A decade ago, a truly gifted artist friend of mine had reminded me to understand and be grateful towards “original” art. Despite the fact that I am not an artist, the combination of colors and its subsequent depictions had always fascinated me, even more so, when it’s related to football. And in my search for football splendors from an off-the-pitch perspective, I stumbled upon a few illustrations of New York based Daniel Nyari which instantly caught my attention.
His illustrations involving bold and symmetrical use of colors of top play makers in the sport, have a unique distinction to them.
It was his love for football that really drove him towards drawing only deepened by the presence of the old Panini football stickers that we are all aware of. Daniel says ‘I grew up as a big football fan. I was born into the culture and played since I can remember. When I didn’t play I was watching so when I started to draw it made sense to draw my footballing heroes. I also used to collect a lot of the old panini stickers and cards and had a really old collection of cigarette cards that featured portraits and I remember trying to replicate them with my favorite players at the time. Since then it’s always been something I enjoy illustrating.’
When asked about the approach to his unique style, he replied, ‘I don’t think there’s a name. My personal goal is to always try and reduce the image to essentials – to try and communicate an image with the least amount of visual information.’
An exceptionally talented artist who has been featured in The New York Times, The Telegraph, etc, Daniel deserves a shout-out. To see more of his creations, make sure you visit his site at http://iamdany.com/.
PS: A special thanks to Daniel who was generous enough to answer a few questions and let me use his images here.
1 Comment
Is he selling them too as posters?