What is Lowbrow Illustration?

Get to know the artistic movement also known as pop surrealism that was once considered bad taste

Anyone who's a fan of classic punk or underground comics, read the Mad magazine, seen a horror B-movie, or enjoyed the work of Gary Baseman, will have come into contact with lowbrow illustration: an artistic movement that looks at old graphics and uses comics, cartoons, counterculture and the grotesque as a reference.

One of its main exponents today is Ink Bad Company (@inkbadcompany), the studio and alter ego of Juan Carlos Guerrero, a young Spanish illustrator obsessed with, paper and the halftone pattern. In his course Lowbrow Illustration: Go Back to the Past in Style, he reveals the keys to understanding this type of style.

But what exactly is lowbrow illustration?

These are the key elements:

What is lowbrow illustration?

Lowbrow, AKA pop surrealism, began California in the late 70s and early 80s. It’s considered an urban and populist art form. It got its name from its grotesque, irreverent, and sometimes unpleasant style.

What were its influences?

The movement and illustrations were influenced by classic cartoons, 60s comedies, psychedelic rock, punk, pulp art, soft porn, comics, science fiction, horror B-films, Japanese anime, graffiti, and even elements of circus art.

What’s the origin of lowbrow?

It began in the world of underground comix and urban subcultures. Its humor, which could be quite cheerful or totally sarcastic but always acerbic and critical, is what made it popular. Painter and caricaturist and founder of the Juxtapoz magazine Robert Williams coined the phrase, defining it as a mix of surrealism, pop art, and caricature.

What are its main characteristics?

- Break the rules: The driving belief is that, while the artists know the “rules” of art, they consciously ignore them
- Pop culture icons: characters from pop culture, especially those seen as retro, to make critiques through humor and sarcasm
- Grotesque, sexual, violent or dark imagery: often drawn in contrasting and intense colors
- Technical knowledge: its aesthetics are based on classical pictorial traditions, such as oil, mixed with the Venetian technique and contemporary acrylic style, as well as the artist’s own style
- Well-structured visual narrative: a style inherited from urban art

Recently, lowbrow has undergone an identity crisis as many artists ascribe to it and have begun redefining the style. For example, a designer of a simple, kitschy decal gets the same lowbrow credit as an artist who makes a technically perfect painting or sculpture. Some critics expect this to be resolved in the coming years. In the meantime, they see lowbrow as an investment opportunity.

Ink Bad Company teaches the Domestika course Lowbrow Illustration: Go Back to the Past in Style in which you can learn to make your own lowbrow or retro-style illustration with traditional and digital techniques, filled with dots, colors, textures, and vintage charm.

You may also be interested in:

- Adobe Photoshop for Illustration, a course by Gemma Román
- Introduction to Adobe Illustrator, a course by Aarón Martínez
- How to Design a Tattoo, a course by Aníbal Pantoja