It's hard to go wrong with Mœbius, the prolific French illustrator whose impact on multiple genres and mediums cannot be overstated. His signature style, forged through his apprenticeship drawing for black-and-white comics, is a marriage of a modest pastel color palette with intense and meticulously detailed inkwork. Note, for example, how heavily this illustration relies on the inks, rather than the luminance of the underlying color, to convey shadow. Then, marvel further how he has accomplished this with virtually no cross-hatching, while also successfully and efficiently conveying texture at every turn.
This piece is the opening plate to his final published work, a promotional collaboration with fashion brand Hermès that was published in 2010. While these plates often come up when folks search online for his work, what few realize is that these works, instantly recognizable in their style, nevertheless represent a final act of radical reinvention by the artist. They were made entirely as digital works, with Mœbius replacing his customary ink pen for a stylus and tablet. Even after 50 years, this just goes to show that nothing is set in stone.
With that, I'd like to inaugurate Mensis Geogustus, a month of art pertaining to minerals, to wind-carved monutments, to the very earth itself. Far from static and eternal, we shall see that stone, too, may be bent to our creative will. Join us, won't you? We're here to move mountains.