STORY
__________Josan Gonzalez began to make a name for himself in the Sci-fi, Cyberpunk art community around 2015. At the time, the first volume of his book The Future is Now had sold out, and he was working on its second volume. The Future is Now features highly stylized, sketchy drawings of a world and characters that can only be from the future. Did this world spring from the mind of Gonzalez himself, or is it a world he sees Earth as one step away from becoming? To understand the motive behind Gonzalez’s art, it is important to understand how he came to this point in his career. Josan grew up in Spain reading European comics. He was infatuated with the linework and representation of characters (especially females) that appeared in these comics. This spurred on his desire to make drawings of his own. After working in fashion illustration and coloring comics, he found success with the passion project he had been developing on the side (The Future is Now) Through the art funding organization “Kickstarter”, Josan has been able to work almost solely on his cyberpunk fantasy.
Vol. 1 Cover (Left)
Vol. 2 Cover (Right)
Process
__________Many cyberpunk artists have turned to digital mediums, as their subject matter coincides with the use and style of modern technology. However, Josan Gonzalez completes his artwork in the old-fashioned way; he uses Micron pens, bristol board, and trace paper to create his drawings. He will typically sketch his drawing, reprint it out in lighter blue, and then place trace paper over the print to ink on top of, adding detail. The only step he completes digitally is coloring. This overall process allows Gonzalez’s work to have such a sketchy vibe, making his drawings appear hurried and arbitrary. The coloring helps balance this feeling out, as the coloring is precise and deliberate.
Comparison
__________As described in William Willoughby’s essay In Utopia’s Playground, Benjamin Edwards is a futuristic artist who looks for seams between the imaginary and reality. He does this by using recognizable building shapes and city organization, but interjecting the typical scenes with bright colors, collage, and pixilation. Edwards is the kind of artist who wishes for people to see how society is hiding from the actual landscape and instead spending their time in a idealized digital version. This kind of work hints towards the addiction to technology our society is now experiencing, as well as the presence of people and cities no longer being physical, but strictly digital. This is extremely relevant as Covid has limited many presences to video calls and Zoom. Josan Gonzalez’s work bares similarities as well as differences to this kind of work. The ties between imaginary and reality exist in Josan's work as well. Josan depicts crowded cities much like current day New York or Chicago, he just fills them with overexaggerated modern technology that this world has not reached yet. Josan’s focus is less on depicting the future Earth, but more interested in developing his own world. He claims he never set out to design cyberpunk, he simply created a world that was futuristic. This kind of thinking sets Gonzalez’s work apart from Edwards, and yet similarities do emerge. Edwards and Gonzalez approach their art in a manipulative way. Neither use realistic sun shadows, they tend to create value without grey scale or lighting, but instead through color. In addition, both artists like to have nonspecific settings. In Gonzalez’s case this is done to place emphasis on the characters in the scene and how they are behaving.
Themes
__________The themes and motifs in Gonzalez’s work are intended to be specific to his world alone, no matter how relevant they may seem to current day. When questioned about the religious themes and police brutality themes that seem to run through his art, Gonzalez answered vaguely. He claimed the religious effect was brought about by symbols that have been ingrained in his society since youth, as well as the police control being a common dystopian detail that is helpful in developing characters. In his The Future is Now, Gonzalez created a new society. This society is run by tyrannic government. Gonzalez describes it as a “government (that) has total control and freedom of speech is repressed” (Wheeler). His world contains its own rebel groups and a societal structure. What Gonzalez wishes is for his world to be seen as a stand alone society, that doesn’t have to be compared to Earth. In a similar way, Gonzales is affronted when his own work is compared to other artists. It is left to the viewer of the art to connect the dots with their own experiences. However, the themes are clear in The Future is Now: extreme abuses of religion, police control, and technology. Overarching his entire work, the theme is to create a world that explores its social problems, but only as secondary to the art image. His visuals do stand alone, simply as explorations of the strange and fantastic.
religious theme (left) police brutality theme (right)
Colors//Characters
__________It is worth briefly mentioning Gonzalez’s affinity for character representation and colors. Scenes are typically structured around one or two characters that are completing an action or have an extremely expressive look about them. Part of what captures viewers of Gonzalez’s art is this intimate feeling, pulling people to his characters. The settings can become a bit of background noise, as the attraction of the visuals are the characters. Viewers catch themselves fixated on questioning the humanity of the characters and filling in their own backstories in conjunction with the one Gonzalez has laid out. The other compelling aspect of Gonzalez’s designs are undoubtedly the color palettes. In an interview with art café, Gonzalez compares color with the “guy in your family that is just, there” (Kuciara). Color to Gonzalez is something that isn’t his main focus but is always a fun way to end a drawing. He bases color palettes off what inspires him on a daily basis. Color combinations in movies, advertisement, and illustrations that make him stop and evaluate how they make him feel are color palettes he repurposes for his art. In his art’s case, the colors bring about intense emotions of vitality, moroseness, and chaos.
Characters . . .draw you in immediately (above)
Sci-Fi Visuals
__________ It is almost unnecessary to comment on the Sci-Fi visuals Gonzalez’s work contains. They are clearly evident in the mechanical clothing the characters wear, the robotic pieces infused in the anatomy of the humanoids, the overpopulated city scenes with cramped buildings and towering skyscrapers, the excessive advertising billboards, the muted neon color schemes, and the almost emotionless way characters interact with each other. Science and Technology ooze into every detail of the drawings.
Cables galore!
Interpretation of the Built Environment
__________Gonzalez has an interesting approach to architecture in his drawings. He interprets the built environment in a simplified, decrepit way. The cities that he creates are often run down and rectangular. In his world, cities are overpopulated to the point where buildings seem to run into each other, with no clear wayfinding. This kind of city proves how dependent the people in Gonzalez’s world are on technology. They have all gathered to the cities to exploit the technology housed there. While this theme is pivotal to his drawings, the architecture feels very filler. The architecture is formed around whatever narrative Gonzalez has chosen for a particular drawing. This kind of thinking denotes a selfish-ness in his society, as if nothing matters but the society. Gonzalez favors isometric perspectives, making architecture a very manipulative variable.
Real Life Influences, Real Life Consequences
__________Gonzalez’s work helps pinpoint where our world may need help in the future. Civil unrest, the stripping of free speech, the policing of thoughts, and the dependence of technology are all topics that came directly to mind after viewing his artwork. If actions are not made, America as well as other parts of the world may very well be headed towards the kind of society Gonzalez has made. And yet, this is nothing dystopian novels haven’t hinted at before, so a more practical objective when viewing Gonzalez’s art comes from being swept away into his dystopian world.
. . .
MLA Citations
Kuciara, Maciej. “#32 - Josan Gonzalez.” Art Cafe, 6 Aug. 2016, www.youtube.com/c/ArtCafeTV/about. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
(Veritas), Isaac L. Wheeler. “The Future Is Now: An Interview with Josan Gonzalez.” Neon Dystopia, 15 Mar. 2016, www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-art-photography/the-future-is-now-an-interview-with-josan-gonzalez/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
“The Future Is Now - Volume Two.” Kickstarter, 29 June 2019, www.kickstarter.com/projects/deathburger/the-future-is-now-volume-two. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
Instagram, www.instagram.com/deathburger/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2020.
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