

With my works I want to create something that people find enjoyable, entertaining, inspiring, maybe a food for thought. Something unique that they don't find anywhere else, images which can't be labelled. Or at least can't be labelled easily.

Tools

I don't get any commission on saying this, but these are my favourite tools to work with:

  • Stabilo Othello 282 series pencils
  • Faber-Castell dry and oil pastels
  • Uni Pin Fine Line pens
  • Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brushes
  • Van Gogh Watercolour Pigments
  • Affinity Photo
  • Affinity Designer
  • Inkscape
  • Krita
  • XP-Pen Deco 1 V2
  • Onyx Boox Note
  • iPad with Apple Pencil
  • Procreate

Ethos

I believe that any type of visual or handmade craft born through emotions, feelings, and an internal conversation based on human experience, so I don't use any automation or AI in my works, even my digital paintings are made with sweaty digital brush strokes. With all little inaccuracies and mistakes, I think the best anyone can do is to remain human.

Contact

I am open for commissions. Please contact me via this website, with clicking on the Contact menu on the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can message me on Pixelfed or Bluesky.

If you want to support 100% human art, please visit my Ko-fi page.


Thank you for reading, and enjoy browsing my site :)