Chris Ware

Chris Ware is a notable American comic book artist who is perhaps well know for his affiliation with the ACME Novelty Library cartoon company as well as his own series of graphic novels. Interestingly, Ware is not your typical cartoonist in the sense that his subject matter is quite dark and covers matters including mental health and negative elements within today's society.

An example of Ware's precise work, which
graced the cover of The New Yorker.

Resembling work that would have been popular and 'current' at the start of the 20th Century, Ware's designs comprise of meticulous detail (for both typography and general illustration) and influential components from the 'Rag Time era' such as classic cut out toy designs, music sheet designs and classic newspaper cartoonist-style illustrations.

All of Ware's precise and immaculately drafted work is done by hand with ink, although sometimes appearing to be at first glance digitally created. Using a range of geometric tools such as T-squares and rulers, Chris only uses digital elements into his work for the purpose of adding colour, nothing else whatsoever.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Ware's work, finding his attention to detail and meticulousness absolutely out of this world. The way in which he crafts an image or design is an art form in itself, with an unimaginable amount of time consuming geometric-based formatting involved. I myself can never see myself working in such a close-knit way due to being quite an "urgent" person, however I have total respect for artists and designers, like Ware, who do.

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