Women in Art – Illustrations, Part 1

Every artist sees the world differently and depicts his special and unique vision in all of the artwork he creates. This collection of contemporary artists’ illustrations demonstrate this through the photography, photomanipulation, and illustration of women. Here we present the illustrations of 13 artists and designers. You won’t see the same approach twice. Be unique and enjoy the world you help create!

Tony Ariwan

Website: www.area105.com

Tony Ariwan

Tony Ariwan

Tony Ariwan

Tony Ariwan

Tony Ariwan

Geliografic


Website: www.geliografic.com

Geliografic

Geliografic

Geliografic

Aeiko

Website: www.supercombo.co.uk

Aeiko

Aeiko

Aeiko

Cristiano Siquiera

Website: www.crisvector.com

Cristiano Siquiera

Cristiano Siquiera

Cristiano Siquiera

Adrian Knopik

Website: www.behance.net/RARRFC

Adrian Knopik

Adrian Knopik

Adrian Knopik

Lock Sin

Website: www.behance.net/iamLOCKSIN

Lock Sin

Lock Sin

Lock Sin

Alberto Seveso

Website: www.burdu976.com

Alberto Seveso

Alberto Seveso

Alberto Seveso

Adam Spizak

Website: www.spizak.com

Adam Spizak

Adam Spizak

Adam Spizak

ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn

Website: dieeis.wordpress.com

ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn

ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn

ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn

ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn

Raphael Vicenzi

Website: www.mydeadpony.com

Raphael Vicenzi

Raphael Vicenzi

Raphael Vicenzi

Yu Cheng Hong

Website: www.yuchenghong.com

Yu Cheng Hon

Yu Cheng Hon

Yu Cheng Hon

Radim Malinic

Website: www.brandnu.co.uk

Radim Malinic<

Radim Malinic<

Radim Malinic<

Alena Lavdovskaya

Website: www.lavdovskaya.com

Alena Lavdovskaya

Alena Lavdovskaya

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47 comments
  • When I saw the title “Women in Art,” I was hoping for a collection of female artists, instead of overly-sexualized women portrayed by male artists. Try at least introducing some normal-looking, clothed women with believable features, if you aren’t going to feature female artists.

  • wow this stuff is amazing,
    don’t listen to jennifer your work is great and you should continue with it.
    (she just wishes she had an once of your talent)

  • While I do like this art I also agree with Jennifer, where are the female artists? Or different representations of female beauty? We come in more than one flavor.

  • Thank you women for completely nullifying the work, and above all, the time and patience these artists put into their work, by effectively knocking down all of their hard work just because you feel the need to be an avid feminist online. If anything, it’s art like this you should be appreciating.

    Rather than being perturbed at the fact it’s conceptualizing beauty, maybe you should be more appreciative that you’re the sex that everyone idealizes.

    In general, enjoy the fact you’re part of the sex that EVERYONE associates with beauty. Men and women alike both when asked to think of beauty, they more often than not think of the female human race. That’s something that’s constantly overlooked by women, and should never be.

    Be proud of who you are, whether it works for you, or against you in your own opinion; because in another’s mind, it may be a completely different story.

  • I have to agree with Zain. He made very strong an valid points. But all things aside these are amazing works of art i was blown away i would most definitley purchase one of these to be printed and framed in mi casa

  • Zain:

    You MAY NOT tell anybody what they should or should not appreciate, or like, or dislike, or basically anything. You can have your opinions, and you can disagree with others, but you MAY NOT force down the opinions of others. Nor can you label people so quickly as “avid feminists online” simply because they voiced their thoughts on a public link.

    If I am interpreting correctly, no one who commented here is saying that these works are not visually stunning. But rather, the *collection* of art on this link shows a rather one-sided view of feminine beauty.

    Sexist son of a bitch.

  • Actually, I see a lot of repeated style here. And though I am sure the artists were expressing their view of the female form, nothing here that I see represents anything more than that. That alone does not make this set of pieces artistically interesting to me personally.

  • I think Jennifer missed the fact that at least 3 of the illustrators represented here are female, possibly more considering a few of these listed are studios and not individual artists.

    This is a nice collection of diverse styles. Thanks for posting them.

  • Zain:

    And your point is that everyone has to appreciate something in exactly the same way you do? That’s kinda close-minded… don’t ya think? kthnx

    And women aren’t globally idealized. Maybe in your little corner of the world, but maybe you should research some other cultures other than your own. It might be an eye opener. kthnx.

  • Condescending? Not in the least. I just don’t believe it’s ok for women to bash themselves for being idolized. I’m not saying that it’s ok, nor is it right, but that you should accept it, and admire your own beauty, and the fact that these artists above do as well.

