hauke
andersen

Born in 1962 in Westerland on the island of Sylt, my connection to things artistic was initially limited. As a child, I started to copy comic-book characters from the „Zack“ comic series and sometimes spent hours at my desk at home drawing and coloring.

The realistic portrayal of characters such as „Lieutenant Blueberry“ (illustrator: Jean Giraud) or „Michel Vaillant“ (illustrator: Jean Graton) already fascinated me at the time. During my schooling, my arts teachers encouraged my visual passion.

This led me to studying design in Hamburg at the IND.

When studying graphic design and communication design, my focus was on illustration. I learnt the importance of colour and composition. Ink, watercolours, marker pens and especially the airbrush massively broadened my artistic spectrum, as the airbrush technique was particularly well suited to my interest in realistic rendering.

With the advent of the digital world, I began to illustrate using vector graphics software. What used to be accomplished as freehand illustration now requires „Illustrator“ and „Photoshop“, the indispensable tools of the digital illustrator.

Since 2012, I have been reapplying myself to oil painting. As a teenager I painted my first canvasses and familiarised myself with the oil painting process. It was only much later on account of my interest in the arts that I came across contemporary painters such as David Kassen and Omar Ortiz. These proponents of a contemporary, realistic style inspired and motivated me to reacquaint myself with this complex technique.

Having worked for many years as an artist for publishing houses and the industry, I began to market my own works. Large portraits and contemporary still-lifes have ever since been a part of my portfolio.

I’m currently work and live in Hamburg, Germany.