Goni Montes’ flair for the dramatic might make me $40 poorer

I’m not sure what caught my eye. I was browsing Behance (as usual) when I came across Goni Montes’ work. My incessant clicking halted. I browsed through all of his work. I still couldn’t tell what was so intriguing. Why did his work appeal to me? It’s certainly well done. Montes is a very talented illustrator. It was only when I studies these two pieces that I saw what the hook was:

Montes’ low angle, used often, is what gave me a sense that something is about to happen. His perspective is extreme, exaggerated and dramatic.

Looking more, I realized his colors and ink work, while simple-looking, actually hide a lot of complexity. The illustration above, for example, has an incredible palette of browns and tans, which are a direct contradiction with the drama he’s conveying.

And the shading in this piece almost disappears in the composition and simple lines that Montes pulls off.

For more on how the illustration above became the one below, click here.

Montes, according to his bio, began working as a scientific illustrator for the Puerto Rico Sea Grant. Now he mostly does editorial illustrations.

His work has appeared in Adweek, BOOM! Studios, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Washington Post and Wired, among many.

You can find Goni on Twitter at @GoniMontes

You can buy his prints on Society6. I have two in my cart. Should I press Buy?