  • jennifer wasn’t bashing anyone. she was saying that for an article labeled “women in art”, there should be more female artists, and more than one vision of women. there’s other ways to conceptualize beauty, and beauty in the feminine form; but this article focused on the commercially accepted representation of women. so where are the illustrations by women of something other than the 36-24-36 woman?

  • Really, can we all get over the stupidity of feminism and just enjoy art? Females are beautiful and they have better hair than guys and I would rather see them in art, so what? I think these pictures show beauty ant getting into issues of sexism instead of enjoying art is very shallow and a waste of time. Really!

    And really, does it matter if the artist is female or not? When you start worrying about that you are just a prick.

  • Lovely! What a fabulous collection of different styles — I also appreciate that there are links to the artist’s sites so I can see more. I really enjoy being able to look at different artist’s works — it can be so inspiring. And there is a wonderful variety of techniques and visions in this post — thanks so much!

    And as a woman (sorry, can’t resist) I have to say I have no issues with how the women are portrayed — I see each as an exploration of the individual artists’ thoughts and perceptions — of art, of women, of social issues etc. etc.

    That’s the wonderful thing about art — it breeds thought.

  • I’m female, and I don’t have flawless dimensions, but I don’t see any problem with the art represented here. :/ There are quite a few different perspectives shown here. And the title of this blog IS “Women in Art”–not “Pictures by Female Artists”.
    And yes, while it would have been interesting to include pictures of more types of women, it seems from the opening description that the focus here was meant to be on the different artistic and technical approaches many artists took to depict the same subject.
    If the subject had been “lilies” in stead of “women”, would people have started arguing because not every species of that flower was represented? Would you ignore the differences in each artist’s technique and approach because artists had depicted tiger lilies but not goldband lilies? Subject matter isn’t the only area in which one may find artistic variation.
    I’m personally attracted to only a few pieces on this page, but I can still admit to creativity in many of these artists’ works. An intriguing collection. 🙂

  • I think that Zain made a very valid point of view that I hadn’t considered before.
    I don’t think that anybody should be bashing anyone else who chose to comment on this website.
    All the art shown here is both beautiful and creative, not at all meant to offend women in any way.

    I can see if it showed women doing stereotypical things, one would have a reason to be upset.
    But it doesn’t. All these pictures do is show women as the beautiful creatures they are.

  • i think these are pretty cool pieces of art, and i dont really have a strong opinion either way on this whole argument. However i will like to say that not really anyone considers the countless pieces of classical art from the rennaisance portraying women as sexist, so why these? And i don’t believe that guys think that michaelangelo’s “David” (a statue of a naked dude) as sexist either. Everyone needs to relax about this, its just art.

  • your comments seem quite petty to me..hardly any of it is actualy about the art. in one of the artists pics i could see how some people could view it as sexist..the one from Aeiko, with the girl and the gun and ammo looks like a pin up to me personaly. but they are all very pretty. everyone should be free to say what they want and compiment or criticize the work as they please. but keep it about the art. not personal arguments… so I will start with this

    I like the ugly pretty work done by Adam Spizak I would not change the girl with the knife and the wave in the background for anything; its very stunning in a odd way. although i would like to see some type of pain in the one with the girl cutting her leg. she has tears but the face as more of a “oops you caught me” type look..

    the work by Yu Cheng Hong is very good as well. i like how technology, thought, and music were mixed together so bluntly in that white picture. and i like the subtle earthly tones in the pink asian picture; the bronze bells were a lovely touch.. but the top pic of his work…that pink one with the white bird..the face creeps me out.. how the lips and the nose shoot out at you..

    all of the work is very nice done by very talented people…i suck at art myself. lol

  • I’m curious about another side of “Jennifer’s” comment–
    Really? Believable women? Believable people, period? In ART?

    You haven’t seen much in the way of art or illustration, have you.

    The human form–for BOTH sexes–has idealized, fetishized, idolized, altered and exaggerated since humans first began creating artwork. Look up the Venus of Willendorf. Seriously.

    And (and I swear I have to say this at every single forum displaying art I stumble upon; I guess I’ll have to keep saying it until other people do my work for me), I’m going to have to say this–the IDEALS represented by the artists creating a work are NEVER going to capture what is IN reality. EVER. Whatever is rare or unique in any given population–be it girth or health, hair color, eye color, or anything else, is usually an element that shows up to represent the ideal beauty. Whatever features a culture focuses on will always be played up. Even the grotesque forms created and painted by the artists enamored of less-traditionally beautiful forms are, in some way, an extension of what we find beautiful. Perhaps they’re a perversion of what we currently value, and the artist is using this for a particular effect, or perhaps the elements shown are exactly what the artist personally does find beautiful, unique, interesting, or appealing.

