Fabio Arciniegas A.' blog: [6] Top five: Relatively less famous artists who rock at drawing dangerous girls

On occasion of the news of Hugo Pratt's retrospective "Périples Secrets" I thought of a top five list that deserves a bit better than a facebook entry. Five of my favorite artists, very well known in their own circles but not so much outside, who share one thing: doing great illustrations of dangerous wonderful girls. Enjoy:

5. Zak Smith

Junkie Goddesses. A compulsive artist best known for illustrating every page of Pynchon's gravity's Rainbow, makes wonderful watercolors of NYC's tough and beautiful

http://www.zaxart.com

4. Tara McPherson

Best of this American Cute post-tatoo style. Clever, polished.

http://www.taramcpherson.com/

3. Hugo Pratt

Old School great exotic dangerous girls. I loved Julie from the Maxx's growing up, and that was just my proxy to Pratt's girls

http://www.cortomaltese.com

2. No

Yep, that is her name: "No." and she pours feverishly image after image of aggressively feminist rock and roll girls on flickr and elsewhere. Innita, her lover and band leader is the queen of the "menorrealista" movement.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/innita/

1. René Gruau.

Dangerous perfect girls the way I like best: happy and flirty in the best of high fashion, with no need, hope, or fear of the future, flirty elegant things in $10,000 necklaces, all smiles and knowing looks, captured with simple and elegant curves. Ah!

"Elegance is fluid and therefore by definition difficult to define, but it is made of desire and knowledge, of grace refinement, perfection and distinction"