Whimsical Sketched Landscapes Are a Serene Escape From Reality
All images courtesy the artist

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Illustration

Whimsical Sketched Landscapes Are a Serene Escape From Reality

When IRL existence feels like a literal trash fire, take a break with Ellie Craze's dreamy illustrations.

Most of us learn to draw as kids but—if we keep up the craft—our style usually changes pretty dramatically. That wasn't quite the case for artist and graphic designer Ellie Craze, who remembers creating her first large-scale piece at nine years old. Made up of "fairies, a cloud kingdom and some other magical elements," she remembers the piece was displayed at her local library for a few years. Now, her work has been shown in galleries in downtown Phoenix and, most recently, Japan.

Advertisement

"The work I create now hasn't strayed too far from my childhood ideas," Craze tells Creators. "Magical lands and clouds are still common in my work, but with more surrealism and depth now."

Each piece is an invitation to take a virtual trip, to leave behind the ordinary. Some of her pieces also include whimsical characters, further taking the viewer away from the expected and commonplace. The pieces look almost like still frames in animated worlds, bits and pieces of universes the viewer is just seeing for a brief moment.

"Escapism is one of my most utilized devices in my personal life and in my art. I feel like it's my superpower—even if I can't physically escape something, I can retreat into my own reality and paint it away," Craze says.

Craze's pieces are a perfect way to escape when reality feels a bit too daunting. She embraces this fully, hoping that her pieces will "transport [her] viewers to a new universe and give them a break from real life." To this end, she has been working at larger and larger scales to create the full effect of jumping into another universe—to "give the illusion that you could walk into the painting and stay a while." She sees that as the purpose of much of her art, "even if it just refreshes you for a second before returning back to earth."

While Craze sees whimsical worlds and characters as "the true heart" of her work, she's always pushing herself to not fall into usual patterns. "I get easily bored if I work with the same concepts for too long," writes Craze. "Now, each time I create a new world I spend awhile thinking about its purpose and how I can develop it further than my last one. At this point, my focus is more on character design and learning how to incorporate all the separate elements of my art into one cohesive composition."

Advertisement

Landscapes, though, do have a special place in her artistic practice. "I will always love creating a quiet, lonely landscape without any living creatures around. It eases my unattainable need for solitude."

Maybe part of the reason why this isolation seems like a good idea is because for some people, IRL spaces can be isolating. Now, Craze hopes to start a community for other artists who feel the same, and she encourages interested parties to reach out to her on Instagram.

"Being a queer, female artist is hard as hell," Craze says. "Sometimes I don't think there's a place for me anywhere on this planet, and I know there are others out there with the same feelings. I'm looking to form an artist collective that is primarily internet-based, which will allow for accessibility to women who want to join, despite where they are located."