    The only art that has *ever* shown “reality” in any shape of the word is the unaltered photograph, and really, that had quite a short run all things considered. I suppose you could consider those artists who are adherents to Realism, but there is still a bit of an idealistic gloss to most of those works as well.

    Remember, the people creating this kind of work–the GOOD people creating it–usually aren’t out there just to “get-cha” or make you feel bad about yourself. Artists make their works for money, or for themselves, or for friends, and they’re inspired by visual cues that excite and fascinate themselves and their clients. What you see is the culmination of studying art, researching concepts, and developing strong emotions to different ideas. Illustrators like the ones above idealize not because they hate humanity, but because they are moved by it, and are trying to express their feelings without words.

  • Bring it on, Yu Chen Hong! Love the one with the guitar! (yes, posters there are different artists on display here…doh).

  • Everything was pretty good… the owner of brandnu.com’s work isn’t very good at all – or at least it isn’t in the previews! Really – don’t show mediocre artists when this is an article about ‘good art’.

  • The collection is an idealized vision of feminine beauty that whoever put this collection together had in common with the artists. I realize that women who are bitter and/or not content with their physical appearance are inclined to turn their insecurity and jealousy into aggressive criticism towards whoever or whatever is responsible for making them feel uncomfortable, this is a subconscious virtue at the heart of feminism, and it is understandable that they feel the need to vent their emotions by criticizing this collection, but it shouldn’t be an attempt take away from the undeniable beauty of some of these pieces. This is a particular rendition of female beauty, and it happens to be one of the most popular, if you feel this collection doesn’t exemplify your particular “feminist” viewpoints then you should go view or create a page that is more feminist friendly (maybe even one with a few token fat chicks since the perfection of these women’s figures so offends you) instead of trying to take credit away from this collection.

    The first three peices are some of the best works ive seen in a while, art has suffered alot recently and its refreshing to see something that is visually pleasing, meaningful, and deep. It seems like the affection of the mindless masses is focused on industrialized dribble like that of Jeff Koons and the artists who crap on their canvases.

  • Great pictures! The colours meshed beautifully. Just a quick question, though: were they all drawn/painted/digitally made or did the more realistic ones actually have models? It’s getting to the point where I can’t tell the difference.

  • Though ‘S’ makes some very good points concerning the role of art and the human form, I can kind of see why Jennifer would feel that the headline was a bit of a let down. Art is also a celebration of human expression. And the number of women represented as subjects of art, RATHER than women being the artists themselves is very disproportional. Jennifer was probably hoping for something that celebrated female creativity, rather than simply female beauty.

  • I like the first more abstract ones, but then become bored with the overly sexualized ones. Really, it seems at this point that depicting these Tomb-Raider-esque women is just unoriginal. And it can give men a bad rap too… maybe they really are that shallow?

  • Anastasia, thank you so much for your energy and effort in collecting and sharing this. I find them all truly beautiful and inspiring. The models, the styles, the colors, the art… I love. So much respect to the artists.

    As for the ‘controversy’ taking place in the comments…

    You guys are awesome too, I really enjoyed reading them all. I’m sure they’re productive and people are learning something, Keep rockin’!

    I’m excited for part 2!

  • I’m a woman, the artwork of women was fine, stylised and some of it, very good. Possibly the actual compaint is that the actual woman, individual woman, may not have ‘stood’ alone. Most of the pictures were conceptualized pictures of women and that is OK and again, some of the conceptualizations were very good!

    I know of a digital artist, his name is John Matthews and this man is a genius. He does pictures of women that capture your gaze due to their depth of understanding of pysche. Don’t know where he is now, he is quite elusive.

    But anyway, I hope this string of work of artwork/women will grow with more additions to the site. The software Poser program can only go so far – true digital artwork must go beyond that, blending subtle additional layers the digital ‘canvas’.

  • I’m just complaining about the dearth of men in art. Are you not beautiful when you are idealized and sexualized? I’d like to see some of that. For those of us who do not look at women in a sexual way, that aspect is lost on us. Personally I am bored with the narrow range of art I see on the internet. Alas I am not an artist, just someone who would enjoy looking at hunky
    men in advertising and other art. Like Beckham – that’s a wonderful example. I’ve got all his paper ads torn out and taped up on my fridge, above my desk, in my bedroom, etc. Let’s see way more of that kind of art!